Category: Crop Production

With the early soybean harvest that is about to take place in Ontario, some growers are considering on getting an early jump on the fall planting of winter wheat. HOLD ON!!!!! Peter Johnson, Wheat Specialist, OMAFRA, has some key points for you to remember before you hook up the seeder and start roaring down the... Read More

There are some dismal looking soybean crops throughout parts of Ontario as a result of the extreme summer heat. Late summer rains have provided some relief to those fields but have left producers wondering if it's too little too late. It's not just the heat that's pushed those soybean fields to the brink. The weakened... Read More

There has been a lot of talk about the impact of the drought on the Ontario corn crop, but the fact is that not all of the Ontario crop was hit by the extremely dry conditions. Some areas of Ontario actually received timely rains that, coupled with the high temperatures, will look to give producers... Read More

The stretch from spring seeding to winter wheat planting isn't really that long, but a lot can happen over that period. During the time your equipment sits it's subject to all kinds of weather variations from late spring snowstorms to summer heat waves. Those kind of swings can wreak havoc with your equipment in ways... Read More

Syngenta recently received Canadian regulatory approval for Agrisure Viptera 3220 E-Z Refuge trait stack in corn. The Agrisure Viptera 3220 trait stack offers dual modes of action for control of multiple lepidopteran pests, such as black cutworm, western bean cutworm and fall armyworm, and corn borer. Each bag contains 95% seed of a corn hybrid... Read More

At nearly every field day for the past few years in Saskatchewan, the presenting agronomist would hold up a mangled canola head and ask, "Can anyone tell me what this is?" Most farmers would look closer, but few had an answer. Being from Manitoba, I'd pipe up, "Aster yellows." Aster yellows is relatively common in... Read More

"How do I figure out when to swath my canola?" is one of those questions that comes up every year without fail. It's a question that doesn't have a broad, simple answer, which is why it's restated every year. Even though there are over 20 million acres of canola in Western Canada producers still struggle... Read More

We've talked a lot about the effect of the extreme hot and dry weather on Ontario corn and soybean producers, but forage crops have taken a huge hit as well. That damage has been softened a bit lately by the effects of much needed rains, but it also leaves producers in a spot where they... Read More

This week Ray Prock (California Dairy farmer), Kelly Rivard (farm blogger), Jim Doolittle (agronomist), and Michael Yezzi (pig farmer) participated in a segment on Huffington Post Live discussing the US corn drought of 2012. See the segment here. Besides the fact that the host pronounces bushels incorrectly the segment is a really good first hand... Read More

While much of Manitoba's canola crop is already in the swath or being combined, Alberta and Saskatchewan fields are at or approaching proper swath timing. Unfortunately, late season pests like bertha armyworm are also building substantially in many areas. Why is this an issue? Because of the pre-harvest interval (PHI) required for many insecticide products.... Read More