The decision to swath or straight-cut is one you will ultimately have to make on your own. It may depend on a multitude of factors: the number of people available to help, the plant stand, how many acres you have to harvest etc. etc. But, what if you gave it a shot? Would you commit... Read More
Category: Crop Schools
A visual assessment of pulse crops isn't enough to know how well or poorly your inoculation program worked this year. What's more, it's important to track nodulation to ensure enough time to go in with a rescue nitrogen application, if warranted. So how do you know if your pulse crop is fixing enough N? Time... Read More
As the canola crop moves out of flower and into pod fill, farmers start to notice misshapen pods. Some curl from thrips damage, others may have insect feeding damage, but it's the tell-tale bladder-like pods of aster yellows that will make many farmers — hit hard by last year's infection — cringe when they see... Read More
If you're relatively new to growing soybeans, you're likely checking on the crop more often than others. That's good, of course, as scouting is rarely a waste of time. What you may be seeing at this time of year is leaf damage — insect feeding on leaf margins or in a "shot" hole pattern. What's... Read More
If you've been talking to your neighbours about spraying, chances are you've heard that double nozzles are one way of increasing the number of droplets sprayed. Not necessarily, says spray application specialist Tom Wolf. "The unstated assumption behind that is that droplets are getting smaller when you have two nozzles instead of one," Wolf says.... Read More
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
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
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
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
Disease control timing in soybeans is coming up quickly, and wet conditions in many parts of Ontario could mean high pressure in some areas. Optimal fungicide timing is crucial for best and cost-effective control, and with that in mind some farmers may be interested in tank-mixing products in with fungicides to save a pass over... Read More