Grow great wheat! It’s a catchy slogan, sure, but HOW do you grow great wheat? In this episode of the Wheat School, Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson is fired up about the synergistic relationship between wheat inputs. “As we add all these fungicides, we add more nitrogen, we add these plant growth regulators, how does that… Read More
Fungicide formulation, timing and application. Get all those right and chances are you’ll have effective suppression of fusarium head blight (FHB) in your winter wheat crop. Syngenta Canada formulations and applications manager Doug Baumann notes that these three components of control all have to work together for growers to achieve optimum FHB control. On this… Read More
It’s time for T3 fungicides to control fusarium head blight in Ontario’s winter wheat, but growers may also have another troublemaker in the cereal crop that they’ll need to tackle this time of year. There have been growing reports of cereal aphids in the Ontario winter wheat crop this spring, and growers need will to… Read More
Will it pay to park the drill and invest in precision planting technology for wheat? That’s a question Michigan State University researcher Dennis Pennington is tackling in an ongoing research project. Earlier this year, he shared some of his early results with growers attending the CerealSmart conference at Kitchener, Ont. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s… Read More
Wheat is worth about $7 a bushel right now — and we have to chase as many bushels as we can. That’s the message RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson has for growers in our latest episode of the Wheat School. One way to optimize yield in winter wheat is effective use of plant growth regulators (PGRs)…. Read More
What’s your nitrogen strategy for winter wheat? When it comes to spring nitrogen applications, the first thing growers need to consider is their planting date, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. That planting date typically correlates with a specific amount of fall growth, which growers can use to guide them in their spring nitrogen applications. On… Read More
It’s early spring and you’ve pegged the yield potential of your wheat crop at 125 bu/ac and now you have to manage it through the season and get it in the bin. What should you do? For the next six minutes you should watch the latest episode of RealAgriculture’s Wheat School with agronomist Phil Needham,… Read More
What’s the yield potential for winter wheat in Ontario? If you see 150 bu/ac pop up on a well-calibrated yield combine monitor in part of a field, that’s likely your upper-end yield potential, says agronomist Phil Needham of Needham AG Technologies. Typically, however, your monitor will flirt with that big yield number for only moments… Read More
United Kingdom farmers have a strong yen for higher wheat yields, and they’re turning to yield enhancement networks (YEN) to help them satisfy their craving. YENs are the brainchild of the research scientists at ADAS, a UK-based independent agricultural and environmental consultancy. “It’s kind of a competition, but the main focus is sharing information between… Read More
Add wheat to your crop rotation and it will increase corn and soybean yields, put more money in your pocket, improve soil health, and make your soil more resilient. That’s a big, bold statement but University of Guelph-Ridgetown professor Dave Hooker can prove it. All the data comes from a 25 year long-term tillage and… Read More
Shorten soybean maturity, plant early, add a seed inoculant, topdress humic acid, bump up the sulphur, and add in some 20-inch rows — it’s all part of what makes Dan Petker a ‘Real’ wheat farmer, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. On this Wheat School episode, Johnson travels to Port Rowan, Ont., to get the scoop… Read More
Will relay intercropping work in Ontario? For a second year, RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson has been keeping a close eye on relay intercropping trials planted in the province. The objective of the research is to evaluate whether Ontario farmers could effectively plant soybeans into standing wheat versus double cropping soybeans that are planted after wheat is… Read More
Soybean harvest is underway in Ontario as the crop matures rapidly. It’s good news for winter wheat growers looking to get the crop planted on soybean ground, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson, but there are still plenty of late-planted green soybeans that are a long way from the bin. The prospect of another year of… Read More
Ontario’s challenging 2019 spring weather left almost 200,000 acres unplanted in the province, but those acres now present a tremendous opportunity to plant a high-yielding wheat crop. That’s the message agronomist Peter Johnson shares with growers on this edition of the RealAgriculture Wheat School. “Planting early is the number one way to make great yields,”… Read More
Across Ontario, a growing percentage of soil tests are testing lower for nutrients. It’s a trend growers need to be aware of, and there’s a role for wheat to play in addressing the decline. Jack Legg, SGS Agri-Food Laboratories agronomist based at Guelph, says his lab and the International Plant Nutrition Institute, which conducts sampling… Read More