Edible bean breeders have a lot of boxes to check when developing new varieties. From yield and maturity to quality and end use market considerations, breeders need to develop varieties that flourish in the field and also please palates when they appear on dinner plates. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Edible Bean School, Hensall Co-op… Read More

When the weather is warm early in the season, everyone starts talking winter wheat. This spring in Ontario, the winter wheat crop is awake and no one is more excited than RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. On this episode of the Wheat School, Johnson is walking a wheat field near Georgetown, Ont. The crop is greening… Read More

There’s a long list of known ways in which wildfire smoke can negatively affect corn and other crops, but could the overall effect of the smoky haze in summer potentially be positive for yields? It’s a complex question to answer, says Dan Quinn, extension corn specialist with Purdue University, in this Corn School episode recorded… Read More

Scientists and plant breeders have their sights set on root rots, given the risk that one in particular — aphanomyces — poses to pea and lentil production in Western Canada and the Northern Plains. Federal funding for a new five-year Pulse Crop Research Cluster, leveraged by funding from farmer check-off organizations, was announced earlier this… Read More

In recent years, many corn growers in Ontario have wrestled with gibberella ear rot in the crop and the high levels of deoxynivalenol (DON) levels it can produce in the grain. It’s made for stressful harvest seasons, especially in 2018 when mycotoxins produced by the gibberella fungus in some fields climbed well above safe feeding… Read More

Every year soybean growers make seed choices based on a host of factors. One of the key decisions is whether to plant long-season varieties, full-season varieties or choose a shorter-season variety. Many growers target longer-season varieties and an early planting date to try to optimize yield potential and put more bushels in the bin, but… Read More

How does an on-farm biodigester and 2,200 beef cattle merge to make a farm more profitable and sustainable? On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Profitable Practices, Carl Frook shares how Frook Farms and Mar Creek Renewables have come together to help him manage manure, his cattle, his crops, and boost the bottom line for the family… Read More

2023 was a roller coaster for edible bean growers in Canada’s two biggest growing regions. After record-breaking yields in 2022, Manitoba endured some dry summer growing conditions to produce a good crop with most growers harvesting above-average yields, reports Manitoba Ag pulse and soybean specialist Dennis Lange. In Ontario, the crop emerged well despite dry… Read More

Wheat yield is made up of many yield components ranging from thousand kernel weight to head size and kernels per head. But when it comes to driving higher yields, all those components take a back seat to the number of heads per square metre. It’s the big data point emerging from three years of data… Read More

You can learn a lot about reducing tillage in 35 years. That’s the combined number of years Horst Bohner and Rob Templeman have spent leading Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) soybean research and extension efforts. On the first episode of the 2024 season of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, OMAFRA’s current and former… Read More

Tar spot was a little late arriving in Ontario cornfields in 2023, but the leaf disease ramped up post tasseling, and with an extended fall, took a late-season bite out of grain yields in southwestern areas of the province. Growers who sprayed fungicides to defend their crop against disease were rewarded with higher yields, reports… Read More

With any new crop pest or disease, it takes time to understand the problem and to develop best management practices. It’s been around a decade since verticillium stripe was first confirmed in Manitoba. Both awareness and prevalence of the disease have increased across the Prairies since then, but there are still gaps to be filled… Read More

Growers and agronomists typically focus on the ear leaf at flowering when tissue testing corn to determine nutrient needs. But is that still the best choice for determining the optimal nutrient prescription for the crop as it moves into the reproductive stages? Purdue University professor emeritus Dr. Tony Vyn believes the evolution of modern hybrids… Read More

 

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