Category: Agronomy

What a difference a year makes. In 2016, Ontario’s cold and dry spring conditions produced plenty of available nitrogen for the emerging corn crop. But when you fast-forward to 2017, those cold soils are now waterlogged and the wet conditions mean there’s very little nitrogen available to the crop. The wet soil conditions have a… Read More

Pulse crops tend to not be as competitive as other crops, such as cereals, which is why we refer to it as the critical weed free period early in the growing season. By definition, these are growth stages in the crop that must be kept weed free to prevent yield loss. In this Pulse School episode,… Read More

Are you looking to step up your fusarium control measures this spring? In this episode of RealAgriculture Wheat School, resident agronomist Peter Johnson reviews the basics of managing fusarium in Ontario’s wheat crop and also offers some tips on how growers can elevate their control efforts. For Johnson, effective fusarium control starts with the basics:… Read More

As peas and fababeans emerge, at least one potentially devastating pest already has made an appearance — the pea leaf weevil. In this Pulse School episode, we talk about how to deal with the weevils if you are seeing them now, economic thresholds for control, and how to avoid them in the future. Pulse research… Read More

As corn planting moves along in Ontario, the list of issues to deal with in the field is also progressing, as RealAg agronomist Peter Johnson has a pair of insect alerts on this week’s Word. Unfortunately there’s also been some frost in parts of the country, and Wheat Pete walks us through how to assess the… Read More

After surveying nearly 200 weed scientists across Canada and the U.S., the Weed Science Society of America published its top ten list of “most troublesome” weeds in broadleaf crops this week. Fortunately, the most troublesome weed has not been found in Canada (yet), but there are certainly some familiar foes on this list. (Maybe there’s… Read More

It pays to steer clear of those corn rows when planting soybeans. In this episode of RealAgriculture Soybean School, Syngenta agronomist Eric Richter explains that planting directly on, or too close to, last year’s corn row produces seed mortality rates between 50% to 80%. He notes that it really doesn’t matter whether growers are pulling… Read More

With fields drying out and warming up soybean planting is moving full steam ahead in Ontario. In many cases the spring conditions are dictating that farmers take a ‘plant now, spray later’ approach. It’s an obvious choice, but the challenge for many is how to manage fast-growing, large weeds that can quickly take a bite out… Read More

Cork-screw corn, good-looking western spring crops, heat unit discrepancies — it’s been a wild week of major seeding progress in Western Canada, while much of Ontario’s planting progress has been hamstrung with extremely cold and wet weather. Some Ontario farmers, including Wheat Pete’s Word host Peter Johnson, are on to plan C for field prep as rain… Read More

Have you ever looked across the road at the neighbour and thought, “Man, he has a lot of equipment for the acres he farms!” I think that conversation must be happening more than we think because the USDA has reported that corn planting is 71% complete in the U.S. That’s 1% ahead of the long-term… Read More