Mother Nature Great Desiccant For Soybeans

Soybeans are one crop that has gained a lot of interest in Saskatchewan.

 

The crop is well suited to production in the South East, but it is being grown in other areas as well.

 

Stats show that Soybean acreage in Saskatchewan is down about a third from last year, to 130 thousand acres for this year.

 

Sherri Roberts is a Crops Extension Specialist with the Ministry of Agriculture out of the Weyburn office.

 

She says there are some really nice looking crops and producers should see some decent yields this year.

 

“I was talking to a young gentleman up in the Edenwold area and he’d been worried about his crop this Spring because of course moisture had been kind of at a premium. He called me and said oh man I’ve got about 60 pods per plant and he says there are three seeds in a pod. He’s just happy as can be. So there are some really good soybean crops out there this year but it’s one of those crops that you need that moisture in the latter part of July and into August.”

 

She notes when it comes to harvesting, Mother Nature and a good hard frost is the best desiccant.

 

“That crop will just naturally dry down itself and once you get underneath it you know that 16% moisture you can take it off the field. You want to make sure if you are taking it off hot that you have got some aeration going on it because of course, soybeans, like any other crop if you put it in the bin right away and their not at the right moisture they can get some molding issues.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.