If you haven’t prepped your planter for 2020, there’s still time to get the job done. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Corn School, Kearney Planters service manager Shaun Dilliott walks us around a typical corn planter and offers tips on key areas where growers should focus maintenance efforts. The frame segment is the first stop…. Read More
Have you noticed doubles and skips in your corn fields? Poor-performing meters on planter row units are the likely culprits and they’re costing you money. With the 2020 planting season quickly approaching, we asked Kearney Planters service manager Shaun Dilliott to share some tips on meter maintenance and testing. Dilliott and his team work on… Read More
Welcome to March, which seems to be coming in like a lamb — we’ll have to see if the “out like a lion” holds true! March also means maple syrup, frost seeding, red clover applications on the wheat fields, and starting to nail down crop rotations and fertilizer rates. With many feeling the cash flow… Read More
Bigger isn’t always better, as is the case with the new 1745 MaxEmerge 5 planter, says John Deere. The manufacturer rolled out the planter at the National Farm Machinery Show (NFMS) earlier this month, touting narrow transport capabilities, a split-row configuration, a fit for small fields and no-till, and compatibility with older tractors. The key… Read More
If you’ve ever adopted a new way of doing things after attending a field day or conference, do you let the researcher or extension staff know? Sometimes, research can be a rather thankless job, and many researchers don’t hear back on their work being applied on-farm. Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson came across just such an… Read More
Tar spot, a new corn leaf disease, has moved through the U.S. Midwest, into Michigan and Wisconsin, and now sits at the doorstep of Ontario’s corn growing region. Characterized by tar-like speckling on the upper surface of corn leaves, the fungal pathogen has been delivering yield hits ranging from 20 to 60 bushels per acre… Read More
Wide vs. narrow rows — which is best for top yields? As always, it depends. It depends on the crop you’re growing, your climate, and the architecture of the variety or hybrid you choose. There are other factors too, as discussed in this episode of Wheat Pete’s Word, with host Peter Johnson. Available equipment, what… Read More
Have you thought about how much time you spend just re-filling during planting and seeding? Fill times for spraying often get plenty of attention, but there’s actually plenty of hours to gain at planting too, depending on your set up. In this week’s edition of Wheat Pete’s Word, a much healthier Peter Johnson is talking… Read More
Corn growers in the mid-south and Midwest U.S. are being asked to take a closer look at diseased corn leaves as re-emerging diplodia leaf streak pushes into major corn growing states. The disease looks very similar to northern corn leaf blight (NCLB), a leaf disease Canadian growers typically identify based on its characteristic cigar-shaped lesions…. Read More
You’ll have to excuse Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson’s voice for this episode of Wheat Pete’s Word, as the poor lad is suffering from a terrible cold. But a little frog in his throat isn’t going to stop him from tackling the week’s questions, updates, and challenges. Get a quick summary of some of the recent… Read More
Add wheat to your crop rotation and it will increase corn and soybean yields, put more money in your pocket, improve soil health, and make your soil more resilient. That’s a big, bold statement but University of Guelph-Ridgetown professor Dave Hooker can prove it. All the data comes from a 25 year long-term tillage and… Read More
Spring 2019 was certainly a challenge for Ontario corn growers. With more than double the annual spring rainfall, many growers kept hoping the rain would stop and a planting window would emerge, but in many cases that opportunity didn’t arrive until June. For Maizex agronomist Greg Stewart, it was the most delayed planting season he’s… Read More
It’s been a week of wild weather: extreme cold in the west, and warm and very wet weather in the east. Understandably, overland flooding in Ontario has many farmers asking about the impact on the wheat crop. Peter Johnson has the answer you need in this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word. Johnson shares some of the… Read More
In 2015, Willard Jack was gearing up to tackle herbicide resistant Canada fleabane on his Belzoni, Mississippi farm. Five years later, that weed is just an afterthought as Jack is fully engaged in a fight with a much tougher resistant weed “monster” — Palmer amaranth. At the SouthWest Agricultural Conference (SWAC) last week at Ridgetown,… Read More
Are Ontario cash crop growers making effective use of tissue testing to enhance yield and crop performance? The answer requires a little perspective says Jack Legg, agronomist with Guelph-based SGS Agri-food Laboratories. Tissue testing, which provides an accurate measurement of the nutrients within a plant at a given time, has traditionally been used to confirm… Read More