Category: Crop Schools

With changes to the way wheat is marketed and the arrival of higher-yielding varieties, there's growing interest in boosting wheat protein content with in-season nitrogen applications in Western Canada. The basic recipe is 10 gallons per acre of 28-0-0 with 10 gallons of water applied with a flat fan nozzle shortly after anthesis or flowering,... Read More

As a diverse set of volunteers in the agriculture industry, it's hard to assign a worth to the work beneficial insects accomplish, but their absence can speak volumes, if you're listening. To showcase that, Jim Broatch, pest management specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, talks root maggots in this Canola School, and how an... Read More

You have several corn fields and only one of you — how do you prioritize which field gets fungicide first? 2015 is shaping up to likely be a high disease pressure year, says Albert Tenuta, field crop plant pathologist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), and a little planning now... Read More

You know the weeds are going to be there eventually, but a really dry start to the 2015 growing season means not just the crop is struggling to emerge and take off. While decreased weed pressure is a good thing, some pulse producers are having to navigate a tricky situation — the weeds are finally... Read More

Stripe rust was reported in early spring in Alberta, likely having over-wintered in the southern part of the province, and now there are reports in Manitoba of the fungus arriving on winds from the U.S. In this Wheat School episode, Holly Derksen, plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, describes how stripe rust... Read More

Poor emergence or damping off of young soybean plants can be a sign of a seedling disease or root rot problem, especially following cool, wet weather as experienced in much of the soybean growing part of Western Canada this spring. As Holly Derksen, plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, explains in this Soybean School West episode,... Read More

Skipped plants in a corn row aren't always due to mechanical error or seedling blights. Early insects like wireworm or grubs can kill plants rather stealthily, leaving gaps in a row or neat leaf damage, while cutworm can clip off a patch of plants overnight. Knowing which insect causes what damage is important when assessing... Read More

>It can be hard to know when to spend the money and when to save the cost in the weeks leading up to harvest, and even more challenging when you're dealing with a crop that doesn't look quite right. For some winter wheat producers in Ontario right now, that means a crop of rather short... Read More

As we found out in the last episode of Wheat Pete’s Word, frost hit many fields in eastern Canada in the last couple of weeks, even affecting some wheat crops. In this Wheat School, Peter Johnson walks a wheat field and shows you the different ways frost can impact the wheat crop so late in... Read More

The initial frost damage assessment within days of the late May frost had many farmers breathing a sigh of relief, as damage seemed to be limited to just the first few leaves and regrowth was evident. Within a week, however, more than a few farmers were beginning to get concerned about whether or not that... Read More