Wheat Pete's Word, Oct 26 — A New World in Seed Treatments (again), High Test Weights, & Strip-Till vs No-Till Beans

Harvest is rocking and rolling for most corn and soybean growers in Ontario save for @WheatPete himself who took an equipment breakdown as a chance to get the Word done early this week.

This week’s Wheat Pete’s Word covers a lot of ground, including the why behind high test weight corn, the nitrogen connection to high vomi corn, why 2017 is a new world (again) in seed treatment access, and on to strip-till vs. no-till beans and so much more. (A larger summary follows the player)

If you have a question for Wheat Pete, call 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at [email protected].

Summary

Corn:

• What’s behind high test weights? Great big, deep kernels and more.
• High vomitoxin — not a disaster, but not a perfect crop
• Western bean cutworm damage and other moulds besides DON are eating into quality
• How come the guys who need it most have the dirtier corn? There’s a connection between hog manure and higher vomitoxin corn. Find out what it is.
• The plan for this 2016 corn crop? Blend, blend, blend
• Does no-till corn need more N? It’s all about a change in time of demand, not necessarily ta difference in total pounds

Corn & Soy Seed Treatments: 

• It’s a new world — again — for access to neonic seed treatments for 2017
• Last year you could access for 50% of your acres without scouting. This year? You must prove you have a wireworm/grum issue (even if you need the neonics for corn maggot control)
• There are two new seed treatments this year that don’t require scouting — Fortenza and Lumivia
• Neonics are best for seed corn maggot and root worm control. Lumivia and Frotenza are better for cutworms and army worms. Nonetheless, access to neonics requires scouting and proof of pests (grubs and wireworms only)
• Neither product is available on soybeans

Soybeans:

• Strip till vs no-till — what changes? Which one wins on yield?
• The story of soil quality. Some farmers are reporting big differences in yield in the same field — all because of soil quality variation. One farmer says his best beans were on a K deficient field. The secret? It’s an old pasture with high quality, resilient soil!

Weed Control:

• How do you tackle weed control after corn differently from October to November?
• An oat cover crop after winter wheat – do you need weed control? Depends on the weed spectrum — no perennial weeds, no problem. Have perennial weeds? Do it!
• No 2,4-D in the fall on double cut red clover! Dicamba is the ticket (w/ glyphosate)

Wheat:

• Is too much top growth a problem? It is for triticale (and it can flop over and lead to snow mould issues) but shouldn’t be an issue for wheat. More on that, here.

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