Agriculture has been working for decades to convince consumers to embrace the benefits modern science can bring to agriculture and food production. When it comes to technology, such as genetic engineering, much of the challenge with winning public approval can be linked to agribusiness and farming’s inability to establish itself as a trusted source for... Read More
Category: Agronomy
Clarence Swanton has worked for 16 years on a super cool project that takes about 40 minutes to explain properly, as he did at the recent Southwest Agricultural Conference. Perhaps more impactful, however, is the time-lapse video he showed whereby the mere presence of weedy surroundings actually killed a tobacco seedling. Perhaps this makes sense... Read More
The trend higher for soybean acres in Western Canada isn't showing any sign of slowing down heading into the 2017 growing season. Just over 1.6 million acres of soybeans were grown in Manitoba in 2016. "Going into 2017, the early projections are we could see upwards of two million acres of soybeans...a 350,000 acre increase... Read More
Western bean cutworm took a big bite out of many Ontario cornfields in 2016 as high populations of the pest caused increased levels of fusarium and gibberella ear rot. With the pest expected to overwinter and be a threat again in 2017, many growers are asking whether they need to spray and when. Real Agriculture... Read More
What impact do fungicides, plant population, and row spacing have on your soybean yields? The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) has been working with growers in the state for years to help assess the impact of crop inputs and management options. In this episode of Soybean School, ISA researcher Tristan Mueller joins Real Agriculture’s Bernard Tobin... Read More
It's a busy week in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, this week for CropSphere and the Crop Production Show. RealAgriculture's Shaun Haney, Kelvin Heppner, and Peter Johnson got together to wrap up the week-long conference. There was a surprisingly high level of optimism at the show with farmers looking ahead at 2017 as a new opportunity and a... Read More
As the winter learning season rolls forward, the agronomy questions are flooding in, and Peter Johnson, host of Wheat Pete's Word, wouldn't have it any other way. In this week's episode, Johnson tackles some very complicated — but super important — ins and outs of nitrogen management. Confused about which crops leave a credit and... Read More
Who are the most profitable corn growers? The answer to this question is really quite simple, says Ken Ferrie, one of North America’s leading agronomists and crop consultants. The most profitable corn growers are those who most effectively manage the big three crop production variables: sunlight, water, and nutrients. An independent agronomist, the Illinois-based Ferrie... Read More
Ontario's farmers are relatively familiar with using red clover on wheat to fix nitrogen and keep the soil covered into the fall, but cover crop use has quickly surpassed a one-species on one-crop approach. Lyndsey Smith, Ontario field editor for RealAgriculture, sat down with two farmers to ask them 4 Questions on cover crops: what's... Read More
Ontario farmers rarely see the yield monitor hit 240 bushels in their wheat crop. But Barry and Tyler McBlain hit that number in 2016. What’s even more amazing is that it happened on the tough clay soils southeast of Brantford in Brant County. In this episode of "Real Wheat Farmers", agronomist Peter Johnson talks with... Read More