Ontario corn planting isn’t finished, but it’s probably done. With more rain sweeping across the province – and pushing total spring accumulation to record levels in many areas – it’s unlikely that farmers will be planting corn when things dry out, says Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) corn lead Ben Rosser…. Read more »
Category: Soybeans
Soybean School: Planting on corn rows costs money
It pays to steer clear of those corn rows when planting soybeans. In this episode of RealAgriculture Soybean School, Syngenta agronomist Eric Richter explains that planting directly on, or too close to, last year’s corn row produces seed mortality rates between 50% to 80%. He notes that it really doesn’t matter whether growers are pulling… Read more »
Soybean School: Should you plant now and spray later?
With fields drying out and warming up soybean planting is moving full steam ahead in Ontario. In many cases the spring conditions are dictating that farmers take a ‘plant now, spray later’ approach. It’s an obvious choice, but the challenge for many is how to manage fast-growing, large weeds that can quickly take a bite out… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, May 17: Western Canada leads #plant17, leaf burn woes, and crusting corn
Cork-screw corn, good-looking western spring crops, heat unit discrepancies — it’s been a wild week of major seeding progress in Western Canada, while much of Ontario’s planting progress has been hamstrung with extremely cold and wet weather. Some Ontario farmers, including Wheat Pete’s Word host Peter Johnson, are on to plan C for field prep as rain… Read more »
How wet weather impacts profitability of corn versus soybeans
By Sean Mitchell and Dr. Alfons Weersink Wet, cool weather is raising concerns about planting delays in Ontario. With these concerns comes the possibility that, when planting resumes, producers will opt to plant soybeans in lieu of what previously would have been corn. This is due to a combination of relatively attractive soybean prices, a looming… Read more »
Soybeans’ march north catches the eye of U.S. Farm Report’s John Phipps
It’s a changing world we live in, when an elevator at Kindersley, Saskatchewan, is posting bids for soybeans, says John Phipps, commentator on U.S. Farm Report. A recent segment of the program was sparked by a tweet posted by Saskatchewan farmer David Kucher, which inspired Phipps to look up Kindersley on a map and wonder at… Read more »
Soybean School: Monitor seed size variation between varieties and seed lots
The race is on in many areas — and hopefully soon will be in others — to get this year’s soybean crop in the ground. It’s critical to make some pit-stops along the way to adjust the planter or drill for optimum performance, as covered in this Soybean School episode. Seed size can vary widely,… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, May 10: Quality forage timing, cold temp fallout, and two-pass fungicide strategy
This week’s (almost!) cross-Canada Wheat Pete’s Word is packed full of great questions, worries about cold temperatures, solid timely answers on field management, and at least one alert, alert, alert! Your host Peter Johnson tackles questions on harvesting cereal rye (soon! this week!) while keeping compaction in mind, if corn seed is going to be… Read more »
Late seeding leaving a tighter window for pulse crops
How late am I still comfortable with putting this seed in the ground? With wet conditions holding things up, the optimal timeframe for seeding pulse crops, especially peas and fababeans, is getting tighter in parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta, leaving some growers asking themselves the above question. Peas, from a strictly maturity perspective, are quite flexible,… Read more »
Wheat-ing out the noise — This Week in the Grain Markets
Grain markets saw a wild ride to start the month of May as the week started out with big concerns about weather before cooler heads prevailed and bullish gains made earlier in the week were reined in. Oats were the big winner, up 8% since last Friday on the futures board on planting delays. Canola… Read more »
Soybean School: It’s only May — late planting is a month away
Horst Bohner estimates there are only several hundred acres of soybeans planted in Ontario and he’s OK with that. As rain continues to saturate soils across the province, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soybean specialist is reminding growers that it’s early for planting soybeans. In this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School,… Read more »
Wheat Pete’s Word, May 3: Rust alerts, wet weather, and the philosophy of seeding rates
We’re kicking off May with wet, wet weather both at home and south of the border, and not one but two alerts for very early disease detection in Ontario’s Bruce and Essex Counties. Peter Johnson, your host of Wheat Pete’s Word, also has cautions on using saved soybean seed from the 2016 crop, why you… Read more »
One Report to the Next — This Week in the Grain Markets
Grains started the month of April with a little bit of follow-through fanfare from the USDA’s stocks and acreage report on March 31st and some speculation over the start of the North American planting season and end of the first South American harvest. For the week, canola was the winner, gaining 0.9% which was helped… Read more »
Soybean School: Know Your Agronomic Risk When Planting Off-Patent Soybean Seed
Not only are there legalities that need to be considered when purchasing and planting off-patent soybean seed, as we discussed in an earlier Soybean School feature, but there are also agronomic considerations. Due to the nature of the off-patent soybean seed market, assurances for the grower on maturity, germination, quality, and purity are often lacking… Read more »
Corn School: Knowing vs Hoping — Randy Dowdy’s Principles for Growing Record Yields
There are many aspects of farming that are beyond a farmer’s control (weather, markets…), but there are also variables that can be managed better than they have been in the past, according to the Georgia farmer who has set world corn and soybean yield records. “We make big yields and we blame the weather. We make… Read more »