The Senate's Standing Committee on Agriculture released its much-anticipated report on bee health today. Entitled The Importance of Bee Health to Sustainable Food Production in Canada, the document highlights the complexity of bee health, and the many factors influencing it, while providing a list of recommendations the committee believes are necessary for improving bee health.... Read More
Category: Agronomy
It's not often that I can't find the answers I need. After all, growing crops and sharing information about growing crops is the part of this job I love the most (hello, total agronomy geek up in here!). I'm always willing to dig deep to get the answers farmers need. So it's difficult for me... Read More
Soybeans can handle slightly colder temps than corn, but their exposed growing point means that frost damage can be far deadlier and permanent. That seems to be the case across much of Ontario, as farmers head to the fields to assess the full fallout of Saturday morning's hard frost. In this Soybean School episode, PRIDE... Read More
Corn growers in Western Canada have another option for post-emergent weed control. BASF Canada has announced it's making Armezon herbicide available for corn on the prairies. Armezon contains a group 27 active ingredient for controlling weeds like wild mustard, barnyard grass and green foxtail. Volunteer canola has recently been added to the label and BASF... Read More
Much of the prairies has seen frost or the risk of frost in the past couple of weeks, leaving a lot of us wondering how our plants have fared. For crops where the growing point is above the soil surface, frost can be devastating (think canola). But for many of our plant friends, the growing... Read More
Do you know how many of your canola seeds turned into viable plants? Frost damage, weeds and insect pests aren't the only things to look for in canola fields as the plants pop out of the ground. Seed survival should also be assessed, emphasizes Angela Brackenreed, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada in... Read More
The 2015 planting season is moving right into spraying season, as this week’s update from Wheat Pete includes discussion about early weed control in dry conditions, critical weed-free periods for corn and soybeans, and manganese deficient wheat. Whether it’s lamb’s quarters, pigweed, ragweed or foxtail, “you name it, it’s out there coming gangbusters,” says Peter... Read More
This week, I had the distinct pleasure of joining a small group of range enthusiasts for a ranch tour in central Alberta. I wasn't sure what to expect, besides a scorching sun and gale-force winds. But the afternoon ended up being so much more than an excuse to step away from my laptop. It was... Read More
Did you know that cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and green beans can grow more than eight feet in the air? And that, for a greenhouse, a power outage is much more dangerous in the summer than the winter? That's because a missed automatic watering in the summer is far more detrimental to greenhouse plants than a... Read More
Another gene that has provided resistance to crown rust in oat varieties grown in Western Canada is losing its effectiveness. The Pc91 gene was a source of resistance to crown rust in some of common varieties in recent years, including Souris, Stainless, HiFi, AAC Justice and CDC Morrison, but changes in the crown rust pathogen... Read More