We spoke to Peter at the about the benefits of red clover and how the crop is gaining a permanent place in rotation with producers to maximize wheat yields.  Peter say that the old tale of great red clover crop means low wheat yields is definitely not true.  In fact Peter says that using red clover as a cover crop raises wheat yields up to 30%.  That’s a return that will get your attention.

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In this episode of the Wheat School, Peter Johnson of OMAFRA gives us an estimate of what went into the ground in Ontario as well as an update on the state of this years winter wheat.

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What kind of benefit if any can we expect to see from placing fertilizer in with our seed? The question we lead off with in this episode of the Wheat School is:

Starter fertilizer: Myth or Real?

What follows is a solid case for the benefits of starter fertilizer from OMAFRA Cereal Expert Peter Johnson. Peter covers all aspects of starter fertilizer in this episode, from how much to what kind to what yield benefits can be shown. I caught up with him at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock Ontario.

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Is fall a good time to look at weed control in your winter wheat? Pre-plant weed control is an option that most farmers don’t exercise. The reason has a lot to do with the business of the season. Harvest is in full swing depending what you’re growing and farmers have to balance that with trying to get winter wheat in the ground.  The interesting thing is that both farmers in the west and east both tend to avoid a burn off before seeding winter wheat.  In Eastern Canada winter wheat follows soybeans and in the west , wheat follows canola.  Because both soybeans and wheat are herbicide tolerant crops, farmers tend to think fall weed control is unnecessary.

So what are the benefits of pre plant weed control? What are the advantages?

I took that question to Weed Management Specialist Mike Cowbrough of OMAFRA.  Mike is from Ontario but the content of this video is very applicable to Western Canadian growers too.

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With a great deal of soybeans being planted later than normal, harvest is pushed back as well this year. This in turn pushes winter wheat planting back. But just how late is too late when it comes to planting winter wheat in Ontario? What impact will that late planting have on yields and emergence? How do we find that balance when it comes to planting and harvesting where we’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul? In this episode of the Wheat School, we talk to cereal expert Peter Johnson of OMAFRA about what happens when we push our limits when it comes to planting winter wheat.

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Overall the wheat harvest in Ontario has gone well. Some areas have experienced lower than ideal yields but the quality has been very good. With corn and soybeans showing strength the concern or opportunity for Ontario wheat growers is quite interesting. What impact will one million wheat acres have on price? Will the high levels of wheat quality force high qulaity wheat onto the feed market? Will the late soybean crop in Ontario push acres lower to a more traditional eight hundred thousand acres?

Dana Omland is the Grain Merchandising Manager at Palmerston Grain and does a great job breaking down the Ontario wheat market in this weeks episode of the Wheat School.

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With the Western Canadian winter wheat harvest about to begin, extra attention needs to be paid to harvest timing. When to swath, when to straight cut and when to combine are integral decisions to your profitability. The biggest threat to your harvest tends to be the weather. Wet weather can greatly impact quality if you do not harvest in a timely manner. Drying cereals tends to be a tough decision for farmers but there are other considerations like owned combines per acre and access to custom machines if needed. Phil Needham covers all of these topics and more in our conversation about a timely harvest in this episode of the Wheat School.

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Getting your winter wheat off the field as quickly as possible is extremely important if you are looking to maintain quality. The longer that crop remains in the field exposed to the elements, the greater the chances are that germ, vigour and overall grade quality can be negatively impacted. That’s were combine efficiency comes into play in a big way. Getting the maximum bushels per hour through your machine means getting that crop off quicker. Material other than grain – M.O.G., has the biggest impact on how well and how quickly your combine does it’s job. I spoke to Les Hill of the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute about M.O.G., the impact it can have and how to deal with it to make harvest go as smoothly as possible.

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As commodity prices continue to rise, efficiency at harvest becomes increasingly important. Producers want to minimize loss in every area possible. Harvest is one area farmers can take control of when it comes to increasing efficiency. Depending on how the combine is adjusted and the crop type, some farmers can lose up to 5 bushels an acre out of the back of the machine leaving valuable crop in the dirt. Proper adjustment and operation of your combine are key factors in preventing valuable losses and maximizing profitability at harvest.

Les Hill is Manager of Technical Services and Business development at the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute. Les is an expert at helping farmers to minimize losses in their combines at harvest. I spoke with him about some of the things farmers need to do operate at peak efficiency.

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Test weights on wheat are down below average in parts of Ontario. Compared to this time last year, yields by test weight alone are down by as much as 10% in areas. There are a couple of reasons behind this. The first involves under-filled  kernels from plants surrounding dead zones in the field being mixed in with the sample and driving that weight down, the other involves the crop being left in the field too long. Getting your crop off the field in a timely manner once it’s been swathed isn’t always an option for farmers. Sometimes it needs to dry down, sometimes weather conditions or breakdowns can cause unexpected delays in getting your wheat off the field and in the bin. According to Peter Johnson, Cereal Specialist with OMAFRA, the longer that wheat sits in the field exposed to the elements, the greater the chance is that you will lose not only test weight but yield as well. Rain is the key element involved in that loss. In this episode of the Wheat School, Peter Johnson explains the reason behind those losses.

 
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