If you always wait for the calendar to hit late April or early May before seeding wheat, you could be leaving yield on the table or at the very least making the seeding season more hectic than it has to be. Multi-year ultra-early seeding research out of Alberta suggests that early March seeding and maybe… Read More
As the 2019 planting season draws near there’s one thing we know for sure — it will be different from last year. That’s just the way things go, of course, but there are lessons from last year that growers can take to the field for 2019. The first thing growers need to be mindful of… Read More
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture has been hosting meetings this winter to help farmers keep up with the most current science and best management practices to deal with clubroot. Many of the meetings have been conducted with the participation of Canola Council of Canada agronomists and other industry specialists. Allie Noble, crops extension specialist with… Read More
Quite often, growers discover herbicide resistant weeds on their farm after an effective herbicide fails to take out a targeted weed. After some testing and reviewing past herbicide application records, growers might realize that the resistance problem is the result of repeated use of a particular herbicide or a history of not following best management… Read More
Corn is moving into new territory — mainly west and north — but the agronomic information farmers in these new areas rely on is still largely based on data from places such as Illinois and Iowa. This has provided a basis for new corn farmers to get started, but there are a lot of differences… Read More
Farmers live and work in the real world, so real world events like weather can make a huge difference to a crop. We all know this, but sometimes we forget that the weather in the year prior to the current growing season also needs to be taken into account. Andrew Reid understands that crops grow… Read More
Will strip tillage find a home in Ontario soybean fields? AGRIS Co-operative agronomist Dale Cowan certainly believes there’s a fit. Last June on RealAgriculture Soybean School we visited Cowan in a field of strip tilled soybeans near Mount Brydges, Ont., where Cowan’s brother, Larry and Larry’s son, Chris, of Chimo Farms, had created an integrated strip till program… Read More
One of the big stories in the Canadian wheat industry this year has been re-emerging demand for Hard Red Winter (HRW) wheat in Ontario. Hard Red Winter used to occupy up to 18 percent of wheat acres in the province, but that number has dropped to an estimated 7 per cent in recent years and… Read More
Imagine planting corn hybrids that could produce 40 to 80 percent of their nitrogen requirements. It’s only 10 years away, says University of Wisconsin–Madison researcher Dr. Vania Pankievicz. The breakthrough comes from a Mexican corn variety called Sierra Mixe. At the recent Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario conference in London, Ontario, Pankievicz explained that the 15-foot tall variety,… Read More
What’s the best strategy for managing herbicide resistance on your farm? In this episode of RealAgriculture’s Resistance Management School we visit Günter Jochum at his farm near St. Francois Xavier, MB. In 2010, Jochum discovered Group 1 herbicide resistant wild oats in one of his fields. Once the presence of resistant wild oats was confirmed, Jochum adopted… Read More
There are a lot of concerns in the pulse market at the moment. Things such as competition from the Black Sea region, and what’s happening with the election in India, can keep farmers up at night. While you have one eye on the markets, it’s also important to keep the other on agronomy. This is… Read More
For people who play the stock market, an opportunity to cash in on an 826 per cent return on investment doesn’t come along too often. But Ontario farmers can realize this type of return every time they apply herbicide in corn fields that experience intense weed pressure, says University of Guelph weed scientist Dr. Peter… Read More
Corn is a grass and we should grow it like one. That’s Illinois farmer Marion Calmer’s management mantra, and he preaches it where ever he travels. Last month, Calmer brought his corn philosophy to the SouthWest Agricultural Conference at Ridgetown, Ont. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Corn School, Calmer summarizes his six secrets to producing… Read More
Look through many soybean seed catalogues and you’ll find an ‘LL’ in the trait category surrounded by a plethora of ‘RR2Y’ and ‘RR2Xtend’ abbreviations, noting the last two versions of Roundup Ready seed technology. The number of Liberty Link (LL) herbicide system varieties are few compared to the massive Roundup Ready seed footprint, but the technology… Read More
When it comes to planting corn into cover crops, cereal rye is a popular option for Ontario growers. It’s also a top choice for Illinois growers, says Crop-Tech agronomist Ken Ferrie who shared cover crop strategies at the CropSmart 2019 conference held earlier this month at Kitchener, Ont. In this episode of RealAgriculture’s Corn School, Ferrie… Read More