There was a time that farming was not that mysterious a process. Most farming practices were the same from generation to generation, and the majority of people were involved in agriculture in some way themselves. That has all changed now, and some in the industry feel there is now a need to 'demystify' what agriculture... Read More
Category: Crop Production
How can growers adjust their combines to reduce vomitoxin levels when harvesting the 2018 crop? RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson has some answers. In this episode of Real Agriculture's Corn School, Johnson visits with custom combine operator David Killins, of Killins Custom work, at Dorchester, Ontario. Johnson acknowledges that while cleaning corn does help, it's not... Read More
Grain markets were able to find gains as they entered the first few days of November, mainly driven by some rumour-driven optimism around the trade war between the U.S. and China ending sometime soon. After posting a monthly low to end October, soybean prices jumped about 4% in a few minutes on Thursday after a... Read More
Hemp has often been lumped in with its rather contentious relation, cannabis. While related, the two crops are very different, but the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada is also good news for the hemp industry. Shaun Haney, host of RealAg Radio, recently had a chance to talk with Ted Haney, executive director of the... Read More
By Peter Johnson, RealAgriculture agronomist It has been one TOUGH harvest. Constant showers, have led to very wet condition, and now record levels of deoxynivalenol (DON, produced by gibberella) in the corn crop has stress running high in the countryside. Coffee shop rumours abound. The urgent questions though, are: Do I harvest this corn at... Read More
Farmers are planting too much soybean seed. That's a conviction agronomist Pat Lynch is firm on. "What we're doing is determining the population based on the poor parts of the field because we don't want to have these thin spots." says Lynch. While high seeding rates help populate under-performing areas of the field, they produce... Read More
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted a temporary extension to the registration of dicamba, including product sold under the trade name XtendiMax, through 2020. The EPA has fielded numerous complaints about spray drift from the product, the majority of which stem from dicamba sprayed on herbicide-tolerant crops, initially released in 2017. The EPA... Read More
Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) at Lethbridge, Alta., is a big sprawling facility that does a wide variety of research. That being said, they are particularly known for their wheat research, and for good reason. They do innovative work, and the research team has bred many stalwart wheat varieties for Canadian farmers. In this episode... Read More
Earlier this year, Dr. Peter Sikkema, professor with the University of Guelph and his research team confirmed Group 14 resistance in waterhemp at multiple locations in Ontario. Sikkema's research team, including graduate student Lauren Benoit, has also confirmed waterhemp with cross-resistance to Groups 2, 5, and 9, as well as 14. In this episode of... Read More
In mid September, the federal government announced the list of prescribed regions eligible for drought-related livestock tax deferral. The break was welcomed, however ranchers and producer groups criticized the government's approach, saying it left out too many drought-affected producers. Announced October 31st, the federal government says it is taking steps to answer some of that... Read More