Can heavy July rains fuel nitrogen leaching and push the valuable nutrient beyond the reach of corn plant roots? That's a question Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs corn specialist Ben Rosser has been hearing a lot lately as many areas of the province have been dealt a deluge of rain. On this... Read More
Category: Agronomy
Zappers, seed grinders, and robots, oh my! What's the latest in weed control technology? For this episode of The Agronomists, host Lyndsey Smith is joined by Chuck Baresich of Haggerty AgRobotics, and Kim Brown Livingston of Manitoba Agriculture, to discuss the trouble with problem weeds and the new (old?) ways to deal with them. From... Read More
Those green plants sticking out of the crop — are they regular redroot pigweed, or a much nastier pigweed species, such as waterhemp, or even Palmer amaranth? This has become an increasingly common question for farmers and agronomists on the eastern side of the Canadian Prairies as waterhemp that's resistant to multiple herbicide groups continues... Read More
A new report suggests that the removal of glyphosate from the farming toolbox would have negative financial impacts for farmers and cost the environment, as well. The report, "A Future Without Glyphosate," was authored by Aimpoint Research and funded by Bayer. In it, authors looked at the complexities of glyphosate’s impact on agriculture and outlined... Read More
There are so many things that can't be controlled on the farm, including when Mother Nature decides to provide some moisture. Irrigation provides more control over the moisture situation — however, the water is not limitless. Maximizing the water allowance not only makes growers happy, because it allows them to become more profitable, but it... Read More
Corn growers who dodged the tar spot bullet last season are unlikely to be nearly so lucky this year, as the disease has been identified in southern Ontario and conditions are conducive to its spread. Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson has that discussion on this week's edition of Wheat Pete's Word, plus an insect alert, an... Read More
When talking soil, often the topic focus is on soil type, nutrients, moisture, or microbiology. But what about soil structure? As Steve Larocque, Alberta farmer and founder of Beyond Agronomy explains in this Soil School episode, the physical types of soil can't be changed, whether it be sand, silt, or clay. However, how land is... Read More
True armyworms hungry for grassy plants, including wheat, have arrived in large numbers in parts of the Prairies this summer. The pest, which migrates north as a light brown moth, arrived in Manitoba during the last week of May, explains John Gavloski, entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture, in this armyworm-focused Wheat School episode filmed at the... Read More
Research has repeatedly shown corn's yield potential starts declining if plants don't emerge within a tight timeframe, but dry conditions following planting can wreak havoc on best-laid plans for uniform emergence. If one in six corn plants is two leaf stages behind the rest, expect a four per cent yield reduction, says Morgan Cott, agronomy... Read More
Many growers apply a T3 fungicide on winter wheat in Ontario to protect the crop against fusarium head blight and get one step closer to achieving high grain yields. But a strange thing happened on the way to harvest in 2023, as many fields across the province experienced severe leaf tip burn after fungicide application.... Read More