Category: Wheat School

When a detrimental fungus can travel as far and fast as stripe rust can, it is well worth being vigilant about. With susceptible varieties of wheat, this damaging crop disease can impact yields by anywhere between 50 to 90 per cent. Agronomists in southern Manitoba have identified the disease in wheat fields this week. In… Read More

Grasshoppers, both pest species and not, thrive in dry conditions. When back to back (to back) years end up in a dry cycle, grasshopper populations can explode and wipe out a crop. One year of higher moisture isn’t likely to undue that lifecycle bump, so farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta need to stay vigilant on… Read More

Winter wheat may be the fastest growing crop in Maritime Canada. Over the past five years, the cereal crop has seen significant growth with total acreage on Prince Edward Island alone climbing near 25,000 acres. On this episode of RealAgriculture Wheat School, host Bernard Tobin travels to the Island to find out what’s driving interest… Read More

So many decisions that influence yield need to be made throughout the growing season, and it begins with the optimal seeding rate. As discussed in this Wheat School episode, seeding rate is a factor in tillering, tiller timing, and head size. The ideal seeding rate can also help with a smoother harvest and to time… Read More

There are lots of good things happening as heads emerge in Ontario winter wheat fields. There’s plenty of potential but final yield will likely be determined by how the crop deals with the many stresses it could encounter between now and harvest. What role could biostimulants play in managing those stresses? Could this burgeoning category… Read More

Why is kochia resistant to multiple herbicide groups? Turns out, it’s not any one thing, but a few different aspects of how the plant grows, reproduces, and spreads that make it a hard-to-control and prone to developing herbicide resistance. In this episode of the Wheat School, Dr. Charles Geddes, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food… Read More

There’s a reason just about every agronomic question can be answered by, “It depends.” That’s because no single management decision is made alone: the genetics of the crop and the environmental conditions will always play a role in the success of any one management practice. To further explain the concept of GxExM, this Wheat School… Read More

There’s big yield potential in winter wheat fields across Ontario as the crop advances quickly with help from favourable spring growing conditions. Growers have been busy getting that first shot of nitrogen on the crop and focus now shifts to whether the crop can benefit from a plant growth regulator (PGR) as the wheat advances… Read More

Damage from wireworms can go unnoticed at low levels — sometimes the only symptom is a missing seedling. The trouble is, wireworms have a multi-year life cycle, so early detection is key to management. For this Wheat School episode, we’re back with Shad Milligan, seedcare specialist with Syngenta Canada, to talk about not just why… Read More

Wheat seed placed in a furrow across a field spells possibility to a farmer, but to diseases that lurk in the soil, wheat seed is food, not a potential crop. Using untreated wheat seed means that each seed could be vulnerable to seed- and/or soil-borne diseases, explains Shad Milligan, Seedcare technical lead for Syngenta Canada…. Read More