For those who love soil, there’s nothing quite so painful as driving along a country road in winter, and seeing topsoil smeared along the snow banks. “Snirt” or “snoil”, depending on who you ask, is valuable top soil that’s been picked up by wind and shifted in to ditches, approaches, or even neighbouring fields. In… Read More
Canola gives growers a little bit more leeway compared to other crops when it comes to growing in saline soil conditions. However, proper management of these areas is still needed to make sure they don’t get worse as the years go on. On this Canola School episode, we are joined by Ken Wall, grow team… Read More
It pays to manage corn stalks. That message was heard loud and clear when agronomists Pat Lynch and Jonathan Zettler asked farmers why they till soil following a corn crop. The pair publish The Cropwalker — a weekly agronomy newsletter, and heard from 372 respondents in a Twitter poll. The top reason for tillage, cited… Read More
Each year, corn hybrid selection is a balancing of growing conditions, field selection, and in-field management that can bring up some tough questions to navigate when chasing big yields. On this episode of The Sharp Edge, Maizex agronomist Greg Stewart tackles these questions with with help from Illinois-based Crop-Tech Consulting agronomist Ken Ferrie. Together, they… Read More
As soybean cyst nematode (SCN) wriggles its way north, Western Canadian farmers can look to southern neighbours for advice on managing this pest. Sam Markell, extension plant pathologist with North Dakota State University (NDSU), says that late in the growing season is an excellent time to test for the pest. A core sample taken six… Read More
Planting winter wheat research plots at C&M Seeds near Palmerston, Ont. proved challenging during the difficult 2021 fall conditions. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Wheat School Peter Johnson and C&M research agronomist Mike Holzworth tour the plots and share what the challenging conditions revealed about winter wheat planting dates. The research plots were planted… Read More
With the days of September ticking by, some soybean growers may be getting antsy to desiccate and get harvest underway; however, timing a pre-harvest application is critical to maximize yields and reap the rewards of the growing season. For this Soybean School episode, Rob Miller, agronomist with BASF, talks about what to look for when… Read More
Protecting and improving quality is a top priority as edible bean harvest gets underway. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Edible Bean School, we focus on fine-tuning the combine with Delta Power Equipment technicians Brad Saunders and Andrew McCarthy. They take growers inside an edible bean combine and offer tips on how to reduce cracked… Read More
Information, knowledge, and data can be paramount when maximizing yield potential, and when talking about utilizing fertilizer to its highest potential, accurately measuring nitrogen loss can translate to net dollars at the end of the year. On this Corn School episode, we talk about how measuring nitrogen volatilization is the first step in determining how… Read More
Bacteria can’t have all the fun — it’s time for some very helpful fungi to get the respect they deserve. Kris Guenette, PhD candidate at the University of Alberta, is working on just that. He’s looking into whether or not incorporating a fungal inoculant on wheat could help with nitrogen uptake, yield, and protein development. Guenette… Read More
Seed toxicity can severely impede canola yield, and it can be difficult to determine just how much nitrogen is needed in the seed row to see maximum results, while mitigating losses from possible seed toxicity. On this episode of Canola School, Ken Wall, grow team advisor with Federated Co-operatives Ltd, breaks down seed toxicity and… Read More
Growers who plant winter wheat early can expect higher yields, but growing conditions and the environment can impact plant physiology and how the growing crop should be managed. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Wheat School, we’re joined by University of Guelph graduate student Emma Dieleman who shares what she’s learning from her planting date… Read More
Boron is one of the essential micronutrients needed to grow a high-yielding crop of canola. When looked at in the plant and how it is used, boron doesn’t move about all that quickly. As Erika Dowling, technical sales manager with Mosaic Company, explains in this Soil School episode, due to the slow mobility of boron… Read More
First found in Canada in southern Alberta in the 1990s, the pea leaf weevil is continuing to expand its territory to the east. The invasive pest whose larvae feed on the rhizobia in nitrogen-fixing root nodules has since spread across most of the pea-growing areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It was first detected in Manitoba,… Read More
There’s been a fair amount of interest in comparing the results of canola seeded with a drill versus a planter over the last decade, but as the percentage of acres sown with planters has increased, farmers and agronomists are also looking to compare different planter setups. This Canola School episode takes us to a planter… Read More
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