Frost can be highly variable and the damage it does all depends on how cold it gets, how long it stays cold, and how far it penetrates the crop canopy. If you do get some frost, it’s generally recommended to assess your canola crop, to see what’s happening in your own fields, but to be… Read More
Category: Crop Schools
It’s a colourful time of year as leaves start to turn yellow, then brown, and then drop to the ground — not only on trees, but also in soybean fields. When moisture has not been a limiting factor, differences in days-to-maturity between varieties can be quite eye-catching heading into the final weeks of the growing… Read More
When it comes to getting ready to combine soybeans and applying a pre-harvest burndown to your crop, there are two parts to the conversation — desiccation and weed control. There are some important things to know about each part and in this episode of Soybean School, Bernard Tobin is here to cover both of them,… Read More
Sudden death syndrome (SDS), caused by a fusarium species in soil, needs cool and moist conditions to thrive. It also needs an entry point, and soybean cyst nematodes (SCN) make those for the pathogen in roots of soybean when they attack the crop. Effectively managing SCN, therefore, is just one part of the puzzle in… Read More
Have you ever wondered just exactly how your corn develops in the cob? Understanding how corn makes a cob, successful kernels, and packs in starch can be a key component of an agronomic plan. “This top part is the tassel, and that is the male part of the plant,” says Sara Meidlinger, market development agronomist… Read More
As many soybean growers are well aware, soybeans have a unique ability to biologically fix their own nitrogen (N) in a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria, Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Inoculant containing the bacteria can either be applied on the seed or to the soil at planing, and then as the crop is putting on vegetation and… Read More
Walking into a green, fully-podded canola field isn’t easy — it’s actually more like swimming if you’ve got a good stand and your plants are well knit together. But, it’s important to really get into the field to scout for bertha armyworms. Before you wade in to your canola to look for this pest, Gregory… Read More
Throughout the growing season, you might be making mental notes of all the things you liked or didn’t like about your soybean crop. It’s never too early to be thinking about next year’s variety decisions. In this episode of Soybean School, Allan Froese, product selection lead for Syngenta, joins Kelvin Heppner in the field to… Read More
If you’ve been regularly scouting soybeans and noticed some potassium deficiency symptoms — yellowing on leaves — now is a good time to check the number of pods in those spots. “What we often don’t do is compare the number of pods later on, and of course that’s what yield is made of — pod… Read More
We’re getting closer to that exciting time of year again: harvest. The southern areas may already be getting into it, but in the central and north parts of the Prairies, producers will be thinking about staging their pulse crops in the coming days or weeks. “Every year we kind of have to reeducate, even ourselves,… Read More
Due to a poor harvest in 2019, producers on the Prairies faced a lot of challenges. Then, with an extended spring in some parts for 2020, many acres went left unseeded. But there’s still hope to get a crop in, such as winter wheat, it will just take a bit of planning. “The first step… Read More
Grain corn acres in Western Canada this year might be down, but there’s potential for some big yields, assuming the crop can avoid late season pitfalls. “For growers who held onto those acres, they’re going to be rewarded, no doubt. Grain corn crops here in southern Manitoba look especially strong,” says Alana Serhan, market development… Read More
Finding soil fertility recommendations for different crops can be time-consuming and hard to pin down. A new app that is simple and quick to use provides tremendous value by bringing soil fertility recommendations for different crops — both field and vegetable — all to one place. “In terms of the Soil Test Manager app, it’s… Read More
A three-year trial conducted by Farming Smarter on grain corn production under dryland conditions in four Alberta locations is yielding some interesting results. The trial at Lethbridge, Vauxhall, Bow Island, and Medicine Hat, was conducted between 2015 and 2017, and included agronomic factors that may affect dryland grain corn production, including plant population, row spacing,… Read More
Corn fields across Ontario are full of variable plant development and that should be a concern for growers, says University of Guelph crop researcher Dr. David Hooker. Fields are littered with areas of yield-compromising backward and slow-to-develop plants. Hooker believes corn variability is even more apparent this year due to significant weather challenges; with cold… Read More