Category: Agronomy

Which input do you think is the most critical to a pea crop's success — starter N, inoculant type, fungicide seed treatment or seeding rate? If you guessed seeding rate, you get a gold star, but by how much and what impact, if any, do these other inputs have on maximizing pea yields? Those answers... Read More

While there is increased interest in narrow row corn both north and south of the Canadian border, the harvest equipment required for 15" row corn isn't exactly the norm. Sure, the Geringhoff header may one day mean row width doesn't matter, but in the interim, 30" centres are the norm. In response to the interest... Read More

Wild oat control is, like it or not, an increasingly costly issue in Western Canada. Not only is herbicide expensive (costing growers over $500 million annually), we are also seeing an increase in resistant wild oat populations. There are several fields with confirmed resistance to both Group 1 and Group 2 products. Farmers do and... Read More

Well-managed pastures can produce good yields for years, but will produce best if fertility of those pastures is planned for the long-term. Big producing pastures require big fertility numbers, though grazing helps to cycle these nutrients back to the soil. Over-grazing, too low or high stocking densities and time all can begin to mine pasture... Read More

When it comes to spraying, earlier in the day is always better, right? Well, no. And that's because of a often misunderstood or unknown atmospheric condition known as an inversion. Inversions happen in the absence of sunlight, and can cause disastrous spray drift issues if farmers are spraying in them. It's not a simple concept... Read More

In this RealAg Crop Update Ontario, Shawn Brenneman, agronomic sales manager for Eastern Canada with Syngenta, takes us on a virtual tour of a large swath of the eastern Canadian growing region to talk about corn and soybean crop development. While early season conditions weren't ideal for corn and soy, recent heat has corn moving... Read More

30 degree C days are great for the lake life, but not so great for crop yields. Many of the crops grown across Western Canada are known as “cool season” crops, even though this may seem misleading as 25 degrees C may not seem all that "cool." Most western Canadian crops really do prefer temperatures... Read More

There are few things more troubling to a farmer than a sickly looking or well-chewed plant. Environmental stress is unavoidable, but determining the correct stress is important if you're looking to either a) remedy the situation or b) avoid it in the future. Manitoba soybean farmers enjoy relatively few disease and insect pressures, so far,... Read More

Forbes recently published an article asking the (rehtorical, I assume) question, "Is Organic Agriculture Affluent Narcissim?" My answer? Of course it is. I thought we all knew that. I find myself in an interesting position these days. I consider myself rather neutral — I'm happy we're all free to choose what we put in our... Read More

Gerry Ritz was on hand at Richardson's Kelburn Farms, just south of Winnipeg, today to announce a federal government commitment of $15 million to the canola industry. This funding, through Growing Forward 2, will be leveraged to bump that total to more than $20 million, says Patti Miller, president of the Canola Council of Canada... Read More