An international group of scientists working on mapping the genetic code for wheat say they've reached a major milestone that will help them reach their goal several years earlier than expected. The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium project, which is co-led by two Canadians and partly funded by Canadian farmers, announced yesterday it has produced... Read More
Category: Crop Production
Grain Farmers of Ontario has signed a joint venture agreement with inspection and testing company SGS Canada to create a full analytical cereal crop testing facility in southern Ontario. The Ontario Grains Laboratory will be located in Guelph and will conduct a full suite of grain quality and milling tests. “This lab will be the... Read More
7 to 10 plants per square foot is still the target plant population when seeding canola. That hasn't changed, but some of the practices used and the way we think about achieving an ideal plant stand might need to be re-evaluated. For example, research has shown that stand establishment is generally higher with a lower... Read More
The application of “big data” in farming makes sense in theory. More data enables better decision-making, but at the individual farm level it can be difficult to accumulate a large enough sample size for actionable agronomic analysis. Variety XYZ performed well on one field last year, so should you grow more of that variety next... Read More
Real Agriculture’s resident agronomist Peter Johnson has found yet another reason to grow wheat. In this episode of Wheat School, our intrepid WheatPete turns reporter as he interviews Dr. Tom Bruulsema, the International Plant Nutrition Institute’s Phosphorus Program Director, on how farmers can better manage phosphorus application by including wheat in the rotation. Bruulsema notes... Read More
David Lobb, professor in the department of soil science at the University of Manitoba, and senior research chair for the Watershed Systems Research Program, has been studying the effects of tillage erosion for over twenty years. Tillage erosion is the process whereby soil is moved down slope, to convergent areas of a field. It causes... Read More
Soybean Cyst nematode (SCN) was first identified in Ontario in 1998. Since then the pest has slowly and methodically trekked across the province and can now be found in most parts of Ontario. In this episode of Soybean School, Syngenta agronomist Shawn Brenneman and field biologist Marijke Van Andel discuss findings from a research survey... Read More
Individual nozzle control is becoming a reality, or at least an option, when it comes to applying pesticides with precision. Although they don’t have a major presence in Canada, Italian spraying technology manufacturer Arag has been selling its Seletron control system for several years. With individual nozzles that are automatically activated by a GPS-linked controller... Read More
This week’s Word starts off with comments and feedback from last week’s rant on tillage. Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture and host of this weekly podcast, discusses tillage, late nitrogen on corn, and so much more. Have a question for Wheat Pete? Call 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at peter.johnson@bell.net.... Read More
For most of us, seed testing is something to be done during or immediately after harvest, and right before seeding. But, there might be a reason or two to put the egg nog back in the fridge and hit the bins for a sample. For those relatively new to seed testing, Sydney Vos with BioVision... Read More