From the sweet, sweet taste of maple syrup, to the sad state of this Ontario wheat crop, this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word has something for just about everyone. Host Peter Johnson covers soil structure problems, patchy wheat problems, seed-placed fertilizer and so much more in the audio below. Listen now or listen later! Have a… Read More
There’s more reason than ever to make sure you’re setting your wheat seeding rate in weight or seeds per acre versus a “bushels per acre” rule of thumb. That’s because of a few things, says Dr. Brian Beres, with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lethbridge. First off, the genetic yield potential of wheat has improved over… Read More
Traditionally, when the soil is fit for planting, growers fill the planter with corn seed and start to roll. But is it time to rethink that time-honoured approach? Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) soybean specialist Horst Bohner believes so. He says there’s plenty of evidence to suggest early-planted soybeans deliver a… Read More
Variable seed size, seed costs, and unique seeding equipment can make recommending a canola seeding rate nearly impossible except on a farm-by-farm basis. What agronomists can do is help farmers work backwards from the desired plant stand count to get where they need to be, but what if that number proves very expensive? The Canola… Read More
It must be April — farmers in Alberta are starting to roll out and farmers in Ontario are ready to pull the plug on wheat. This early April edition of Wheat Pete’s Word is bursting with great questions from across Canada, including PEI, and even down in the U.S., including Pennsylvania and Indiana! Host Peter… Read More
If you always wait for the calendar to hit late April or early May before seeding wheat, you could be leaving yield on the table or at the very least making the seeding season more hectic than it has to be. Multi-year ultra-early seeding research out of Alberta suggests that early March seeding and maybe… Read More
Growers looking to place dry fertilizer in-furrow with seed in cereal crops will want to take a look at the new Avatar SD40 single disc air seeder from Horsch. The launch of the Avatar SD40 marks the German engineering company’s first entry into the North American single disc air seeder market. Horsch product manager Jeremy Hughes explains what really makes the… Read More
The first day of spring has brought with it a flood of calls and questions on managing the wheat crop as it wakes up — and host Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson couldn’t be happier. In this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word, we have to start with some incredibly sad news out of Nebraska, where farmers and… Read More
Bryce Anderson has reported on a lot of weather over the years and when he says it’s cold, he doesn’t just mean it feels cold— he can tell you why it is cold, if it’s colder than it should be, and what that cold will mean for the start of the growing season. Anderson is… Read More
If you live in the west, chances are you’ve either tried or thought about adding soybeans into your rotation. With seeding just around the corner, Kristen MacMillan, research agronomist with the University of Manitoba, spoke to farmers at this year’s Crop Connect conference held at Winnipeg, Man. Included in her talk were two main topics: one, … Read More
Besides being the most beautiful crop the Prairies grow, Michelle Beaith, agronomist with Saskatchewan Flax, is encouraging farmers to think about growing the oil and fibre crop this season and in the future. “It’s a good alternative,” she says. “It has a lot of unique diseases. You can break that disease cycle, whether it be… Read More
John Deere has redesigned and renamed its air drill for small grains. The N500C Air Drill features some significant changes that aim to give producers easier access, greater accuracy, and control. RealAgriculture caught up with Hanna Moore, John Deere sales and marketing representative, at the National Farm Machinery Show at Louisville, Kentucky, where she outlined the… Read More
We’re talking rotation trade-offs in this edition of Wheat Pete’s Word — and, no, not just because your host Peter Johnson loves him some wheat crop. It’s all about year three benefits when looking at a three or four year rotations vs. two-year alternating crop plans, Johnson says, and the results could be as high… Read More
On this week’s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word, learn about making the call on not just starter fertilizer rates for corn (and maybe soybeans) but also on what product differences to consider when deciding on rates and placement. Host, Peter ‘Wheat Pete’ Johnson also shares some insight on plant breeding advancements overseas, how a soil… Read More
If you’re like many western Canadian grain farmers, you put the bulk of the year’s fertilizer on in the spring. That practice means you need the most informed data in front of you before the growing season to determine how much of which nutrient goes where — preferably as close as possible to amount needed… Read More