Ken Ferrie wants you to slow the planter down. And then stop. Yes, really. While the planting season is a hectic one, rushing, especially in wet conditions, is a recipe for disaster. Ferrie, an independent agronomist, wants farmers to slow down and better match planter speed to planting conditions. What’s more, he wants you to… Read More
Category: Corn
Seeding (or planting for our eastern and southern friends) is the single most important pass you’ll make on your field this year. The piece of equipment you chose to place and pack seeds typically has to work for all the crops in your rotation, and that can mean using something better suited for large seeds… Read More
Farming would be much, much easier and far less risky if we could control the weather. We can’t, of course, so the first point of any “most limiting factor” list — the weather — is always moot. After that, though, there are several management factors well within farmers’ control that deserve some attention when gunning… Read More
It’s easy to see what’s going on with your corn crop above ground. You can see things like changes in colour, difference in height, physical damage. When it comes to a diagnosis however, in most cases it pays to start looking underground. Root analysis can keep you from throwing good money after bad. Adding nutrients… Read More
Any farmer who loves a good list missed out on one fantastic presentation by Ken Ferrie at the recent CornSmart conference held recently at Guelph, Ont. Drawing conclusions from the 2012 growing season, Ferrie, an independent agronomist with Crop-Tech Consulting, ran through the seven key areas of corn production management where he feels farmers need… Read More
Rain or shine, drought or not, nitrogen is king when it comes to targeting the highest yields possible in corn. While it may not be a surprise that even in a dry year corn responds to added nitrogen, there’s still work to be done on the economic levels of that response with environmental stewardship in… Read More
Last week, Dow AgroSciences announced that the launch of its corn lines carrying the Enlist trait would not be available for planting in 2013 in the U.S., as the U.S. regulatory approvals have not been obtained for the trait in corn, nor has the herbicide Enlist Duo received approval. The company is confident approvals will… Read More
Everyone has an aunt or an uncle or someone that uses “blanket” terminology. You know what I mean, they call blu rays and CD’s DVD’s or call all mp3 players “iPods”. We’re all guilty of it on some level, but the truth is terminology is important. Just ask Tony Vyn about using the terms “drought… Read More
Potassium is critical for in-plant water management, which means that adequate levels of the nutrient at various depths is a key component of how well a crop handles drought stress. While no one can accurately predict a drought, managing overall soil health and nutrient levels is a great way to add some drought risk management… Read More
The 2012 drought that hit Ontario producers hard, hit Indiana farmers even harder. So hard in fact that it was one of the worst yielding crop years on record. That number being relative to what’s expected given technology and management practices of the time. Needless to say, that puts drought tolerance as an issue that’s… Read More
The final Statistics Canada numbers are tallied for the 2012 crop and while there are few surprises in the report over the last version, it should be noted that corn and soybeans both had banner years. Grain corn is estimated at a record 13.1 million tonnes, up 15.0% from 2011. In Ontario, Stats Can estimates corn for grain… Read More
Planting grazing corn is a great way to extend the Western Canadian grazing season well into the winter or start it earlier in the spring. The crop works well as a forage, even when seeded a bit later than ideal, as you’ll see in this interview. In this interview, Kevin Elmy, of Friendly Acres Seed… Read More
Do you know how many pounds per bushel of phosphorus and potassium corn pulls out of the soil? Nitrogen gets all the attention in crop production, but these two nutrients are also very important to corn production, and, in years of decent yields, the total pounds per acre of P and K drawn out of… Read More
The drought conditions in Ontario this year squashed the potential of what was looking to be an exceptional corn crop. A number of producers suffered crop failures in some of the hardest hit areas. It wasn’t just corn that was affected. The extreme heat took it’s toll across a number of different crops. The damage… Read More
The world is a much smaller place than it ever was. When it comes to areas like feed grains, what was once a very localized trade is now increasingly international. That requires a new level of international awareness for producers, especially in times marked by historic highs and increasingly tight supplies. So what should we… Read More