Some years are disease years and some are insect years. 2020 is shaping up to be an insect year, which is perhaps not surprising given the dry bias to the weather. In this mid-June edition of Wheat Pete's Word, host Peter Johnson answers so many of your agronomic questions, including what to do about armyworm... Read More
Category: Crop Production
A timely rain after seeding can erase plenty of sins, but a pounding rain can do the opposite, and lead to punishment for small canola seedlings that have to break through crusted soil. Crusting has hampered emergence and forced some reseeding in canola fields in parts of Western Canada again this year. Of course, there's... Read More
John Deere has recently announced not only the new X Series of combine coming to North America, but also an entirely new header lineup including drapers, corn heads, and a belt pickup. Hot on the tails of the X9 announcement, RealAgriculture's Bernard Tobin sits down with John Deere's Harvesting Product Manager Matt Badding to talk... Read More
Do you remember 1966? You can be forgiven if you don't, but Drew Lerner, weather guru with World Weather Inc., says the first half of 2020 is shaping up to be very similar to that year. What does that mean for crop growing weather, hail, rainfall amounts, and more? Listen/watch below to this Tuesday, June... Read More
If there are any outliers in the rather bearish grain complex right now, Brennan Turner, founder of FarmLead and the Combyne marketplace, says wheat and maybe even soybeans deserve the title. Even though the latest WASDE says we're set for record global ending stocks for the yea, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant a boost in... Read More
Concord has announced a new 39-foot model of its Precision Shank Drill (PSD) for 2021. The new size model offers the same benefits of the previously released PSD, but with a lower horsepower requirement to reach its potential seeding speed of 8 mph—originally 500 horsepower was required, but the new model only needs 425. "We're... Read More
In the last couple of years, aster leafhoppers have arrived around the third week of May, perhaps on the same wind that diamondback moths fly in on from the U.S. The aster leafhopper is a small, bullet-shaped insect that doesn't directly damage the plant; instead it is a vector for the disease aster yellows. In... Read More
When planting soybeans after corn does the oilseed benefit from pre-plant tillage? A little spring tillage certainly enhances yield, says Horst Bohner, soybean specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). Based on accumulated OMAFRA trial data, growers can expect plant stands to be 10 per cent higher and fields to... Read More
The hangover effects from a wet fall are giving farmers in parts of Western Canada a headache this spring. Saturated soil conditions right until freeze-up forced fieldwork that normally happens in fall to be delayed until spring. As a result, heavy harrows, vertical tillage machines, traditional cultivators, and even fire — all the tools in... Read More
An answer to a follow up question on a conference call by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada minister Marie-Claude Bibeau struck a nerve last week. Bibeau said that the carbon tax on fuel used for grain drying wasn't a significant enough percentage of operating costs to qualify for an exemption to the "price of pollution." In... Read More