Tar spot was first confirmed in Ontario at Ridgetown in the southwest corner of the province in 2020. Since then, the corn leaf disease has spread across Ontario, pushing east past Toronto and into Quebec. Many Ontario farmers experienced the yield robber in their fields for the first time in 2024 and the disease is… Read More
Category: SWAC
How does nitrogen leaf burn impact yield? What about leaf wetness at application? Will wet leaves mitigate the potential for damage from a nitrogen application? Those are just some of the questions University of Guelph researcher Josh Nasielski and RealAgriculture’s Bernard Tobin tackle on this episode of the RealAgriculture Corn School. Tobin caught up with… Read More
Growers can throw the kitchen sink at corn to increase yield but there’s no guarantee that the extra inputs will improve the bottom line when the crop goes to market. That was certainly the story Purdue University associate professor and extension corn specialist Dr. Dan Quinn observed in his trials across Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky… Read More
What does it mean to struggle well? In 2006, then Major Mark Gasparotto, now retired as a Colonel, led the combat engineers during Operation Medusa in Afghanistan, Canada’s largest combat mission since the Korean War. As a keynote speaker, Gasparotto now shares how the lessons learned on that mission, of leadership following friendly fire, of… Read More
Southwestern Ontario is home to some of Canada’s most productive farmland, and a “perfect storm” of low interest rates, stretches of high commodity prices and relatively good weather have driven farmland prices to dizzying heights in the region. Ryan Parker from London, Ont.- based Valco Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants, which produces an annual survey… Read More
After some supercharged years, the used farm equipment market took a tumble in 2024 and farmers can expect to see a further correction in 2025. That’s the take from Greg Peterson, the man farm equipment buyers and sellers more commonly refer to as Machinery Pete. Peterson has been tracking used equipment auction prices for 35… Read More
While there’s money to be made in a market boom, crops still need to be priced into a falling or fallen market. Deciding on when to make those sales can be much more stressful in a deflationary period, but there are factors to watch in the coming months that may present pricing opportunities into small… Read More
The Southwest Agricultural Conference, Guelph, and Eastern Ontario Crop Conferences have banded together to create one online conference to serve the Ontario agriculture industry in 2021. The combined Ontario Agricultural Conference will be held on January 6th and 7th, 2021, with the theme of Coming Together. The Ontario Agricultural Conference will offer live, interactive sessions… Read More
First there were strobilurins, then came triazoles, and now we have succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors or SDHIs. That can be a bit of tongue twister, but it also adds up to three classes of fungicides and multiple modes of action that more growers are stacking up to bring stronger disease protection to their cornfields. That’s the… Read More
When farmers talk about succession, the conversation typically revolves around how the farm could be transitioned to the next generation of the family. But when Ravena, Ont., beef and grain farmers James and Joan McKinlay talk succession, the conversation is rarely about their family. Much of the focus is on a generation of non-farmers who… Read More