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
New Zealand doesn’t share a lot in common with Canada, however, when it comes to growing high-yielding wheat Kiwi growers do count on similar management practices to put big-bushel wheat crops in the bin. Syngenta commercial products lead Sam Livesey, a New Zealand native, concedes that the country’s wheat industry is diminutive (135,000 acres) but… Read More
Ontario’s winter wheat crop has been fighting an uphill battle ever since last fall and the struggle will likely continue right through to harvest. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Wheat School, agronomist Peter Johnson explains that the highly variable crop will likely mean harvesting headaches. Last week at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown College… Read More
Ontario’s unplanted acres hold the potential for outstanding 2020 winter wheat yields, but growers will have to manage disease risks while planting early to turn that potential into profit, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. Across the province, heavy clay soils, especially in the Niagara Region and Essex County, have not been planted. Johnson has had… Read More
The 2019 Ontario wheat crop can best be described as a dog’s breakfast…and that’s perhaps being kind. What’s left in the fields varies from not bad, to not too bad but with dead patches, to relatively uniformly poor and stagey. Depending on the field, the challenges are different. Uniform fields are easy to manage when… Read More
Ontario is dotted with fields of “wimpy wheat.” That’s what RealAgriculture agronomist, Peter Johnson is calling late-emerging, thin, spindly winter wheat that lacks vigour and did not tiller. In this episode of RealAgriculture Wheat School, Johnson explains these plants are simply suffering from cold injury after a rugged Ontario fall and an equally tumultuous spring… Read More
If you grow winter wheat in Ontario, chances are wet weather chased you out of the field this spring before you applied nitrogen. That’s what happened to RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. In this episode of the Wheat School, our resident agronomist compares wheat that received early spring nitrogen to another part of the field where… Read More
There’s some tough-looking winter wheat across Ontario and many producers are wondering whether they can save their crops. In some instances, growers have forward-contracted wheat for delivery at $7 a bushel. That’s difficult to walk away from, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. “We will lose some acres on the heavy clays, but where we can,… Read More
One of the big stories in the Canadian wheat industry this year has been re-emerging demand for Hard Red Winter (HRW) wheat in Ontario. Hard Red Winter used to occupy up to 18 percent of wheat acres in the province, but that number has dropped to an estimated 7 per cent in recent years and… Read More