The Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) program for winter wheat has expanded from 43 farms in 2021 to 184 farms across Ontario and a growing number of U.S. states in 2024. In four short years, the program has identified key agronomic and management strategies that consistently drive higher yields for YEN grower participants. On… Read More

It’s time to plant winter wheat and we’ve asked Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson to give us his top five planting recommendations on this episode of RealAgriculture’s Wheat School. Planting date is at the top of Johnson’s tip list. When it comes to planting date there are no shortcuts, he says. Hitting that optimum window is… Read More

Wheat yield is made up of many yield components ranging from thousand kernel weight to head size and kernels per head. But when it comes to driving higher yields, all those components take a back seat to the number of heads per square metre. It’s the big data point emerging from three years of data… Read More

When a field of winter gets knocked down, don’t count it out. RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson says the 2022/23 crop is a perfect example of how winter wheat can absorb multiple agronomic and environmental blows and still get off the mat to deliver a big yield punch. On this episode of RealAgriculture Wheat School, Johnson… Read More

In 2022, the top 20 growers in the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) harvested 50 bu/ac more wheat than the bottom 20 growers in overall yield rankings. What’s really surprising, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson, is that this gap exists despite there being only a five percent difference in yield potential between the two… Read More

Winter is a great time to recalibrate your approach to managing wheat diseases and applying fungicides. That’s the message Penn State University plant pathologist Alyssa Collins shared with agronomists attending the Ontario Certified Crop Advisors annual meeting earlier this month. It’s a dormant period for humans and also for fungi and plants, says Collins. “So… Read More

How can growers push wheat yields to new levels? That’s a question we asked many times on RealAgriculture Wheat School during 2022. Throughout the season wheat researchers, agronomists and growers weighed in offering insights from research sites and farms in eastern and western Canada. Here’s a look back at what we learned. On our first… Read More