Pride Seeds’ Dan Foster explains how to estimate soybean yield in this video, shot at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show. Estimating yields may be more challenging than some of our other annual crops, but it all boils down to a total number of (viable) seeds in a given area. For soybeans, estimating yield without counting every seed over an… Read More
Category: Harvest
It’s warm and dry, silage moisture is dropping too fast, bean farmers are losing yields, hay producers are losing fertility, and you’ve got to get wheat planting right! All that in this week’s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word. The Highlights: A shortage of corn has prices skyrocketing, but the demand will disappear soon, cautions Peter… 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
By now you’ve watched our video on determining when to desiccate faba beans, and perhaps you’re gearing up to go ahead. Now the all-important next question: what to spray? Well, according to Robyne Bowness, pulse research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, there are currently only two options for drying-down faba beans: diquat (a desiccant) and glyphosate (a… Read More
While you’re in the field checking canola to see if it’s ready to be cut, or perhaps already swathing or harvesting it, it’s also a good time to assess the toll disease took on your crop. Sclerotinia, blackleg and clubroot can all cause premature ripening, as disease symptoms become more obvious at the end of the season,… Read More
If you’re looking out over your faba bean crop and can’t help but scratch your head over whether or not it’s ready to desiccate, you’re not alone. Desiccant timing for all pulse crops is tricky — too early and you risk destroying yield potential; too late and you’ve lost time, leaving the crop open to… Read More
We’re into the thick of the corn growing season, where you finally get to start seeing the real result of all the hard work that’s gone into this crop before now. The 2015 season has been a trying one for many Ontario growers as a great planting season gave way to too little, then too… Read More
Hot conditions can have an impact on both yield and quality in canola, making timing more important when swathing or straight-cutting the crop. Much of Western Canada has experienced a mid-August heat wave, with fields maturing rapidly in the heat. For canola, this means the time to cut can sneak up quickly. In this Canola… Read More
Cereals Canada is reminding producers and the grain industry to take steps to keep unwanted products and material out of Canadian grain. The group, which represents stakeholders from the wheat, barley and oat supply chains, has launched the “Keep it Clean — Cereals” campaign, building off similar messaging from the Canola Council of Canada. “There is a growing… 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
Can you hear that? That’s the sound of corn growing fast. In fact, parts of Ontario are on track to break heat records this week. What does this mean for the corn and soybean crop yields? That depends. Peter Johnson kicks off this week’s Word with a full report on corn pollination pitfalls — could… Read More
Canola fields with spotty emergence and heat-blasted pods have farmers in parts of the prairies grappling with the thought that their crops might not be worth combining. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to till it under. “There are some other uses for canola that we normally wouldn’t consider,” says Keith Gabert, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council… Read More
Wheat harvest is underway in southern parts of Ontario, with yields ranging anywhere from an ugly-and-diseased 40 bushels an acre to 110 bushels in areas south of London, as Real Agriculture agronomist Peter Johnson shares leading off his update this week. What’s there to be learned from all the fusarium in wheat this year? It’s that… 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
Farmers fought hard (sometimes through deep snow that disappeared soon after) to get the 2014 Ontario corn crop off, but there’s as much as 5% of the crop still standing. There’s really nothing you can do about the crop being out until the snow finally melts, but farmers who have been keeping eye on their… Read More