Global food production occurs on 11% of the world’s arable land, with 95% of the food being produced in topsoil. Some studies report that almost half of the world’s topsoil has been lost since the implementation of modern farming practices in the 20th Century. Healthy topsoil can take 500 years to develop and less than … More The Dark Side of Tillage
Growing your operation may require a shift in thinking or habits to get to a new level. … More Finding Your Next Gear
One of the problems limiting the adoption of Big Data principles by the crop production industry is the collection of quality data. Field variability due to unpredictable weather events make comparisons a challenge. … More The Big Problem with Big Data in Agriculture
Last week I was able to participate in the annual DIRT workshop hosted by NDSU that focusses on soil health. Now, I can almost guarantee that most producers reading this article have heard the term “soil health” but may not be familiar with what these terms mean for them or their farm. Therefore, I have … More What exactly is soil health?
Residual nutrient levels on a soil test can fluctuate year to year. Solid fertility plans should be based on yearly testing and long term averages. … More Making a case for yearly soil testing…
I would argue that in the case of farming and peer groups, together we go faster and farther. … More Together we go farther, faster. Leveraging the power of peer groups
The face of farming has changed over time from breaking ground and ploughing with a horse to GPS, autosteer equipment, and autonomous tractors. If you were to survey people about their feelings of change, most would say they don’t like it. Humans are hard wired to perceive change as a threat and usually respond with … More Embrace change… it’s constant and inevitable
Conducting field scale trials is not new. When we look back on the history of farm trials, most producers will remember a sales rep coming to their farm and offering a jug of this or a jug of that try on a few acres. There wasn’t anything complicated about it. The producer would throw the … More When is a trial not a trial?
I recently participated in a Faculty conversation hosted by the Department of Agriculture at the University of Manitoba to discuss the importance of improving soil health and producer profitability within the 4R Nutrient Stewardship framework. This framework was developed as a guideline for producers to do things “Right” on their farm in terms of fertilizer … More Working to support sustainable food production systems
A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a prospect about the benefits of annual sampling. The producer said they didn’t know if it was worth sampling every year as the results are usually unreliable. He found he didn’t end up using them for planning purposes and felt there was limited value for the … More Are you extracting the full value from your soil samples?
