Living in a world where everything from entertainment and fixes to problems are seemingly instantaneous, wheat breeding remains outside of these parameters, taking upwards of 10 years to have a concept come to fruition. This balance between what we know now and what may be needed in the future is what wheat breeders, like Richard... Read More
Category: Crop Schools
Building organic matter, soil health, 4R nutrient management, and profitability are all part of the crop production puzzle Bill Ungar and the team at Sandy Shore Farms is piecing together on the sandy north shore of Lake Erie. On this episode of RealAgriculture's Soil School, Ungar, Sandy Shore's agronomy manager, shares how the family-owned farm... Read More
Fungicides are integral for preventing disease in many pulse crops, however, just like how weeds have become resistant to certain herbicides, diseases can become resistant to commonly-used fungicide chemistries. The majority of pulse fungicides on the market in Western Canada contain a Group 11 — the category of fungicide most likely to be overcome by... Read More
As the saying goes, if you want to cut down on eating cookies, don't buy them. In that spirit, if winter wheat is in the farm plan, there needs to be seed on-farm well ahead of the ideal seeding window. That's just one of five key planning steps that Monica Klaas, of Ducks Unlimited Canada,... Read More
There is no room for error when it comes to producing hybrid seed corn. It’s a complicated business, and one of the keys to success is effectively detasseling rows of female plants of one inbred line so it can be fertilized by the second male inbred line, creating a hybrid. On this episode of The... Read More
Researchers at Laval University in Quebec have developed a hydroponic lab test that could allow growers and agronomists to better deploy genetic resistance and tolerance in the fight against phytophthora root rot in soybeans. There are three main ways to curb phytophthora, explains Geneviève Arsenault-Labrecque, co-founder of AYOS Technologies, a spinoff founded by students at... Read More
When it comes to planting and establishing corn in a cereal rye cover crop, the growing corn can be adversely impacted by rye's allelopathic effects, the release of chemicals that inhibit the plant's growth. But rye can also limit the amount of light, and quality of light, available to corn when it's growing in the... Read More
Root rot continues to be a concern for pulse growers and although work is being done on creating varieties that are more resistant to diseases such as aphanomyces, that reality is likely at least eight years away. In the interim, growers are encouraged to employ a comprehensive rotation schedule to best combat root rot in... Read More
When getting ready for the new crop year, understanding the proper application, amount and maybe even the type of phosphorus on the canola crop can have a significant impact on yield, come harvest. On this episode of the Canola School, Warren Ward, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, goes through some minimums and... Read More
Keeping a close eye on crop canopy development can help growers better manage soybean crops. From helping select the best row spacing for a specific variety, to improving weed control there's much to learn from understanding the speed at which a soybean variety closes the row as well as plant characteristics and architecture. On this... Read More