Farms.com Home   News

Farmers Take Advantage Of Summer-Like Weather

Farmers have been taking advantage of the warmer temperatures this week to catch up on spring seeding.
 
Drew Lerner is the Senior Agricultural Meteorologist with World Weather Inc.
 
"We managed to develop a ridge of high pressure this week across the middle of North America and that really helped to force the warm air up into the region," he said. "Even more important than that, has been the development of a very strong low pressure system in western Saskatchewan that has now moved into eastern portions of Alberta and that has really pumped the winds up and forced a lot of warmth up from the States and so the end result here is that we've had a little snapshot of summer time weather."
 
Lerner says there's a lot of variation across the province when talking about soil moisture.
 
"We are noting a very dry bias in the west central and some of the southwest part of the province, mostly near the Saskatchewan border. The Foxwarren area, Russel and some areas southward certainly are in need of moisture. It's almost critically dry right now, seed is in the ground but it can't germinate."
 
Lerner is expecting next week to be cooler with rain and warmer temperatures returning as we head into June.
Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday



Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.