Ontario's farmers are relatively familiar with using red clover on wheat to fix nitrogen and keep the soil covered into the fall, but cover crop use has quickly surpassed a one-species on one-crop approach. Lyndsey Smith, Ontario field editor for RealAgriculture, sat down with two farmers to ask them 4 Questions on cover crops: what's... Read More
Category: Crop Production
Ontario farmers rarely see the yield monitor hit 240 bushels in their wheat crop. But Barry and Tyler McBlain hit that number in 2016. What’s even more amazing is that it happened on the tough clay soils southeast of Brantford in Brant County. In this episode of "Real Wheat Farmers", agronomist Peter Johnson talks with... Read More
The Southwest Agricultural Conference marks the official kick-off of the winter conference season, and field editors Bernard Tobin and Lyndsey Smith were there to catch all the best and brightest agronomy minds at work. In RealAgriculture tradition, Bern and Lyndsey took a few minutes at the end of the show to talk about their favourite... Read More
Manage the crop, not the weather. That was the take-home message delivered via three agronomists at the 2017 Southwest Agricultural Conference. Leanne Freitag, with Cargill, Russ Barker, with Pioneer, and Steph Kowalski, with Agronomy Advantage, teamed up to share nine lessons of the trying 2016 growing season. From the non-negotiable need for sulphur on wheat,... Read More
As the calendar spins into 2017, we reflect that the 2016 harvest was one farmers will not soon forget. As spring gets closer, farmers need to consider ensuring they have the appropriate seed quality suitable for planting. Shaun Haney talks to Holly Gelech, Biovsion Seed Labs about the quality of the 2016 harvest from a... Read More
It may be a new year, but it's the same ol' host for Wheat Pete's Word (only a little bit because we named it after him, and mostly because he's a one-of-a-kind). This week, you'll be dazzled by the organic matter talk, as some clarification was needed, plus Peter Johnson takes on the yield loss... Read More
Timing is critical when it comes to managing a disease like sclerotinia in canola, so what if you could receive a text message telling you it's time to spray? The concept of real-time disease monitoring with nano biosensors that can communicate with your cell phone might sound futuristic, but the steps in the process have... Read More
Honeybees have played an important role in Canadian agriculture for decades, with past stressors and tough seasons humming along under the radar, for the most part. That all changed a few years ago when it became a political imperative to "save the bees." Maryam Sultan, bee health associate with Bayer, recently discussed the subject of... Read More
By now, farmers are all too familiar with weed populations developing resistance to herbicides (sometimes more than one). Given what we know and understand about how resistance develops, how concerned should farmers be about diseases becoming resistant to fungicide applications? Scott Henry, with Bayer, sat down with Shaun Haney to break down this not-so-straight-forward topic.... Read More
Do you know a “real” wheat farmer? If not, agronomist Peter Johnson is going to introduce you to some of Ontario’s finest wheat growers in the upcoming episodes of Real Agriculture’s Wheat School. In this episode, Wheat Pete travels to Ripley, Ontario to talk with Brucelea Poultry’s Mark McLean. He takes wheat seriously and shares... Read More