Category: Agronomy

The Real Agriculture team took in the sights and sounds of Canada's Outdoor Farm Show this week at Woodstock, Ontario, and if there was one thing in on the minds of farmers it was the approaching harvest season. There's more than a little concern about the maturity of the corn and soybean crop, and significant... Read More

Snow and freezing temperatures arrived earlier than welcomed in parts of Western Canada this week. We also saw a bearish market report from the USDA and some new developments surrounding the privatization of the Canadian Wheat Board. It was also a week on the road for the RealAg team, as Shaun, Lyndsey and Bern attended... Read More

A Manitoba farm group is concerned harvested grain could spoil due to rules preventing producers from using new grain dryers until they have been inspected. Wet weather over the last few weeks has forced farmers across much of Western Canada to harvest their crops at moisture levels that are higher than ideal for storage. As... Read More

Farmers have been collecting data since the first yield maps appeared 20 to 30 years ago. The promise then was that farmers would be able to turn data into management decisions that would benefit their bottom line. For most farmers, though, that has yet to happen. In this episode of the Agronomy Geeks Ontario podcast,... Read More

In this Wheat School episode, Phil Needham, of Needham Ag Technologies, shows how farmers can use a heavy duty rubber mat and some math calculations to calibrate a box drill. This procedure is really good for double disk drills because they do an excellent job of confining the seeds as they are delivered between two... Read More

While the majority of the Western Canadian crop is no longer vulnerable to frost, there are still areas where wheat and canola, as well as longer-season soybeans and corn, are not ready for the freezing temperatures that are expected over the next few nights. According to Bruce Burnett, weather and crop specialist with CWB, between... Read More

Here's a fun question: what nitrogen recommendations do you follow? Do you vary it by crop type or by field, ie. do you have a "canola blend"? Do you use tried-and-true removal rates compared against a current soil sample analysis? Or do you work backwards from a target yield? No matter which way you currently... Read More

Following the snow in parts of Alberta on Monday, weather models are indicating the 2014 growing season will likely come to an end across much of Western Canada this week. It's not what any farmers want to hear, but the first widespread killing frost is expected to arrive over the next few nights, says Drew... Read More

Challenges with getting this year’s canola crop off the field are shortening the window for seeding winter wheat. While canola stubble is the preferred seed bed for winter wheat, a delayed growing season and untimely rains over the last few weeks have resulted in canola harvest running later than normal in much of Western Canada.... Read More

When it comes to diseases that rob canola yields, blackleg often doesn't get the credit it deserves. Many farmers underestimate the significance of blackleg, says Bruce McKinnon, an agronomist with Dekalb in Alberta, in the video below. "Blackleg is a powerful disease that seems to be able to adapt to whatever we throw at it.... Read More