Residue management may prove a challenge this year, as many prairie crops experienced high levels of lodging, but it's nothing to ignore, especially if you're considering canola as your next crop. Excess trash can affect seed-to-soil contact by either preventing drill openers from penetrating into the soil or filling the furrow, thus preventing row closure.... Read More
Category: Crop Schools
Many producers are looking to strip-tillage as an intermediary between conventional and no-till farming systems. Like any tillage system, strip-till doesn't come without its challenges. In areas with changes in terrain, it can be difficult to remain in position without adjusting the GPS/auto-steer system. Till-N-Plant Offers Strip-Tillage, Fertilizer Application & Planting in One Pass Gaining... Read More
We're staring down the Thanksgiving weekend and harvested soybean fields are few and far between. All these late soybeans are holding up wheat acres — if you want to get wheat in, does it pay to get creative? In this episode of the Wheat School, Peter Johnson, cereal specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,... Read More
You wouldn't think that it works this way, says Peter Johnson, cereal specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, but every single time mature wheat gets rained on, you lose test weight. But, why and how, our friends and followers on Twitter asked? The short answer? Wrinkles. In this very informative... Read More
With reports of the first corn fields being harvested in Manitoba, producers will soon find out the extent to which early frost and Goss's Wilt reduced yields. Both frost and Goss's cause premature drydown of the leaves, explains Dieter Schwarz, market development agronomist with Pride Seeds, in this Corn School episode. "Once you've lost your... Read More
Do you put down starter fertilizer with your winter wheat? If not, Peter Johnson, cereal specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, wants to know what you're waiting for. "We've done a whole bunch more analysis of the (trial) data...and if you have a low soil test and don't apply phosphorus... Read More
With corn harvest around the corner, the "push test" can help growers assess plant health and whether lodging will be a problem. As part of this episode of the Corn School, Dieter Schwarz, market develop agronomist for Western Canada with Pride Seeds, discusses the importance of plant health right through the dry-down process. Stalk integrity... Read More
It's late September and Peter Johnson, cereal specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, can't understand why a harvested pea field is bare. "This (pea field) is the ultimate place to plant wheat...this should have been planted two weeks ago!" Johnson adds that research proves planting winter wheat early results in... Read More
A cool, wet summer has left many Ontario soybean fields with some level of white mould infection. The fuzzy white stem rot could be seen in patches across many fields by late summer, sometimes causing large areas of loss in a field. A key element of controlling or avoiding this disease is understanding how it... Read More
For the lucky soybean growers who still have maturing and not frosted soybeans on their hands, this post on pre-harvest management of the crop is for you! (And for you farmers in the east stung by the September frost, we're sorry, and maybe keep all this info in mind for next year.) There are solid... Read More