Ontario's winter wheat crop has come through the winter in good condition and is packed with yield potential. But there is concern: a crop with big stem- and head-counts carries a much higher risk of lodging. To reduce this risk, growers will be looking to apply a plant growth regulator (PGR) to help the crop... Read More
Category: Crop Schools
Where should growers place fertilizer in strip-till strips to best protect the seed from injury while optimizing nutrient uptake? Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs corn lead Ben Rosser says Ontario does have "safe rate" recommendations for in-furrow and 2"x 2" planter banding but no guidelines are currently available for strip-till fertilizer placement.... Read More
Inputs play an important role agronomically, but they can also be a significant cost to any operation. Getting the most out of each dollar is important. One of the first input costs after seed itself is spent on seed treatments. Shad Milligan of Syngenta Canada joined the latest episode of the Wheat School to discuss... Read More
For many areas of Western Canada, the soil is still quite cool, or only just beginning to warm up. However, just because there's not a lot of biological activity going on in the soil, doesn't mean the risk for soil-borne disease goes away. As Shad Milligan of Syngenta explains in our latest Wheat School episode,... Read More
An open fall, warm winter temperatures, and a mild spring that has now turned cool and wet all add up to big weed control challenges as the calendar gets ready to turn to May. From cover crops that refused to die under snow cover, to hardy oats, tough annuals and an abundance of volunteer wheat,... Read More
When talking about flea beetles and flea beetle pressure, it's really all a numbers game. How can we get the least amount of insects across a wide range of plants? The key, says Jack Payne of South Country Co-op, is uniform seeding and emergence. Getting canola crop off to a quick and even start will... Read More
This spring, corn growers will be planting different seed sizes ranging from large rounds to flats and small rounds. Does the seed size impact the potential yield growers can expect to combine this fall? On this episode of the RealAgriculture Corn School, PRIDE Seeds agronomist Olivia Noorenberghe notes that all seed, regardless of size, carries... Read More
Do starter and pop-up fertilizers make a significant impact on soybean performance compared to just broadcasting the crops' nutrient needs? That's a question Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soybean specialist Horst Bohner has been asked by many growers during the winter months. He says when soybeans first entered Ontario in the 1960s,... Read More
What's old is new again, or at least as relevant as ever when it comes to managing herbicide resistant weeds. Research led by Charles Geddes, weed scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Lethbridge, shows cultural practices — tighter row spacing, higher seeding rates, and longer crop rotations — can be just as effective as... Read More
Thick stand? Thin stand? How does your wheat look as the growing season revs up with mid-April heat? In Ontario, RealAgriculture Agronomist Peter Johnson likes what he sees and says it's time to get out, scout winter wheat fields and assess those stands. Looking back on data from the first two years of the Great... Read More