On this week’s Word, Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture and host of this weekly podcast, gets into the hows and whys of reducing phosphorus losses, managing this year’s wheat crop, and tillage on manure. Have a question for Wheat Pete? Call 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at [email protected]. Highlights: Ag needs to figure out… Read More
Category: Seed
If farmers want to supersize their corn yields, they have to challenge conventional thinking and become students of the crop. That was the main message National Corn Growers Association yield contest champion Randy Dowdy shared with hundreds of farmers at the 2016 SouthWest Agricultural Conference in Ridgetown, Ontario earlier this week. In 2014, Dowdy set… Read More
An international group of scientists working on mapping the genetic code for wheat say they’ve reached a major milestone that will help them reach their goal several years earlier than expected. The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium project, which is co-led by two Canadians and partly funded by Canadian farmers, announced yesterday it has produced… Read More
7 to 10 plants per square foot is still the target plant population when seeding canola. That hasn’t changed, but some of the practices used and the way we think about achieving an ideal plant stand might need to be re-evaluated. For example, research has shown that stand establishment is generally higher with a lower seeding speed, so… Read More
For most of us, seed testing is something to be done during or immediately after harvest, and right before seeding. But, there might be a reason or two to put the egg nog back in the fridge and hit the bins for a sample. For those relatively new to seed testing, Sydney Vos with BioVision Seed Labs suggests… Read More
A short season soybean variety that helped drive Japanese demand for Ontario soybeans has been named the 2015 “Seed of the Year — East.” Maple Glen was developed at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Plant Research Centre in Ottawa by Harvey Voldeng and Elroy Cober and released in 1987 as a food grade soybean variety. More… Read More
Dry summer conditions and a fall with off-and-on-again moisture have seed samples showing less disease than the past few years, overall, but perhaps a few extra issues with germination. “What (late season moisture) is causing is pre-sprouting,” says Holly Gelech with BioVision Seed Labs. “One of the critical factors that growers should be considering is… Read More
Peter Johnson was practically giddy as he walked through wheat fields on a beautiful November day near Woodstock, Ontario. “We’ve got big acreage of wheat and big yield potential. How could Wheat Pete be any happier,” pronounced Real Agriculture’s resident agronomist as he digested the fact that Ontario farmers have planted almost 1 million acres… Read More
Ontario Grain Farmers lost the first round of its court battle to contest the province’s new seed treatment regulations, but the fight will continue. “At the end of the day this has always been a fight on principle,” says GFO Chair Mark Brock. “I don’t think we want to tuck tail and run because we got… Read More
Harvest is in the homestretch and it’s time for farmers to start thinking about how the precision agriculture data they’ve accumulated can help build a winning strategy for 2016. In this Corn School episode, AGRIS Co-operative agronomist Dale Cowan looks at how farmers can combine performance data and field observations to diagnose issues that contribute… Read More
This year’s corn crop is barely in the hopper, and it’s already time to make decisions about what to plant next spring as seed companies offer early booking discounts for next year’s acres. Do you decide to go with tried-and-true, or the newest star variety that looked really good in your neighbour’s plots this year? How many acres… Read More
Crop Production Services is releasing a canola variety it says offers the “first true” multigenic resistance to clubroot disease, including the new 5X pathotype found in Alberta. The Proven Seed-brand variety PV 580 GC was formally registered on October 23. “The CPS Canadian Research and Development team has invested heavily in discovering and breeding new… Read More
Words like “excellent” and “great” are being used to describe the 2015 corn crop in the grain corn-growing regions of Western Canada. “I’m almost tempted to say phenomenal, but that sometimes sets high expectations,” says Dieter Schwarz of PRIDE Seeds in this Corn School episode. “We certainly have a great corn crop. Yields are average… 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
RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson is all smiles these days as the warm fall continues to give farmers an opportunity to plant winter wheat into optimum growing conditions. But with bean and soybean harvest progressing rapidly, Johnson says farmers have to be mindful of seeding rates to ensure they’re not creating headaches down the road. “If… Read More