Like other relationships, export markets take time, energy, and diplomacy to develop and maintain. Agriculture trade can be impacted by politics that have very little to do with farming and food, and big-picture friction in the short-term could threaten years of hard work. Just as good news rolls in on reduced tariffs for Canadian agriculture… Read More
From an environmental standpoint, Ontario experienced a perfect storm in 2018 that produced an epidemic of gibberella ear rot in corn and resulting unprecedented DON levels. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs field crop plant pathologist Albert Tenuta compares the conditions that created the classic silk channel infection in corn hybrids to what… Read More
Even if you don’t think you have herbicide resistant weeds in your fields, the best management practice might be to treat your fields as if you do. That’s the advice of Linda Hall, associate professor in the Faculty of Agriculture Life and Environmental Science at University of Alberta, in this episode of the Resistance Management School. There… Read More
The Saskatchewan Government has mapped out where clubroot has been discovered in the province. To date, there have been 46 confirmed cases of the disease in commercial canola fields, up from 37 reported late in 2018. The pathogen was even confirmed in three fields that did not exhibit symptoms. “Monitoring the spread of clubroot through… Read More
It’s not the greatest news to start of the winter learning season — corn growers need to be on alert for a new leaf disease making its way towards Canada. Speaking at the Southwest Agricultural Conference, Martin Chilvers, field crop pathologist with Michigan State University, says tar spot has moved swiftly out of Indiana and… Read More
The 2018 Ontario soybean crop is one for the record books, but you never would have predicted that back in July when much of the crop was desperate for rain. Not only did the 2018 Ontario crop set a record yield average at 54 bu/ac, it smashed the previous record of 48.3 set in 2012… Read More
One thing that is becoming very clear at the agronomy meetings this fall is that, when it comes to clubroot, the maps are changing and not in a good way. Bruce Gossen, plant pathologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), gave a presentation on clubroot at the Canola Industry Days held at Saskatoon recently. He… Read More
There are a number of reasons why herbicides sometimes fail to control weeds. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the easier things to rule out is whether the weed is herbicide resistant. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs weed specialist Mike Cowbrough says many universities across Canada conduct testing for herbicide resistance, but growers have… Read More
Ontario grain farmers dealing with high DON (vomitoxin) levels in their corn crop can now apply for funding to cover DON testing. The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) has announced a new intake for cost-share opportunities to support DON testing under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP). The initiative will support producers whose corn crop or corn products… Read More
This week’s edition of Wheat Pete’s Word tackles tough questions and comments from the Maritimes, the United States, and across Ontario. In case you missed it, the east has called time-of-death on the potato harvest with a full 10% of the crop abandoned. There’s no shortage of concern for next year’s wheat crop, too, and… Read More
Can spray technology help us better manage the escalating problem of herbicide-resistant weeds? Spray guru Tom Wolf, from Saskatchewan-based Agrimetrix Research & Training, certainly thinks so. At the recent Canadian Weed Science Society meeting at Niagara Falls, Ont., Wolf highlighted two technologies he believes could help help growers manage weed resistance. In this video, Wolf and… Read More
Thousands of acres of Ontario corn will have to be destroyed this fall due to high DON levels. A big challenge growers face when destroying those acres now and into winter is ensuring volunteer corn doesn’t make a mess of next year’s soybean crop. In this episode of RealAgriculture’s Corn School, our resident agronomist Peter… Read More
The Ontario and federal governments have announced steps to help farmers experiencing revenue loss because of high levels of deoxynivalenol (DON) in their corn crops. While the largest portion of Ontario’s corn crop remains unaffected, the government partners say this support will help ease the impact for effected farmers. It will also assist the entire grain… Read More
A hot, dry early summer encouraged some rarely seen insects to set up shop in corn fields in 2018. Steph Kowalski, agronomy lead for the Agromart Group in eastern Canada, admits she was surprised by the number of reports of thrips in corn crops in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces this year. Thrips are generally… Read More
Nature is pretty amazing, but that wonder and adaptability can translate to a huge problem in a crop. Wireworms, for example, can determine they don’t like what is on the menu when you seed your crop in the spring, wait until the following spring, and attack a more vulnerable crop instead. What’s more, they can… Read More