When it comes to producing seed corn, managing pollination and effectively detasseling the crop are critical steps in maintaining genetic purity and seed quality. To get the job done, seed companies use a combination of technology and old fashioned boots on the ground to remove female tassels to ensure they get the unique hybrids they… Read More
Category: Crop Schools
Growing a new crop can be tricky for a number of different reasons. There are so many unknowns, and at the end of the day, a farmer needs to know they will make a profit off the crop. Robyne Bowness Davidson, pulse specialist at Lakeland College, has been working with lupins for 20 years. The… Read More
Soybeans don’t like wet feet, and when rain is plentiful in June and July, saturated soils typically lead to an increase in fungal seedling diseases. Four of the most common culprits are pythium and phytophthora root rots as well as rhizoctonia and fusarium. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Soybean School, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,… Read More
It only takes 15 seconds for a summer hailstorm to terrorize a soybean field and turn a great-looking crop into a nightmare. But soybeans are tough, as we discover on this episode of the RealAgriculture Soybean School where we catch up with AGRIS Co-operative agronomist Dale Cowan near Mount Brydges, Ont., after a mid-July hailstorm…. Read More
Agronomic strategies that maximize fertilizer efficiency should be good for a farm’s financial bottom line and the environment, but specific decisions about how fertilizer is applied should be made with the overall outcome in mind, stresses Marla Riekman, soil management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. The 4Rs — the right source at the right rate, right… Read More
What happens when a soil-applied herbicide application is followed by severe weather? For many herbicides it is business as usual, but in some cases a heavy rain can cause a typically safe product to injure the plant. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Corn School, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs weed specialist Mike… Read More
Is there a yield and quality advantage to using biological nitrogen fixation products? This is a question the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission (Sask Wheat) is aiming to answer in a trial at Scott, Saskatchewan. Carmen Prang, agronomy research specialist with Sask Wheat, says there are different fertility treatments the trial is targeting: a low, medium,… Read More
Soybeans will pop out of warm spring soil a few days after planting, but they often sit for weeks before breaking the surface when planted early in cool, no-till environments. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Soybean School, host Bernard Tobin and Abhi Deora, head of Syngenta Canada’s Seedcare Institute, look at how soil temperatures… Read More
Can heavy July rains fuel nitrogen leaching and push the valuable nutrient beyond the reach of corn plant roots? That’s a question Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs corn specialist Ben Rosser has been hearing a lot lately as many areas of the province have been dealt a deluge of rain. On this… Read More
Those green plants sticking out of the crop — are they regular redroot pigweed, or a much nastier pigweed species, such as waterhemp, or even Palmer amaranth? This has become an increasingly common question for farmers and agronomists on the eastern side of the Canadian Prairies as waterhemp that’s resistant to multiple herbicide groups continues… Read More
There are so many things that can’t be controlled on the farm, including when Mother Nature decides to provide some moisture. Irrigation provides more control over the moisture situation — however, the water is not limitless. Maximizing the water allowance not only makes growers happy, because it allows them to become more profitable, but it… Read More
When talking soil, often the topic focus is on soil type, nutrients, moisture, or microbiology. But what about soil structure? As Steve Larocque, Alberta farmer and founder of Beyond Agronomy explains in this Soil School episode, the physical types of soil can’t be changed, whether it be sand, silt, or clay. However, how land is… Read More
True armyworms hungry for grassy plants, including wheat, have arrived in large numbers in parts of the Prairies this summer. The pest, which migrates north as a light brown moth, arrived in Manitoba during the last week of May, explains John Gavloski, entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture, in this armyworm-focused Wheat School episode filmed at the… Read More
Research has repeatedly shown corn’s yield potential starts declining if plants don’t emerge within a tight timeframe, but dry conditions following planting can wreak havoc on best-laid plans for uniform emergence. If one in six corn plants is two leaf stages behind the rest, expect a four per cent yield reduction, says Morgan Cott, agronomy… Read More
Many growers apply a T3 fungicide on winter wheat in Ontario to protect the crop against fusarium head blight and get one step closer to achieving high grain yields. But a strange thing happened on the way to harvest in 2023, as many fields across the province experienced severe leaf tip burn after fungicide application…. Read More