Does your farm have the cleavers? In this episode of the Pulse School, Ken Sapsford, research assistant at the University of Saskatchewan, explains issues surrounding the abundance of cleavers across the prairies. With the shift towards no-till farming practices, cleavers, which were once considered a summer annual, are now overwintering, particularly in the presence of... Read More
Category: Crop Schools
An nasty cold weekend has left many corn and wheat fields looking just a little sad over a huge area of southern Ontario. According to wheat specialist, Peter Johnson, wheat still in the boot should be fine, but fields with heads emerged could see some yield damage. Similarly, the staging of the corn crop at... Read More
As planting season winds down, the To-Do list of little fixes starts to grow. The good news is that a little extra care and attention paid to machinery and equipment now will help speed along the set up process next spring when we get to do this all over again. The planter is such an... Read More
Darling Mother Nature can really be tricky at times. It's bad enough that nutrient deficiency symptoms can be subtle at best, but there are some symptoms that look like several different things. Group 2 drift injury of young plants, for example, can look very much like sulphur deficiency. Soil residual Group 2 injury may be... Read More
Rolling soybean fields at or just after planting can be most efficient, but planting conditions aren't always exactly rolling-friendly. The good news is there is still time to roll long after seeding, with one very specific no-go window. But first, do you have to roll? That's the question RealAgriculture.com put to Dennis Lange, farm production... Read More
We all know that pulling a roller behind the tractor in wet conditions is akin to rolling dough without flour, with one key difference: you likely never have to park your embarrassing, dough-covered rolling pin beside the highway for all to see. Conversely, in dry conditions, a roller can actually pulverize the soil, increasing the... Read More
While planters most certainly do a precise job at soybean planting depth, many farmers are still on the fence over whether or not the benefits are worth the added investment of a second (or third) planting implement. After all, does their existing unit do just as good a job? These are exactly the kinds of... Read More
There's nothing quite like nasty perennial weeds going to seed in your winter wheat field to kill the buzz of the spring planting season. But heading out now to try and target these pests is a lesson in futility — the time to control perennial and winter annual weeds is in the fall. But, as... Read More
What's the top end of nitrogen application for wheat in Ontario? Can I count on a yield response to a sulphur application? Is a split N application the way to go, and, if so, how much goes on in the beginning? These are very important wheat management questions, and ones that are currently being researched... Read More
Alberta Agriculture wants your worms — cutworms, that is. In an effort to map out changing populations of various cutworms and to pinpoint cutworm feeding in new areas or at non-traditional times of the year, the Canola Council of Canada in concert with various provincial pest monitoring agencies and research scientists are asking for cutworm... Read More