Category: Crop Schools

Do you know how many pounds per bushel of phosphorus and potassium corn pulls out of the soil? Nitrogen gets all the attention in crop production, but these two nutrients are also very important to corn production, and, in years of decent yields, the total pounds per acre of P and K drawn out of... Read More

Let's put the gong show of a canola crop that was 2012 behind us and look ahead to 2013. Except that we can't entirely, because much of what plagued the crop this year is likely to be a factor next year (the one wild card being aster yellows). Clint Jurke, agronomist with the Canola Council... Read More

Keeping the crop in the bin during market dips but still having the bills paid is one advantage of using a cash advance program. For canola and several other crops, the cash advance is administered by the Canadian Canola Growers Association. Farmers can access $100,000 interest free, and up to another $300,000 borrowed at CIBC's... Read More

Lentil struggled in some areas this year, as areas of Saskatchewan still had a excess moisture or the hangover from it to deal with. Still other areas were very dry, or suffered from extreme weather. Of note, fields with tight lentil/wheat rotations certainly suffered lower yields versus fields with at least one year of an... Read More

In a good news/not so good news scenario, the 2012 corn crop is showing very low incidence of ear molds. That said, there are likely to be areas with higher numbers, and farmers are reminded to scout or test each field for possible infection, especially if the crop is destined for feed use. In this... Read More

As farmers approach the mid-way point of the Ontario corn harvest (and quickly surpass it, we hope), preliminary reports suggest decent yields in spite of challenging conditions. That said, it most certainly wasn't an ideal growing season, and farmers aren't likely to see their highest ever production this year. What a challenging year does allow... Read More

There are more than a few weeks ahead yet for the corn harvest, but as a testament to constantly improving genetics and the hardiness of the crop, preliminary corn yields for 2012 are actually quite good. There are areas that are hurting, yes, but some farmers are pleasantly surprised with yields and quality, especially in... Read More

In the last Pulse School episode, Dr. Bert Vandenberg, lentil and faba bean breeder at the University of Saskatchewan, outlined the market development challenges facing the faba bean industry. He noted, however, that the varieties farmers have to choose from are already a very good fit for much of the prairies. Duane Ransome, member relations... Read More

August rains make grain. That's an old saying, but it held true this year in Ontario. The Ontario soybean crop managed to hold on through extreme hot and dry conditions to receive those timely rains and produce what was, overall, a great crop. In this episode of the Soybean School, Ken Currah of PRIDE Seeds... Read More

When any crop disease makes it's way into new territory, one of the most important steps in keeping it under control is being able to diagnose and identify it. That's precisely the situation soybean producers find themselves in with Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus. The virus is fairly new on the scene in Ontario and it's... Read More