If you’ve been talking to your neighbours about spraying, chances are you’ve heard that double nozzles are one way of increasing the number of droplets sprayed. Not necessarily, says spray application specialist Tom Wolf. “The unstated assumption behind that is that droplets are getting smaller when you have two nozzles instead of one,” Wolf says…. Read More
Category: Spraying
Wild oat control is, like it or not, an increasingly costly issue in Western Canada. Not only is herbicide expensive (costing growers over $500 million annually), we are also seeing an increase in resistant wild oat populations. There are several fields with confirmed resistance to both Group 1 and Group 2 products. Farmers do and… Read More
When it comes to spraying, earlier in the day is always better, right? Well, no. And that’s because of a often misunderstood or unknown atmospheric condition known as an inversion. Inversions happen in the absence of sunlight, and can cause disastrous spray drift issues if farmers are spraying in them. It’s not a simple concept… Read More
In this RealAg Crop Update Ontario, Shawn Brenneman, agronomic sales manager for Eastern Canada with Syngenta, takes us on a virtual tour of a large swath of the eastern Canadian growing region to talk about corn and soybean crop development. While early season conditions weren’t ideal for corn and soy, recent heat has corn moving… Read More
There are few things more troubling to a farmer than a sickly looking or well-chewed plant. Environmental stress is unavoidable, but determining the correct stress is important if you’re looking to either a) remedy the situation or b) avoid it in the future. Manitoba soybean farmers enjoy relatively few disease and insect pressures, so far,… Read More
Disease control timing in soybeans is coming up quickly, and wet conditions in many parts of Ontario could mean high pressure in some areas. Optimal fungicide timing is crucial for best and cost-effective control, and with that in mind some farmers may be interested in tank-mixing products in with fungicides to save a pass over… Read More
Two years ago if you had asked the average Saskatchewan canola grower what aster yellows was, they likely wouldn’t have been too concerned about it, if they had ever heard of it at all. That’s because aster yellows, a disease carried by the aster leafhopper insect that mangles the buds/pods of a plant, typically occurs… Read More
With high fusarium levels threatening the quality of this year’s wheat crop, Peter Johnson, cereal specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, is urging farmers to take the grain off early so as to minimize the growth and spread of the disease. That’s all good and well, say farmers, but the crop is… Read More
At the end of the year, when all is said and done and you’re looking at what your corn crop produced, it’s a really good exercise to think about where yields are now vs where they were. Then start to stack up everything that went up against it from late planting to cool temperatures, hot… Read More
Have you been keeping an eye on the bertha armyworm monitoring trap numbers in your area? As we crawl closer to mid-July, it’s important to be aware of regional risks, and have a good understanding of proper scouting techniques and spray timing. “You’re going to have your best success spraying at night,” says John Gavloski, provincial entomologist with… Read More
While the name suggests it’s a pest of bean crops, the western bean cutworm isn’t the most discerning of pests — corn will do just fine, thank you very much. Since 2008, western bean cutworm has been on Ontario’s radar, as pest numbers are building and farmers may need to spray to control this pest… Read More
Soybean aphids don’t always cause a problem thanks, in part, to effective control products. But aphid numbers are cyclical despite good control and additional control is sometimes needed. That said, the pest can be kept in check with high populations of beneficial insects present, making scouting and re-scouting a critical means of protecting the soybean… Read More
Ascochyta blight is a disease caused by three species of fungi, which are very difficult, if not impossible, to differentiate in the field. Fortunately, diagnosis of a specific pathogen causing ascochyta symptoms is not usually necessary, as control measures are very often the same. Out scouting? Look for purple-brown lesions on the stem, tendrils and… Read More
Manitoba has the not-so-great distinction of being the fusarium hot spot of the Canadian Prairies. This year, ample moisture and recent heat have combined to create a high-humidity soup pot of fusarium head blight growth and spread. Farmers in other provinces need to be on the look out as well, as the disease spreads west…. Read More
Guessing per cent bloom of a canola field from the field margin is a fantastic game to play for fun, but when it comes to sclerotinia control, if you’re off even by 10% it could mean you miss the critical period for protecting petals. With warm to hot temps rolling across the Prairies, crops are… Read More