It’s the time of year when many producers are thinking about swathing, or looking forward to desiccating and straight cutting their canola crop.Two of the more common options for dry downs on your crop are glyphosate, a slower process but great for cleaning up fields; and diquat, the active ingredient in most registered desiccants.Since diquat… Read More
Category: Crop Schools
White mould is showing up in soybean fields across Ontario, especially in areas that have consistently seen wet weather and moderate temperatures throughout the summer.In this episode of RealAgriculture Soybean School, OMAFRA plant pathologist Albert Tenuta explains that the fungicide timing for optimal control of white mould is as flowers emerge at the R1 and… Read More
A late-maturing crop, difficult environmental conditions, significant insect pressure and potential for late-season leaf disease…although too early to tell – this growing list of factors could lead to another year of high vomitoxin levels in the Ontario corn crop.In this episode of RealAgriculture Corn School, OMAFRA plant pathologist Albert Tenuta takes a look at the host… Read More
What’s the best herbicide program for food-grade, non-GMO, identity preserved soybeans?It’s a common question OMAFRA weed specialist Mike Cowbrough gets from growers and we have the answer on this edition of RealAgriculture Soybean School.Cowbrough says there’s no magical herbicide that can handle all the challenges food-grade soybeans face during the growing season. But he does… Read More
The combination of increased soybean acres and high soybean aphid pressure on the prairies in 2017 has sparked conversations about thresholds, beneficial insects, and how to decide when spraying is warranted.The economic threshold for soybean aphids in Canada has traditionally been 250 aphids per plant on 80 percent of plants, with the population still increasing,… Read More
Lygus bugs are known for attacking canola, alfalfa and sunflowers (you can probably blame the lygus for that gross seed), but they can also be a significant pest in fababeans — especially after their canola food source is harvested.In general, lygus bug species like to feed on the reproductive parts of plants.“Similar to other crops,… Read More
Not often do you hear of wheat outyielding corn, but that’s the case in our latest episode in the ‘Real’ Wheat Farmers series.RealAgriculture resident agronomist Peter Johnson can barely contain himself when Arthur, Ontario farmer Shawn Schill of Shawridge Farms tells him that one 200-acre field yielded 154 bu/ac of wheat, beating the average corn yield… Read More
Winter durum wheat isn’t grown in Western Canada, but the possible benefits have breeders working on developing it.As Jamie Larsen with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge discusses in this Wheat School episode, winter durum could perform well during dry years, and face reduced fusarium head blight (FHB) risk compared with spring durum.“We are really starting… Read More
Most of the yellow patches in soybean fields in Western Canada and the northern U.S. have disappeared as the plants have recovered, or turned necrotic and died, but one of the big questions heading into harvest is: what toll did widespread issues with iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) earlier in the season take on yields?The yellow… Read More
Should you spray your soybeans once or twice?In this episode of Real Agriculture Soybean School, OMAFRA weed specialist Mike Cowbrough takes a look at how one-pass and two-pass herbicide systems compare. He notes that a one-pass program can offer effective weed control if growers keep soybeans fields weed-free through the third trifoliate stage. But as… Read More