We should know better than to be surprised by the weather, but wow, some areas of the province have gone from too dry to rain, rain, rain. In some areas, reports of up to six inches of rain is causing ponding, flooding, and is delaying first planting, let alone replanting. And so, we can think... Read More
Category: Crop Production
Seeding equipment manufacturer Bourgault Industries and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada say they have resolved a dispute over fertilizer placement research done over a decade ago. The disagreement revolved around the interpretation of the results of a study conducted by the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute, AAFC and the University of Saskatchewan from 2000 to 2002. The... Read More
Poor emergence or damping off of young soybean plants can be a sign of a seedling disease or root rot problem, especially following cool, wet weather as experienced in much of the soybean growing part of Western Canada this spring. As Holly Derksen, plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, explains in this Soybean School West episode,... Read More
Ontario's government today unveiled the final version of the regulations governing the use of neonicotinoid-treated soybean and corn seeds. If you can hardly tell the difference from the proposed regulation launched late in 2014, you can be forgiven — the final regulation is only slightly tweaked from the original proposal. Ontario's Ministry of Environment of... Read More
Skipped plants in a corn row aren't always due to mechanical error or seedling blights. Early insects like wireworm or grubs can kill plants rather stealthily, leaving gaps in a row or neat leaf damage, while cutworm can clip off a patch of plants overnight. Knowing which insect causes what damage is important when assessing... Read More
$1.2 million for the purchase of corn and soybean research equipment was announced by MP Candice Bergen near Homewood, Manitoba this past weekend. The Manitoba Corn Growers Association is collaborating with the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the University of Manitoba in purchasing research equipment to be used at 11... Read More
>It can be hard to know when to spend the money and when to save the cost in the weeks leading up to harvest, and even more challenging when you're dealing with a crop that doesn't look quite right. For some winter wheat producers in Ontario right now, that means a crop of rather short... Read More
While this growing season may have some pulse growers wishing Mother Nature would turn the water taps on, the past few seasons have been tough on pulse crops when it comes to root rots and seedling diseases. Particularly in 2013, farmers were stumped by pea fields hard-hit by "wet feet." Turns out, there was a... Read More
I’ve often wondered what would happen if I moved my dairy farm to Toronto’s Yonge and Eglinton. I’d take some floor space out in a nearby building and then open the doors to let the cows come and go as the please. Free-range is all the rage, anyway. I wouldn’t feed them myself though, I’d... Read More
Crop quality was the big question on the mind of the market for this first week of June, as the entire grains and oilseed complex moved higher. Despite seeing the largest one-day drop for the U.S. dollar earlier in the week since 2013 (it rebounded on Friday), weather issues were completely at the steering wheel... Read More