For Western Canada, the 2021 growing season has been one of the worst on record for both severe drought and extreme heat. As a result, the risk of injury from herbicide carryover in sensitive crops in the 2022 growing season is high, so much so that BASF has issued an urgent notice to growers for… Read More
John Deere’s 400 and 600 series sprayers are the first commercially available sprayers factory-equipped with See and Spray Select technology, as well as other improvements to the cab and boom system. “Starting front to back, you’ll see the new numbering, which is reflective of the chassis size as well as the tank size,” explains Kaylene… Read More
When it comes to applying a pre-harvest burndown, getting in the field for an accurate pod assessment is crucial. When a harvest aid is applied at the appropriate time, it can work quickly. On this Soybean School episode, Bernard Tobin is joined by BASF agronomist Ken Currah in the field to talk staging soybeans for… Read More
Corn is often described as a diva. It can thrive in the right conditions, but it does not like competition. That’s especially evident when corn plants have to compete with weeds for moisture in dry conditions, as seen in Western Canada and the Northern Plains of the U.S. in 2021. “There have been many studies… Read More
Corn and soybean insects and disease are the focus of Day 3 of Ontario Diagnostic Days. The annual Ontario field crop diagnostic days held at Ridgetown, Elora, and Winchester are again virtual in 2021. On this episode, host Shaun Haney is joined by OMAFRA field crops entomologist Tracey Baute to discuss growing concern about corn rootworm… Read More
The annual Ontario field crop diagnostic days held at Ridgetown, Elora, and Winchester will again go virtual in 2021. The organizing committees of these three highly successful in-field education and learning events are again partnering with crop researchers and extension, along with support from RealAgriculture and a host of sponsors to bring you a series… Read More
Spray drift happens, but every spray operators goal should be to create as little drift as possible. So how can we combat it? Tom Wolf, founder of AgriMetrix and co-founder of Sprayers 101, joins Kara Oosterhuis for this Wheat School episode for a technical breakdown of spray drift, and tips for how to prevent it…. Read More
It’s been dry in parts of Western Canada heading into canola flowering, but has it been dry enough to hold off on spraying for sclerotinia? That’s a question many growers and agronomists in drought-affected areas have been asking themselves over the last week or two. There are really two basic factors to consider in the… Read More
Getting the right spray quality and the right water volume can be a bit tricky, and when it comes to nozzles, there are a few factors to consider when picking the right one. When it comes to nozzle size and spray pattern, there are two important questions our expert for this Canola School episode asks:… Read More
A dry bias across a large portion of the Prairies has been on everyone’s minds this growing season. In fact, the growing season ran the whole gamut on abiotic pressures that crops can face. Jimmi-Lee Jackson, market development agronomist for Bayer Crop Science in the Tisdale, Sask., area says that while cereals and pulses look… Read More
Water, and access to clean water, is likely to define the next generation of agricultural inputs. Even if the Prairies return to a more average rainfall pattern in the short term, water scarcity is becoming more of an issue in several geographies and jurisdictions. Water isn’t just required for plant growth, of course; it’s required… Read More
Proper staging is critical when applying in-crop herbicides in corn, but there are multiple ways to measure corn’s growth stages, and herbicide labels don’t always use the same method. Agronomists often use the “leaf collar” — or V-stage — method to describe growth stages, while others use plant height. However, herbicide labels often refer to… Read More
When’s the best time of day to spray herbicides? Morning, noon, or night? University of Guelph weed scientist Dr. Peter Sikkema says that every herbicide has a time-of-day effect but generally speaking, growers get the best weed control at 3:00 pm in the afternoon. That’s Sikkema’s conclusion based on time-of-day efficacy trials he conducted using… Read More
A spring of extremes — first cold, dry and windy, then hot, dry and windy — has resulted in weeds getting a head start in many soybean fields in the soybean-growing areas of Western Canada. While wind and cold temperatures delayed burnoff applications at the start of the season, questions about when to spray in… Read More
Will nozzle type solve the problem of getting efficacy while spraying T3 fungicides? There’s plenty of work done on the right nozzle for this job, but what are the other factors that lead to an efficacious application for controlling fusarium? In this Wheat School episode, our resident agronomist Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson is fired up… Read More