Glacier FarmMedia — Saskatchewan soil scientist Les Henry, well known for his work on improving Prairie farmland and his outreach to Prairie farmers in the pages of Grainews, has died.
Ending a long fight with congestive heart failure, Henry died Friday in Saskatoon at age 83, having continued to write until very shortly before his passing.
Born in 1940 at Milden, about 100 km southwest of Saskatoon, Henry studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, earning a master’s degree in soil science in 1968.
Earlier this year he recalled how, in the wake of the financial and agronomic devastation of Prairie farming in the 1930s, “my dad showed me the cheque that cleared the mortgage (and) added, ‘there will never be another mortgage on this farm.’ I respected that decision but it was part of the reason I went off to U of S after two years on the farm.”
At U of S, he joined the soil science department in 1968 as an assistant, en route to becoming a full professor and extension specialist there in 1980.
The Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame, into which Henry was inducted in 2004, said his research on irrigation and on crops’ potassium requirements “showed the way to increased production” while his research on the underlying cause of soil salinity “provided a major breakthrough in the management of saline soils.”
Although Henry retired from the U of S in 1996, his outreach to farmers continued in Grainews, where his soils column has appeared regularly for the past 48 years. Former Grainews editor Kari Belanger in 2022 hailed Henry for his “extraordinary ability to take complex information about soils and convey these ideas in a manner anyone can understand.”
His contributions to Grainews have included a Prairie stubble soil moisture map, released annually since 1979 and used as a reference tool across the industry.
His published works also include Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water, which has undergone multiple printings since its first appearance in 2003, and for which the copyright was recently transferred to Saskatoon-based Croptimistic Technology to continue its publication.
In 2000, Henry also wrote and published Catalogue Houses: Eaton’s and Others, a book about the “catalogue homes” or “kit homes” sold to Prairie customers by Eaton’s and other retailers in the first half of the 20th century.
Henry also continued farming on three quarters at Dundurn, about 30 km south of Saskatoon, often describing that site as a “field lab” for his further research. He also continued consulting privately in Canada and overseas, including in Tanzania, China and Eswatini (then called Swaziland).
In his professional life Henry also served as president of the Saskatoon branch and provincial council of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists, president of the Saskatchewan Agriculture Graduates Association and chairman of the Saskatchewan Advisory Fertilizer Council.
Other accolades for his work included an honorary doctor of laws degree from the U of S (2022), honorary life membership in the Canadian Society of Extension (1994), fellowship with the Agricultural Institute of Canada (1989) and the Agronomy Merit Medal from Western Cooperative Fertilizers (1985).
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At Henry’s request, a private family interment will be held with no funeral. Before his passing, he wrote that “anyone wishing to connect with the spirit of the deceased” could watch his 2022 convocation address to the U of S College of Agriculture and Bioresources and Western College of Veterinary Medicine (roll ahead to about the 46-minute mark) — and/or listen to this.
