The ideal set up for winter wheat is plating in mid-September at about half an inch deep with starter fertilizer. Then it rains and the crop grows to three leaves plus one tiller, then gets covered in a cozy blanket of snow, where it stays until it warms up in the spring. Reality, however, often... Read More
Category: Crop Schools
Do you consider a top hat and monocle essential dress for seeding season? Do you carry one of those little dogs in a handbag inside your tractor cab with you? If so, it makes sense that you would be driving around your field throwing canola seed all over the place through broken hoses and missing... Read More
Inoculating soybeans properly and with the appropriate product is one of the top two important decisions that factor into the success of the crop (variety selection for your region is the first). A 40-bushel an acre crop will require roughly 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre — properly inoculated soybeans will fix the lion's share... Read More
The advent of glyphosate resistant weeds has and will continue to complicate pre-plant weed removal. Farmers need to match herbicide resistance management and control options with targeted weed species to ensure not only an effective kill, but also to avoid limiting control options later. Glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed has been confirmed in Ontario, and farmers set... Read More
Canada Fleabane can be the menace of menaces in your soybean crop IF you don't hammer it down early. The truth is that the weed is so hearty — between its resistant characteristics and its ability to firmly root itself down — if you don't deal with it while it's young, you've got a problem... Read More
For some farmers, including wheat in rotation comes with a second decision — what type of wheat to grow? There are good options from hard red spring, winter wheat, CPS and even soft wheat. Depending on your area and marketing opportunities, each can be a profitable alternative to hard red spring. CPS wheat can be... Read More
Getting your corn crop off to a good start sets the tone for yield potential down the line. In our last episode, we talked about getting your seed down in the right conditions. This episode we'll look at providing your crop with the right elements to get it firmly established in the field. When you're... Read More
Remember this feeling, it happens every year. It's that edgy, ready-to-go feeling that shows up every year around early April. The later it gets, the more the feeling gets amplified. Then you read stories (sorry) about the guy down the road that hit the perfect window in early April and absolutely nailed it at harvest.... Read More
There are few things more frustrating than not being able to pin down what's eating your canola. Knowing which pests feed when and their tell-tale damage cues is the first step in narrowing down the perpetrator list. Cutworms, a general category that includes several pest species, feed in the early season (late May to June)... Read More
As more Manitoba farmers add soybeans into the crop rotation, it stands to reason that pests that attack the crop will begin showing up as well. Root rots — and there are so very many species that cause this — already exist in prairie soils, but just which species are here and what to do... Read More