Can we push feed and even malt barley varieties to sky-high yields? Steve Larocque, of Beyond Agronomy, has completed a four-year field trial that says yes, but there’s a catch. Inspired by what he saw on a 2010 trip to New Zealand, where feed barley averaged 207 to 210 bushels per acre, Larocque started digging… Read More
Month: January 2017
It’s Agronomy Monday on RealAg Radio today, as we hear from a number of speakers from the SouthWest Ag Conference held earlier this month at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus. Shaun and Kelvin kick off the show catching up on Trump officially beginning the United States’ withdrawal from the TPP and the Liberals cabinet… Read More
Although United States farm groups and ag interests are still sorting out where they stand with the new administration, several voiced immediate criticism of President Trump’s formal commitment to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Monday. The TPP — a multilateral trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and 10 other countries around the Pacific Rim —… Read More
If farmers are going to pay a tax on carbon emissions, they should also receive credit for the carbon their farms remove from the atmosphere. Many in the farm community are trying to make that case, as the federal and provincial governments roll out pricing systems that appear to lean on the cost side of the… Read More
Tough to say and even harder to control, aphanomyces has the potential to significantly reduce pea and lentil yields, and can stick around in the soil for an extremely long time. It’s recommended that farmers not plant pea or lentil for five to six years if aphanomyces has been confirmed in a field, but that’s… Read More
Geographically speaking, Ontario and Western Canada aren’t actually that far apart. But agriculture within the two regions is incredibly different, though some may argue it’s getting more similar all the time. Picture Butte, Alberta-based Shaun Haney recently sat down with Guelph-dweller Norm Sutherland, a district sales manager for Syngenta, to celebrate the uniqueness of farming in… Read More
The announcement last week of a $400 million pea processing plant in central Manitoba caught many in the farm community by surprise. “Peas? Don’t you mean soybeans?” was the most common response. By far. With another 20-plus percent increase in soybean acres expected, there will likely be north of two million acres grown on the… Read More
How have soybeans changed over the past century, and what can growers learn from this evolution? Purdue University agronomy professor Shaun Casteel has some answers. Speaking at the recent Ontario Certified Crop Advisor annual conference, Casteel shared insights from his research comparing varieties from 1923 to those available in 2011. In this episode of Real… Read More
Grain markets through the middle of January continue to be driven by South American weather challenges, namely flooding in parts of Argentina just as the soybean crop down there is starting to emerge. However, geopolitical factors like the U.K. Brexit and Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th U.S. President also weighed on markets. While soybeans… Read More
If you’re unfamiliar with chicken tractors, prepare to be blown away by the fact that there is now an autonomous version of this pasture-chicken-raising kit. That’s just one of the many super neat innovations that rolled out at Ag Days in Brandon, Man., this week, and that discussion is how we kick off this January… Read More
Despite the protectionist rhetoric coming from President Trump, the trade critic for the federal Conservatives sounds hopeful — even optimistic — about Canada’s trading relationship with the United States. “It’s fine to say you want to put America first. It’s fine to say you want to create jobs at home, but at the end of… Read More
There’s a concerning trend in Ontario’s soils: organic matter is being depleted. The decrease may seem small — about 0.8% over 12 years — but organic matter is vital to soil’s water holding capacity, nutrient-cycling ability, and compaction resiliency, to name just a few roles. What’s more, replacing lost soil organic matter is a slow,… Read More
As crop yields and nutrient removal rates continue to increase, many growers wonder whether it’s time to top up fertilizer rates. At the core of the discussion in Ontario is whether critical soil test values for corn and soybeans are still valid and whether they pack the nutrient punch needed to allow new hybrids and… Read More
We’ve finally got an American Secretary of Agriculture named, Manitoba gets a pea processing facility, and Wheat Pete talks corn stalks, corn husks, and manure spreading on snow no-nos — and that’s just a part of what you’ll hear on this January 19th edition of RealAg Radio. Co-host Shaun Haney is joined by Ontario field… Read More
Sitting in the Northern Exposure presentation at the Southwest Agricultural Conference, I watched with fascination as a room full of southern Ontario farmers were captivated by Prairie agriculture. How’s that, you ask? Well, farming in Ontario’s “north” is far more similar to farming in Manitoba than the rest of the growing region of Ontario, and this Prairie… Read More