If a corn plant emerges one, two or three days after its neighbour, will it yield less? Real Agriculture resident agronomist Peter Johnson is determined to find out. At the SouthWest Ag Conference last January, National Corn Growers Association yield contest champion Randy Dowdy challenged growers to plant a flag test on their farm to... Read More
Category: Crop Production
There are many factors that will make a wheat crop more likely to lodge — seeding rate, fertility, moisture levels, variety and so on, but when it comes to understanding lodging risk during the growing season, watch nighttime temperatures, says RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson. "At nighttime, what does wheat do? All it does is respire,"... Read More
It was slow and steady, but farmers have won the race to get the 2016 Ontario corn crop in the ground. It’s been a cool spring that’s required lots of patience, says Pride Seeds Market Agronomist Ken Currah. On this episode of Real Agriculture Corn School, Currah looks back at spring planting conditions and discusses... Read More
The tank's clean so the whole sprayer is ready to go. Right? Actually, that's a myth. Our dynamic duo of Sprayers101.com, Tom Wolf, of AgriMetrix, and Jason Deveau, of OMAFRA, are back to explode another spray myth. In this episode, @Nozzle_Guy and @Spray_Guy discover that there's more to cleaning a sprayer than just making sure... Read More
Granular phosphorus fertilizer recovered from liquid hog manure could be a viable alternative to traditional 11-52 monoammonium phosphate (MAP) fertilizer for growing wheat and canola, according to research done at the University of Manitoba. Struvite "looks like a fantastic fertilizer," says Don Flaten, U of M soil scientist and one of the authors of a... Read More
To some growers, it's an old idea; to others, it's completely new. The concept of peola — intercropping peas and canola — has been around in Western Canada for decades, but with new varieties and weed control options, the practice seems to be gaining momentum again. In 2009, the Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization found an... Read More
The number of herbicide-resistant weed cases is growing while the list of modes of action available for controlling these weeds is not, so farmers in Western Canada have shifted back to soil-applied herbicides, including some old chemistries, like Edge and Avadex. "We're going full-circle here. These are older chemistries, but they're coming back in and... Read More
Glyphosate-resistant kochia has started showing up in more of Western Canada, and as with other cases of resistance, it's becoming evident you can't rely on a single tool for too long. Minimizing resistant weed populations requires an integrated or diverse approach. The crop itself must help make survival difficult for potentially resistant weed seedlings, explains... Read More
Early fungicide timing in wheat, varietal interactions with Group 14 soil-applied herbicides and how to prevent lodging in oats — it was almost a record-breaking week in terms of feedback after last week's Word. Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAg, returns to answer questions and share his agronomic insight as we get into the month... Read More
How many of the seeds put in the ground by your airseeder or drill will actually emerge and become viable plants? Seedling mortality can vary greatly, but needs to be considered when determining seeding rates, assessing emergence and when planning for next year. A 5 to 10 percent mortality rate is often assumed when calculating... Read More