Let’s start this week’s Word on a super positive note — Peter Johnson is a grandpa for the sixth time! Host Johnson takes that wonderful piece of news as inspiration for this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word and tries to keep it upbeat and positive (meaning, yes, he talks corn, but mostly not, OK?) From winter… Read more »
Category: Fertility
Corn School: Hideous cobs? It could be boron deficiency
Have you ever discovered small, misshapen, poorly pollinated corn ears mixed in with a field of impressive, high-yielding cobs? PRIDE Seeds agronomist Drew Thompson received a call in August from a grower telling just this story. When Thompson visited the field he noted that no nutrient deficiencies were apparent (no firing or discolouration) so out came… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, Oct 3: Soybean standstill, toxin problems, and strip till answers
There are not one, but two Alert! Alert! Alert! segments in this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word, and that’s just how she goes in a wet, snowy, long, drawn out harvest. Host Peter Johnson is talking wheat storage woes, mycotoxin trouble, and strip tillage tips and tricks in this early October edition of the Word. You’ll… Read more »
Spread variable rate fertilizer up to 120 feet with the BBI Sniper
The new BBI Sniper spinner spreader from Salford gives growers the ability to spread fertilizer accurately up to 120 feet at variable rates, the company says. Salford marketing manager Anson Boak says the BBI Sniper is ideal for large-scale dry fertilizer application. In this video, recorded at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show (COFS), Boak explains how… Read more »
Wheat School: Increasing yield and protein with dissolved urea
Can dissolved urea increase your wheat yield? If it burns the crop will it still put more bushels in the bin? In this episode of RealAgriculture’s Wheat School we catch up with our resident agronomist Peter Johnson as he inspects a field of winter wheat that received 15 gallons per acre of dissolved urea with… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, Sept 19: Surprising soy yields, sprouting corn, plus hay and more hay
Harvest is rolling, rolling, rolling, and the rush is on perhaps more than most years as the Ontario crop is rushing towards dry and even too-dry at an incredible rate. In this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter Johnson rounds up some pretty impressive soybean and dry bean yields, while silage yields disappoint, though that’s… Read more »
Early harvest means more opportunity to complete the fall task list
There has been a different feeling to the air over the last week. The days are getting shorter, the evenings a little cooler, and even the whisper of frost has been heard. That’s the mood as Shaun Haney and Trish Meyers compare notes about changing seasons and what makes it onto the fall ‘to do’… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, Aug 15: Corn disease risks, a sudden potash deficiency, and cloudy conditions
As the summer days stretch and the forest fire smoke settles in over huge areas of the country, farmers are wrapping up wheat harvest in the east and starting harvest in earnest in the west. Late-season agronomy typically centres on harvest management, but diseases and insects are still lurking, especially in the corn crop. In… Read more »
Veteran agri-coach Elston Solberg encourages young agronomists to ‘think like a plant’
Agriculture has a knack for keeping you humble. Just when you figure one thing out, you realize behind every door there is an entire room of unknowns. Sure Growth Technologies recently had their field day at Aberhart Farms, just north of Marchwell, SK. One of the presenters was Elston Solberg, currently a senior agri-coach with… Read more »
Soybean School: Feeding for Yield
How do you turn a 55-bushel soybean crop into a 65-bushel crop? Timely planting? Better weather? Choosing the right variety? A little luck and better management will always put more bushels in the bin, but if growers want to push yields to the next level, they need to better serve the crop’s nutrient needs, says… Read more »
Soybean School: Rescuing soybeans suffering from poor nodulation
Soybeans in parts of Western Canada have started to show visual signs of nitrogen deficiency due to poor nodulation and dry conditions. The symptoms are showing up as nitrogen uptake is about to peak, with the crop heading into the critical pod-filling stage. Nodulation failure appears to be more prevalent in fields where soybeans have… Read more »
Corn School: Does split nitrogen pay in Western Canada?
The practice of split-applying nitrogen through the growing season has been increasing throughout U.S. midwest corn states and in Eastern Canada. In Western Canada, about 20 percent of corn growers in Manitoba have adopted the in-season practice, according to newly-released results of a survey conducted by the Manitoba Corn Growers. In this episode of RealAgriculture… Read more »
Pulse School: Check those nodules
In any crop, it’s just as important to know what is going on under the ground as it is to know what’s going on above ground. In a pulse crop, it is particularly important because pulses fix their own nitrogen and you have to actually see the roots to know what is going on. In… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, July 18: Fungicide in a dry year, the price of straw, and protecting fresh silk
A week of spotty rain has some farmers singing and others moaning, as this challenging growing season marches into mid-summer. The questions for host Peter Johnson continue to roll in, and this week’s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word covers it all from plot results, to fungicide questions, to a correction, and on to grain storage… Read more »
Drones could make crop research 10 times more efficient
Every farmer doesn’t need to own and operate a drone for UAV technology to have a positive impact on their farm. That’s the message Scott Ditschun shares with farmers when he discusses how Bayer CropScience is employing drones in its agronomic and product research. He says UAV technology could effectively increase Bayer’s field research efficiency by… Read more »