Farmers fought hard (sometimes through deep snow that disappeared soon after) to get the 2014 Ontario corn crop off, but there’s as much as 5% of the crop still standing. There’s really nothing you can do about the crop being out until the snow finally melts, but farmers who have been keeping eye on their… Read More
Category: Corn Harvest
31-33% moisture: that’s when corn reaches physiological maturity, or black layering, according to Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). But, harvesting corn above 28% can result in damage to the grain, difficult marketing and the burdens of attempting to dry in storage. This late in the season, stalk quality may make the… Read More
Do you know what quality impact moving corn through your handling, drying and storage set up has? It can be significant, but if you’re not sampling (and sampling properly) at several points in the process, you can’t know for sure. What’s more, a good chunk of damage, either through too hot/too fast drying or moisture… Read More
With reports of the first corn fields being harvested in Manitoba, producers will soon find out the extent to which early frost and Goss’s Wilt reduced yields. Both frost and Goss’s cause premature drydown of the leaves, explains Dieter Schwarz, market development agronomist with Pride Seeds, in this Corn School episode. “Once you’ve lost your green and… Read More
With corn harvest around the corner, the “push test” can help growers assess plant health and whether lodging will be a problem. As part of this episode of the Corn School, Dieter Schwarz, market develop agronomist for Western Canada with Pride Seeds, discusses the importance of plant health right through the dry-down process. Stalk integrity is critical… Read More
When a growing season doesn’t go exactly as hoped — a late spring, a cool summer, too much rain — corn growers get understandably nervous. Corn is a C4 plant — it can tolerate hot weather and needs rather warm weather to grow, set yield and mature. As much of Ontario deals with “weird and whacky”… Read More
In this episode of the Corn School, PRIDE Seeds’ market development agronomist Ken Currah takes a look at corn development stages, starting with tasselling and moving through development, to help growers evaluate maturity and yield potential. By tracking hybrids from pollination to the black layer stage, Currah shows how growers can assess each hybrid’s adaptability… Read More
What’s the best call for adding potash? How much bang for your buck do you get from seed-placed blends? Are protected N sources worth the cost? Greg Stewart, corn specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, recently presented the top 10 corn production tips from 10 years of research and monitoring, and some… Read More
Pleasantly surprised describes many corn growers this fall, even as the harvest drags on into December. While there were areas that suffered from excess moisture and cool temps, many areas are finally tallying up the last of the corn yields and the numbers are, well, quite good. Ontario field editor, Bernard Tobin, joined Ken Currah,… Read More
Even if you were never the type to peek at your Christmas gifts early, there are few farmers who can help themselves from trying to get a bead on the corn crop coming. Luckily, assessing corn cob development is a useful task at this point in the growing season, as it offers up not only… Read More
As planting season winds down, the To-Do list of little fixes starts to grow. The good news is that a little extra care and attention paid to machinery and equipment now will help speed along the set up process next spring when we get to do this all over again. The planter is such an… Read More
Any farmer who loves a good list missed out on one fantastic presentation by Ken Ferrie at the recent CornSmart conference held recently at Guelph, Ont. Drawing conclusions from the 2012 growing season, Ferrie, an independent agronomist with Crop-Tech Consulting, ran through the seven key areas of corn production management where he feels farmers need… Read More
Rain or shine, drought or not, nitrogen is king when it comes to targeting the highest yields possible in corn. While it may not be a surprise that even in a dry year corn responds to added nitrogen, there’s still work to be done on the economic levels of that response with environmental stewardship in… Read More
As farmers approach the mid-way point of the Ontario corn harvest (and quickly surpass it, we hope), preliminary reports suggest decent yields in spite of challenging conditions. That said, it most certainly wasn’t an ideal growing season, and farmers aren’t likely to see their highest ever production this year. What a challenging year does allow… Read More
There are more than a few weeks ahead yet for the corn harvest, but as a testament to constantly improving genetics and the hardiness of the crop, preliminary corn yields for 2012 are actually quite good. There are areas that are hurting, yes, but some farmers are pleasantly surprised with yields and quality, especially in… Read More