The wheat is coming off, and the number of drills out in Ontario fields planting cover crops is astonishing. There are clouds of dust everywhere — from a twenty-foot drill seeding oats, to a floater broadcasting cover crop seed with the fertilizer, Ontario farmers are adopting cover crops in a big way. Many think every… Read More
Buckle up, it’s time for Episode 2 of Ontario Diagnostic Days! Managing plant disease and insects is the focus of Day 2. Watch below, for: We kick things off with a report from Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ field crops pathologist Albert Tenuta, who shares identification and management strategies for two yield-robbing… Read More
James Hammerton, who farms with his family at Sweaburg, Ont., is giving double crop soybeans a solid go, with the aid of a stripper header to harvest the preceding wheat. On this episode of the Sharp Edge, RealAgriculture’s Bernard Tobin is joined by Greg Stewart, agronomy lead with Maizex Seeds. Stewart interviews Hammerton about his… Read More
It started cool, turned hot and dry, and now the rain has started to fall — just in time for corn pollination. Ontario’s 2020 growing season is a far cry from perfect but it’s certainly much better than last year at this point. Doug Alderman, vice president of sales and marketing for PRIDE Seeds, says… Read More
After a challenging spring that saw getting the crop planted take precedent over pre-seed weed control, soybean growers in Western Canada have had to be diligent in catching up with potentially yield-robbing kochia, lamb’s quarters, volunteer canola, and other weeds in-crop. To keep yield losses down to less than five per cent, most soybean varieties… Read More
The annual Ontario field crop diagnostic days held at Ridgetown, Elora, and Winchester are going virtual! 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 in 2020. We would like to thank the… Read More
In what is sure to be a growing trend for at least the current growing season, Maizex Seeds has announced its plot tours this summer will all be held virtually. Farmers interested in attending can do so via an online platform or through the company’s website. “We have invested in the digital tools necessary to… Read More
It has long been believed that soybean doesn’t flower until after the summer solstice — June 21, the longest day of the year. Research from Dr. Shawn Conley and his team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison says otherwise, and in this episode of Soybean School, Conley joins Bernard Tobin to chat about early flowering in… Read More
If you remember farming in 1988, this year may seem a little similar, at least for Ontario. That year, the drought broke in mid-July with a torrential downpour — are we in for something like that soon? Well, we won’t know for sure for a few days yet, but this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word does… Read More
For this special Canada Day edition of Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter Johnson has got answers to your timely agronomic questions. The good news is there are no alerts this week, but that doesn’t mean you can let the throttle off scouting — there are insect pests creeping in and populations can grow very quickly!… Read More
From cereal aphids to armyworm, Ontario growers have already seen significant pest pressure in 2020 crops and there’s more on the way. As the calendar turns to July and hot, dry conditions persist, soybean growers need to be on the lookout for both spider mites and aphids in their crops, says Ontario Agriculture, Food and… Read More
Fungicide timing can creep up really fast in soybeans and staging is at about the R2 stage or when there are flowers on the upper two nodes of the plant. In this episode of RealAgriculture Soybean School, Bernard Tobin talks with agronomist Ken Currah from BASF Canada about correct fungicide timing in soybeans and some… Read More
Mother Nature is perhaps not always that motherly, but every now and again she does throw us a bone. This last week in Ontario was pretty good on the average, with some timely rains in some areas and some first-cut haylage wrapping up. But the timely rain has also brought along some storms, and heat,… Read More
Crop researchers and agronomists are encouraging Ontario farmers to continue to follow established stewardship recommendations when using dicamba herbicides. Last week, a U.S. court decision to cancel the registration of in-crop use of dicamba herbicides left regulators, product manufacturers, herbicide applicators and farmers scrambling to understand the ramifications of the ruling and the implications for… Read More
Rolling right after planting has become a common practice on soybean fields in Western Canada over the last decade, but there are some good reasons to consider delaying the timing of rolling until after the crop is up. Rolling right behind the planter or drill improves seed-to-soil contact and is definitely less unnerving than rolling… Read More