What’s the toughest part of trying out a new crop? Once you get the equipment set up sorted out at seeding and harvest, it’s on to crop diagnostics. Mother Nature tends to give farmers a bit of a break when it comes to disease and insect pressure in the first years of growing a crop,… Read More
Category: Soybean School
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Double nozzles are necessary to get the best possible coverage of a vertical target, true or false? Turns out, the answer is more likely that third option — the dreaded “it depends.” In this Soybean School episode, Real Agriculture’s Bernard Tobin is joined by Jason Deveau, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food spray specialist to… Read More
How close did you get to achieving the soybean plant density you were aiming for? What’s the yield potential of the stand you have? The only way to get a bead on those answers is to get out and scout the soybean stand early in the season — at about the first trifoliate stage. How… Read More
In a perfect world, the soybean plant would pop up out of the ground, grow some leaves and then really stretch a bit before setting where that first pod will form. The reality for many western Canadian farmers, however, is that even in a decent year, our Prairie springs are quite cool — first pod… Read More
Soybeans are a relatively new crop for many farmers in Western Canada. For many farmers, this brings a second RoundUp Ready crop (or possibly third) into rotation. Because of this, controlling volunteer canola ahead of the soybean crop is crucial, as high canola populations can have a significant yield impact, and more costly, as a… Read More
If you’re considering growing identity-preserved (IP) soybeans this year, you’re certainly not alone. Solid premiums combined with a surplus of winter-killed winter wheat fields has many farmers becoming IP-curious, some for the very first time. In this episode of the Soybean School, Ontario field editor Bernard Tobin asks Tim Montague, procurement manager for Huron Commodities,… Read More
The 2014 planting season isn’t exactly kicking off with a bang. A hard winter, a slow spring and continued rain has been hard on winter wheat fields and has got planting off to a very slow start. While soybeans aren’t the first priority to get in the ground (they do require warm soil, after all),… Read More
Phosphorus management is and must be a long term proposition. Phosphorus behaves very differently than nitrogen in the soil, as it binds tightly to soil particles and releases slowly over time. This is good and bad — it’s not subject to the same loss risk that N is, but it also means that sometimes the… Read More
What is the yield response of a soybean crop to a fungicide application? (wait for it…) It depends. If you’re not content with that answer, don’t worry — neither are researchers. While there are several factors that work in to the decision to spray, questions surrounding the efficacy and the response of that application can… Read More
If you’re decided on rates and types of inputs, which do you skip or scale back on if margins become tight? Fungicide? Seed? Fertilizer? Should you cut back at all? The concept of intensively managing corn is widely accepted and researched, but not so with soybeans, so Dr. Dave Hooker and colleagues set out to… Read More
There are some factors that influence soybean yield far more than others, for example a healthy crop rotation is going to do far more to help the crop reach full potential than any amount of tillage. In this Soybean School episode, Horst Bohner, soybean specialist with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, recaps the top four… Read More
It seems the 2013 soybean crop defied the odds and managed to pleasantly surprise a number of farmers with decent yields. The final provincial average tally is yet to come in, but it will likely settle somewhere around the 45 or 46 bushel per acre mark. Not too shabby, considering a tough season of untimely… Read More
Each disease threat is unique. Some pathogens are carried on wind or insects, others live in the soil and some reside on crop residue. The expected pressure of a disease for next year is largely dependent on how a disease is spread — those that winter in the soil or on residue are the most… Read More
Do you know the soybean cyst nematode levels in fields on your farm? If you’re growing or plan on growing soybeans, you should be testing every field to determine the presence of this pest. After all, it’s the number one pest of soybean in the world. Horst Bohner, soybean specialist with the Ontario Ministry of… Read More
More replications of research trials equals more bankable results. This can mean more reps in a field, or more reps across an entire geographic area. The North Central Soybean Research program spans a huge area of the United States, and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food hosts co-operative research trials with the group as… Read More