What’s the best herbicide program for food-grade, non-GMO, identity preserved soybeans? It’s a common question OMAFRA weed specialist Mike Cowbrough gets from growers and we have the answer on this edition of RealAgriculture Soybean School. Cowbrough says there’s no magical herbicide that can handle all the challenges food-grade soybeans face during the growing season. But… Read more »
Category: Agronomy
Soybean School: Taking a closer look at soybean aphid thresholds
The combination of increased soybean acres and high soybean aphid pressure on the prairies in 2017 has sparked conversations about thresholds, beneficial insects, and how to decide when spraying is warranted. The economic threshold for soybean aphids in Canada has traditionally been 250 aphids per plant on 80 percent of plants, with the population still… Read more »
Pulse School: Lygus bugs in fababeans
Lygus bugs are known for attacking canola, alfalfa and sunflowers (you can probably blame the lygus for that gross seed), but they can also be a significant pest in fababeans — especially after their canola food source is harvested. In general, lygus bug species like to feed on the reproductive parts of plants. “Similar to… Read more »
Wheat School: ‘Real’ Wheat Farmers — Shawn Schill
Not often do you hear of wheat outyielding corn, but that’s the case in our latest episode in the ‘Real’ Wheat Farmers series. RealAgriculture resident agronomist Peter Johnson can barely contain himself when Arthur, Ontario farmer Shawn Schill of Shawridge Farms tells him that one 200-acre field yielded 154 bu/ac of wheat, beating the average corn… Read more »
MRLs established enabling preharvest application of Heat LQ on wheat and barley
BASF says it has cleared all necessary approvals, including the establishment of maximum residue limits (MRLs) in all major export markets, enabling pre-harvest application of Heat LQ herbicide on wheat and barley in Western Canada. “This is something producers have been asking for for a really long time, and now that we’re in a position… Read more »
Wheat School: Could winter durum reduce fusarium risk?
Winter durum wheat isn’t grown in Western Canada, but the possible benefits have breeders working on developing it. As Jamie Larsen with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge discusses in this Wheat School episode, winter durum could perform well during dry years, and face reduced fusarium head blight (FHB) risk compared with spring durum. “We are… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, August 16: Dream farm shops, neonics, and manure tests
From doggone insect issues to dream farm shops, we have some exciting things to cover on this week’s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word. RealAg agronomist Peter Johnson tackles some cereal questions regarding harvest timing, winter cereal planting, nitrogen losses in manure, and more. Listen here, and read some of the highlights below: Your questions/feedback/yield results are… Read more »
Soybean School: Preventing those yellow patches next year
Most of the yellow patches in soybean fields in Western Canada and the northern U.S. have disappeared as the plants have recovered, or turned necrotic and died, but one of the big questions heading into harvest is: what toll did widespread issues with iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) earlier in the season take on yields? The… Read more »
Knowing your variety helps avoid ‘gnarly barley’
Cereal variety trials typically give researchers great insight into yield, disease tolerance, standability and a host of management considerations to help growers pick the right variety for their fields. In this year’s Ontario Spring Cereal Performance Trials, researchers are also getting a good look at the impact herbicide choices can have on cereals. In this… Read more »
Soybean School: One-pass vs. two-pass weed control
Should you spray your soybeans once or twice? In this episode of Real Agriculture Soybean School, OMAFRA weed specialist Mike Cowbrough takes a look at how one-pass and two-pass herbicide systems compare. He notes that a one-pass program can offer effective weed control if growers keep soybeans fields weed-free through the third trifoliate stage. But… Read more »
Episode 4 – The Straight Cutting Experience from BASF
Uniform crop. Straight forward harvest. Chris Zemlak is planning to straight cut over half his canola acres this year. But if he had it his way, he would be straight cutting all of them. “There’s something fun about straight cutting canola with a 40-foot header, at 5 miles an hour and putting 40 to 50… Read more »
Canola School: Weather aids arrival of diamondback moths
Numbers of diamondback moths have increased in Western Canada over the past couple of weeks, in part due to the dry weather and strong winds. In some areas where the canola is still in late bloom, they are causing a fair amount of damage. Héctor Cárcamo, entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, says the key to… Read more »
Pulse School: Avoiding bleaching in peas
With pea and lentil harvest underway, the question on the forefront of many growers’ minds — what is the quality of my crop that’s coming off? We think about what sort of season and conditions the crop has gone through, and while sometimes you are prepared for the sample you’re looking at, sometimes you aren’t…. Read more »
ATV safety — do you wear a helmet on the farm?
When people go trail riding or use their ATV for recreational use, wearing a helmet is something that most don’t blink an eye to. They do it with no questions asked. So why is it when we use them around the farm, we hop on the quad at the same speeds, helmet-less, without thinking twice?… Read more »
More pieces needed to solve dicamba drift puzzle
As the dicamba drift situation unfolds in soybean growing areas of North America, with millions of acres affected, there are some serious questions that will need to be answered in the coming months. How extensive was the damage? What were the factors that led to dicamba herbicide ending up in places where it wasn’t supposed… Read more »