The 2018 Ontario soybean harvest got off to a roaring start in early fall but quickly ground to a halt as poor weather parked combines. In early December, many growers are still struggling to bin their beans. The wet weather has left growers asking how they can manage higher moisture, wet soybeans. Management decisions are… Read More
While corn yields are quite good across much of Ontario, the level of DON — a mycotoxin produced by gibberella infection — in some of the tonnage coming off fields is just too high to easily market the grain. There’s been much frustration over testing procedures at the elevator, questions on crop insurance, and conflicting… Read More
What if you could take a scan of your grain bin and know the condition of each bushel inside that bin? And what if you could do this even if the bin held 500,000 or even a million bushels? Grain Viz has taken technology originally designed for breast cancer research and brought it to the… Read More
Grain Farmers of Ontario plans to purchase grain baggers to assist in “short term storage of corn for farmer-members.” The producer organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers, met with Ernie Hardeman, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, late last week to address the high DON corn crisis in Ontario. At the… Read More
It all started in France. One farmer was complaining to another that he was losing as much as 30 percent of his silage due to pests. In this case, the second farmer did more than just sympathize, he started to ponder solutions, and eventually a product was created and a company was born. The company… Read More
Climbing on bins is one of the things that you just have to do if you are a farmer. If you do not have to do it yourself, someone who works for you has to do it. Grain bins have evolved over the years, but the same could not be said for fall protection (safety… Read More
Seed quality from the 2018 harvest was actually quite good, until wet and cold weather stranded crop standing and in the swath. That nasty weather interlude has left many farmers with seed that’s in a rather deep dormancy, and it’s going to take some time to fully evaluate the quality and germination of seed lots… Read More
When you don’t have something nice to say you’re supposed to say nothing at all, but if you’ve ever met Peter ‘Wheat Pete’ Johnson you already know that’s not his style. Besides, the Ontario corn crop is such a mess there’s no way to NOT talk about it. This week’s Wheat Pete’s Word isn’t all… Read More
The 2018 growing season has thrown Ontario farmers more than a few curve balls, including severe drought, but this latest at harvest is likely the toughest to manage. Ontario’s provincial agriculture department has released its annual corn crop toxin survey, and the numbers are not good. A whopping 25% of crop surveyed came in at… Read More
There are not one, but two Alert! Alert! Alert! segments in this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word, and that’s just how she goes in a wet, snowy, long, drawn out harvest. Host Peter Johnson is talking wheat storage woes, mycotoxin trouble, and strip tillage tips and tricks in this early October edition of the Word. You’ll… Read More
Tired of brooms and shovels and all that dusty work to clean out grain bins after they’ve been emptied? Farmers who’ve had enough of the ‘clean out’ grind will want to take a look at the new Z-Series bins from GSI. The Z-Series, featuring Flexwave technology, will be available this fall. GSI demonstrated how the… Read More
The average size of a new grain bin in Western Canada has grown dramatically in recent years. 1,650 bushel flat-bottom bins, while still needed in some cases, are turning into relics of the past. “Right now, the average bin going up is around 25,000 bushels,” says Lorne Grieger of the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI),… Read More
A medical imaging technology developed at the University of Manitoba for breast cancer detection has been adapted for a new application: monitoring grain in storage. The GrainViz system uses a series of electromagnetic antennas mounted around the inside of a grain bin, which generate a real-time 3D image of the contents of the bin. “You… Read More
A late-maturing crop, difficult environmental conditions, significant insect pressure and potential for late-season leaf disease…although too early to tell – this growing list of factors could lead to another year of high vomitoxin levels in the Ontario corn crop. In this episode of RealAgriculture Corn School, OMAFRA plant pathologist Albert Tenuta takes a look at the… Read More
Will bare fields and warm weather cause wheat to break dormancy? And if so, could we be looking at a wheat price rally for 2017? That’s where we start with Wheat Pete’s Word, and from there Peter Johnson takes us on a wild agronomy ride that covers strip-tilling dry beans into hay ground, what to… Read More