Wheat Pete's Word, Aug 16: Hail, tar spot spores, removal rates, and incremental change

Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson is back from a refreshing vacation full of family and fun, and he’s ready to share The Word once again.

In this week’s episode, Johnson discusses tar spot risk, late white mould infection, aphid thresholds, and much more!

Have a question you’d like Wheat Pete to address or some field results to send in? Agree/disagree with something he’s said? Leave him a message at 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at [email protected].

SUMMARY

• Refresh, recharge, reconnect! Family is every thing, and Johnson’s heart is full
• Portugal was very warm — too hot! The people were super friendly
• Agriculture lessons from Portugal: olive tree wasting disease and fig biology
• Ontario Cereal Crop Committee has the data up for some areas. Check out GoCereals.ca and go to performance tab
• Area 1 & 2: 7 bu/ac yield benefit to a fungicide pass
• Baseball-sized hail east of Toronto
• What happens with beans and corn with hail this late? Check out this article.
• Agronomists, what you do is incremental crop production process through agronomic engineering
• Every year is an incremental improvement and over time that becomes transformative change
• Management mania!
• Late white mould — dead plants showing up. That infection started three or more weeks ago
• It’s mid-August, what are you really going to gain? Early is key
• 250 aphids per plant from R1 to R5 is the threshold
• After R5 the threshold increases, and by a lot. There are some high pressures in some area
• Tar spot questions: along Lake Erie, there’s lots developing
• But in many fields it’s only here and there
• Three to four week timeline, like white mould
• For most of the province, it’s likely going to be small problem vs. the scary infection level it could have been
• 2021 saw a heavy spore load from the U.S.
• BUT! Keep in mind the crop is maybe a little later than most years. If maturity is pushed later, there are some areas that could end up with higher yield loss
• Magnesium trials in wheat? It’s about a bushel difference right now, nothing to write home about
• Late tillers on spring wheat, with lots of green seed in the sample. Why? Just conditions that all came
• Tile pays
• 20 bushel increase on wheat after edible beans — is it a residue thing?
• Soil test plus removal. Do the math!
• Remember: big yields pull big nutrients

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