Cover crops can reduce erosion, improve soil health, recycle nutrients, and help suppress weeds, but achieving those benefits depends on one critical factor: biomass. While growers often focus on selecting the right species or cover crop mix, Washington State University extension agronomist Andrew McGuire, who is also senior extension fellow at WSU's Center for Sustaining... Read More
Category: Crop Production
As soybean fields move into flowering, protecting yield potential shifts from weed control to disease management. Timing fungicide applications correctly is critical for managing white mould and other yield-robbing diseases, particularly in fields with dense canopies and a history of disease. In this episode of Soybean School, RealAgriculture's Bernard Tobin visits the BASF Maryhill Research... Read More
By Darcy Pawlik, Executive Director, Wheat Growers Association Every conversation about the future of Canadian wheat breeding seems to begin with budget cuts. While understandable, focusing only on funding risks missing the much larger issue. The challenge isn't simply that government has less money. It's that Canada continues to rely on a delivery model that... Read More
By Elisabeta Lika Few issues in Canadian agriculture are as emotionally charged as the closure of federal research sites. These are not just buildings on a federal asset list. They hold long-term experiments, invaluable datasets, breeding material, scientific expertise, and relationships that have been built over decades. The familiar narrative is easy: research good, cuts... Read More
Interest in targeted spraying continues to grow as the technology expands beyond green-on-brown applications into green-on-green systems capable of identifying weeds within standing crops. In this demonstration, Christian Hansen, agronomy research lead with John Deere, walks through the company's See & Spray technology on a 412R sprayer, showing how operators can configure crop models, adjust... Read More
Bayer's decision to spin its United States glyphosate business into a new subsidiary known as Ruveon LLC will have no commercial impact on Canadian farmers or retail partners, according to company officials. Bayer announced the consolidation of its entire glyphosate business in the U.S., including pricing, marketing, production, and logistics, into Ruveon on July 1.... Read More
A strong-looking corn crop in late June can still lose yield if key stresses aren't managed through the reproductive period. As the crop moves toward tasselling and silking, growers should be paying close attention to nitrogen availability, disease pressure, and environmental conditions that can quickly reduce yield potential. In this episode of RealAgriculture Corn School,... Read More
This week's USDA acreage report offered few surprises for corn and soybeans, but wheat provided the biggest bullish takeaway, according to Jim McCormick, chief operating officer with AgMarket.net. Speaking with RealAg Radio host Shaun Haney following Monday's report, McCormick said U.S. corn acreage remained unchanged from the March estimate at 95.3 million acres. While some... Read More
Happy Canada Day! This week, Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson celebrates Canada while tackling a wide range of timely crop production topics, from correcting last week's dogbane recommendation, to assessing hail damage, managing herbicides in extreme heat, and evaluating nitrogen losses after heavy rainfall. He also shares a firsthand lesson from Phytophthora root rot in... Read More
Canada's cabbage seedpod weevil problem is no longer confined to southern Alberta, and that means many Prairie growers could be scouting for the insect for the first time this season. In this episode of RealAgriculture's Canola School, Keith Gabert, agronomy specialist with the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, says the pest's range has expanded dramatically over... Read More