May 17, 2012

Wheat School – Is it Time to Prioritize a Fungicide Over Herbicide Application on Wheat?

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With all of the cold weather in April keeping a large portion of winter wheat producers out of the field for that initial herbicide/fungicide pass, it’s natural to start wondering if you missed the boat on some yield potential. As worrisome as that may be to the roughly 50% of Ontario farmers that weren’t able [...]

Wheat School – Ontario Winter Wheat Crop In Better Shape Than Expected

realagriculture.coms wheat school.001

Life is an amazingly resilient thing. With all the time, effort and money we put into protecting our crops we sometimes forget how well they can adapt and recover from things we wouldn’t expect them to. Take the winter wheat crop for example. The fact of the matter is that it should have been extremely [...]

Wheat School – Can We Close the Yield Gap Between Countries?

Ed Driskill

The difference in bushels per acre of wheat from country to country is larger than you might think.  On the surface that may seem fairly obvious when we see a drastic difference between climates or access to technologies, but when we look to level the playing field in these areas it begs the question: Can [...]

Wheat School: Protecting the Flag Leaf is Critical to Achieve Yield

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How important is protecting the flag leaf in the early stages of your wheat crop? The flag leaf is critically important in determining your yield. Any damage done to that leaf will have a direct and dramatic impact on your crops potential. Disease can be one of those damaging factors. Assessing your risk for disease [...]

Wheat School: The Importance of On-Farm Trials – Josh Fankhauser

On Farm Trials

On-farm trials are an exercise not widely pursued by farmers in general. What’s unfortunate about that is the fact that most farmers could stand to benefit greatly from adopting some type of on-farm trial. The reason being that a lot of manufacturer trials are limited in scope for financial reasons. They may perform fewer location [...]

Wheat School – Application is the Key to Seed Treatment Effectiveness

Shad Milligan

Applying seed treatment isn’t what it used to be. Long gone are the days when someone would yell “turn up the red!” as the seed came out of the treater. There is a lot more than just a visual O.K. that goes into treating your seed properly. Over application isn’t cost effective and under applying [...]

Wheat School: Managing Your Wheat Marketing in an Open Market

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August 1, 2012 officially changes the way the wheat producers and industry members do business out west. With that date spelling the end of the single desk marketing system, farmers, buyers and processors have to look closely at their respective businesses and adapt to a whole new ball game. For some involved in the industry, [...]

Wheat School: How to Make Wireworm Bait Balls

shad milligan syngenta

Wireworms are one of the pests that come with a lot of speculation and misinformation for many farmers.  Patchy stands are often blamed on poor seed or conditions when the blame should be placed on wire worms.  Dr. Bob Vernon’s research shows that wire worms are not isolated to the light brown soil zone of [...]

Wheat School – The Speed of Performance is Critical to Weed Control

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In any situation, broadleafs and wild oats left unchecked in your field can end up robbing you of the yield you desire.  The best way to manage these nutrient scavengers is to make sure you are using your crop protection products that work quickly and effectively. Ensure that you do your own research on the [...]

Wheat School: John DePutter – Wheat Marketing Strategies In a Volatile Environment

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Market turmoil has always been something that producers have had to deal with, but increasingly, one of the only characteristics of the markets you count on is the instability of the markets. As analyst John DePutter put it, ” Volatility is a fact of life in the markets.” Those ups and downs have become more [...]