Category: Crop Schools

With high fusarium levels threatening the quality of this year's wheat crop, Peter Johnson, cereal specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, is urging farmers to take the grain off early so as to minimize the growth and spread of the disease. That's all good and well, say farmers, but the crop is... Read More

Thriving in wet, soggy soils (and thus seldom acknowledged as a problem-pathogen in Canada), aphanomyces is difficult to differentiate from other root rot microorganisms based on symptomology alone. Molecular techniques and identification of spores in the lab are the best means of identification, and as of right now, there is no commercial test available for... Read More

Having trouble deciding whether or not to spray for soybean aphids? Well, you're in luck: there's an app for that! In this episode of Soybean School, Tracey Baute, emtomologist with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, introduces The Aphid Advisor App, which uses pest and beneficial insect data collected by the user, in... Read More

By now you're fully aware of the importance of monitoring insect pests in your canola. So, you've collected and assembled your sweep-net, now what? The standard technique for sweeping is one 180 degree sweep for every quick step through the canola field (accompanied by the odd fall, of course). Sounds simple (and perhaps slightly embarrassing),... Read More

At the end of the year, when all is said and done and you're looking at what your corn crop produced, it's a really good exercise to think about where yields are now vs where they were. Then start to stack up everything that went up against it from late planting to cool temperatures, hot... Read More

Have you been keeping an eye on the bertha armyworm monitoring trap numbers in your area? As we crawl closer to mid-July, it's important to be aware of regional risks, and have a good understanding of proper scouting techniques and spray timing. "You're going to have your best success spraying at night," says John Gavloski,... Read More

Plant health is affected by a multitude of factors, making identifying problems in a field a daunting task. Nobody is capable of identifying every nutrient deficiency, disease symptom, insect species or weed present. But, anyone involved in production should clearly understand the ins and outs of scouting, and what you'll need in order to ask... Read More

In recent years, wheat midge has caused yield losses to fields across the prairie provinces, and has been blamed for wheat quality losses as well, including: aborted kernels, feeding lines and bran rupturing. So we know wheat midge is a significant pest, but did you have any idea that once anthers are present, the plant... Read More

When it comes to marketing your hard red winter wheat, quality is the name of the game. That means protein. Increasing that protein in your wheat predominantly means nitrogen management. SEE MORE WHEAT SCHOOL EPISODES. In this episode of the Wheat School, Peter Johnson joins us to talk about the relationship between nitrogen and protein... Read More

While the name suggests it's a pest of bean crops, the western bean cutworm isn't the most discerning of pests — corn will do just fine, thank you very much. Since 2008, western bean cutworm has been on Ontario's radar, as pest numbers are building and farmers may need to spray to control this pest... Read More