This week’s Word begins with a Remembrance Day reminder from Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture and host of this weekly podcast. From there, Wheat Pete gets into everything from ensuring your farm is a safe place to work to winter wheat acres in Ontario to nitrogen credits from working down an alfalfa crop. Have a… Read More
Category: Cover crops
What crop and seed mixes could farmers plant to make their farms more bee-friendly? That’s a question Bayer CropScience and Pollinator Partnership are trying to answer with a study aiming to give farmers recommendations on what they can do to improve bee habitat on their farms. Vicki Wojcik, research director for Pollinator Partnership, a non-profit… Read More
How’s wheat planting coming along? Are you all done? Call 1-888-746-3311 or tweet @WheatPete to leave your feedback and questions for Wheat Pete! In this instalment of Wheat Pete’s Word, resident agronomist and host Peter Johnson covers a long list of topics, including what wheat plant populations should look like in fields that have already emerged… Read More
Harvest is in full swing in Ontario, high-moisture silage pits are seeping (you need to act on this!), winter wheat planting is underway, weakling cover crops may be stronger than you think, and big thanks for your valuable feedback! All that and more in this week‘s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word. The Highlights For the most part,… Read More
Harvest season is well underway for the earlier crops, and this challenging 2015 growing season shows no signs of easing up as farmers are looking at their harvest management options in weedy or too-green crops. The oat crop is coming off boasting tremendous yields, but wow is it work to get this crop harvested, says… Read More
Believe it or not, the tail end of this growing season is rapidly approaching, and while there aren’t many action items to get done this week in the field, the one that MUST happen is a major one — scouting! Peter Johnson, RealAgriculture agronomist and host of Wheat Pete’s Word, kicks off this weekly crop… Read More
Much of southern Ontario received another well-timed rain this week — well-timed for filling out corn and soybeans, which has RealAg agronomist Peter Johnson celebrating on this week’s. There’s also good news coming from the wheat harvest, with average to above average yields in “managed” fields north of London — even a report of 135+… Read More
What a storm that was on Monday night! An incredible light show, tornado warnings, wind and so much rain made for a rather raucous start to the week. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, but cut hay and cash crops in the area didn’t need yet another deluge. Excess water is where we’ll start with… Read More
The rain came, but was it in time? For those crops that escaped frost damage, this last week’s weather has been well worth the wait. For those anticipating new corn and soybean growth, however, the last week has led to more disappointments than expected. What’s going on? Peter Johnson kicks off this week’s Word with… Read More
We’re about to flip the calendar to May, and, perhaps surprisingly, soil moisture is becoming a bit of an issue for those rolling in the fields, says Peter Johnson, in this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word. What can you do about soil that’s drying out too quickly? Well, you’re doing to have to adjust planting depth… Read More
Ontario farmers with wheat in the ground are having to adjust their management practices to accommodate the late start to spring, especially after the cold, wet fall of 2014. Weather conditions this spring have hampered efforts to apply nitrogen or frost-seed cover crops in winter wheat, explains Peter Johnson, a.k.a. @WheatPete, in this conversation with… Read More
Not only are there environmental benefits to improved soil biology, but there are economic incentives as well, says a farmer from Ohio who spoke about cover crops and a systems approach to microbiology at the SoilSmart conference in Waterloo, Ont., in late January. Jeff Rasawehr joined Bernard Tobin to discuss six steps for establishing healthy soil, which… Read More
The risk of herbicide carry over can sometimes be overlooked when changing cropping plans or trying something new, but herbicide residue can have a drastic impact on susceptible crops, sometimes as long as years after application. Chemical breakdown times vary, subject to soil temperature and moisture. For some chemicals, susceptible crops can be seeded shortly… Read More
Want to do a health check up on your topsoil, but not a soil expert? Easy! Get digging in the fence row or nearby woodlot for a good gauge on how different the fields are from what they were before being farmed. Anne Verhallen, soil management specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and… Read More
Got cows but keep running out of pasture? Or maybe you’d like to decrease your feed bill but can’t afford more land (who can these days?). Jack Kyle, grazing specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, has four great options to help you extend the grazing season. As Kyle explains in… Read More