Better Farming publishes nine editions of its Prairies magazine each year. After publishing each edition, we share a feature article online. Each Better Farming Prairies magazine includes much more content – you won’t want to miss it. If you don’t receive the print edition of Better Farming Prairies, but you enjoy reading the articles below, be sure to subscribe to the magazine!
How do you decide which fertilizer you use? Do you use the same as last year? Do you ask your dealer for suggestions on what you should apply? Or do you use a soil test and get help from a certified crop advisor or other competent agronomy person?
by Taryn Milton
For cattle producers, nutrition is important all year long, however, the winter months become a critical time for ensuring animals receive enough feed and minerals, especially cows calving in the spring.
The best way to ensure you have a successful winter leading into calving season is to have a plan.
by Jackie Clark
At this time of year, many of us think about the future. As we move from one year to the next, our thoughts shift from the harvest season behind us to the opportunities available in the spring.
Often, people might take a moment to think of, or even record, a few resolutions for the year ahead.
Your goals can focus on the farm business but can also be personal or family-related.
by Taryn Milton
The future is already here, when it comes to autonomous equipment. What remains to be seen is how we fulfill the promise of the technology – to make a farmer’s job easier and to improve efficiency and profitability.
So how do we get from here to there?
by Taryn Milton
Farmers face many risks annually. Market volatility, unpredictable weather, high input costs and crop or animal disease are all factors that can shape yields or production levels.
by Taryn Milton
The 2020 crop year taught us many lessons about canola and wheat. While we anticipated some challenges, like the continued rise in clubroot and fusarium pressure, other hurdles, like the surge in wireworm pressure, were unexpected.
by Taryn Milton
Keith Fournier, a third-generation Saskatchewan grain farmer, sees sustainable agriculture as a three-legged stool.
The first leg is the widely discussed environmental sustainability, the second one is economic sustainability and the third element is social-equity sustainability, he says.
by Taryn Milton
Perhaps paradoxically, we can think of the plant microbiome – or the microbial community in and around the plant – as both an old and a recent field of study.
by Taryn Milton
When Dan and Carol Ohler started farming with Dan’s parents, Neil and Elizabeth Ohler, the younger couple didn’t foresee the twisted – although ultimately positive – journey the experience would lead them on.
by Geoff Geddes
Like life itself, farming is about addressing the hard questions: How do I combat the latest crop pest? Which farming practices are most beneficial? How did Mother Nature get such a warped sense of humour?