With concern over bee health and the potential impact of seed treatments that contain neonicotinoid products increasing, the seed industry is taking steps to offer farmers choices in seed treatment options for 2014. How do you decide if you need to order seed with or without an insecticide seed treatment? Greg Stewart, corn specialist with… Read More
Category: Corn Disease Weeds Insects
How has the corn crop fared? Will the high levels of vomitoxin seen in wheat and barley also occur in the corn crop? Not always, says Greg Stewart, corn specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. In this episode of the Corn School, Stewart discusses preliminary production estimates of the Ontario corn crop,… Read More
While the name suggests it’s a pest of bean crops, the western bean cutworm isn’t the most discerning of pests — corn will do just fine, thank you very much. Since 2008, western bean cutworm has been on Ontario’s radar, as pest numbers are building and farmers may need to spray to control this pest… Read More
As if a late spring and cold weather weren’t bad enough, current planting conditions in some areas of Ontario are ripe for a millipede feeding frenzy. Millipedes prefer cool soil temps and will stay deep in the soil profile, munching away on organic matter, as long as surface soil temps are warm and increasing. But… Read More
Farming would be much, much easier and far less risky if we could control the weather. We can’t, of course, so the first point of any “most limiting factor” list — the weather — is always moot. After that, though, there are several management factors well within farmers’ control that deserve some attention when gunning… Read More
In a good news/not so good news scenario, the 2012 corn crop is showing very low incidence of ear molds. That said, there are likely to be areas with higher numbers, and farmers are reminded to scout or test each field for possible infection, especially if the crop is destined for feed use. In this… Read More
With recent dry conditions slowly sapping the potential from the Ontario corn crop, producers want to protect their corn in any way they can. Leaf disease on top of heat stress can add insult to injury taking even more of your yield potential. A well timed fungicide application, when it makes good economic sense, can… Read More
So much time and effort is put into pushing corn to it’s full potential. We try so hard to manage areas that are partially out of our control that when we see something like herbicide injury in our crop, it can feel a little bit like we shot the puck into our own net. Sometimes… Read More
The Ontario corn crop is sitting in a great position. If things continue to go well we could be looking at some bumper crops. The combination of early planting, good soil conditions and great weather have pushed corn in some areas to the tasselling stage giving those crops ample time for grain fill. There are… Read More
Eliminating weed competition is critical to corn development during it’s initial growth stages. Weed pressure during that growth period can decrease yield significantly depending on the intensity and duration of that pressure. Timing your herbicide application properly can ease back weed pressure while keeping your crop from being damaged. Depending on the herbicide you use,… Read More