If the clover starts to flower, it must be time to spray it out, right? Not so, says Peter Johnson, cereal specialist with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. In fact, spraying out clover that early means you miss out on major soil-building benefits through the month of October. As Johnson explains in this video,... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
The first rule of planting winter wheat is to start early. If you didn't (and, with a late soybean harvest, that's reasonable to expect), the next rule of planting winter wheat is to start now. That's because the earlier in the ideal seeding window winter wheat gets in the ground, the more likely that crop... Read More
Hands down, the one-pass seedbed prep demo was the most popular event at this year's Outdoor Farm Show held at Woodstock, Ont. Farmers by the hundreds eagerly followed behind each implement, kicking soil and evaluating the job of over 20 conservation-minded tillage units. The sheer volume of farmers present speaks to farmers' interest and, dare... Read More
Are you up to speed on the Chipotle restaurant controversy? Briefly, Chipotle, a Mexican grill chain, teamed up with Academy Award-winning Moonbot Studios to create a sappy but incredibly popular animated video that takes a mean-spirited and unprovoked shot at commercial-scale agriculture. It’s become an internet phenomenon, drawing six million viewers over the past couple... Read More
As equipment becomes more sophisticated and tech-reliant, farming has become an increasingly precise and data-driven business. It's rare though that each tractor or piece of equipment and implement is purchased at the exact same time, complete with software interface, all from the same brand. And, even if they did, no brand of equipment has a... Read More
Reports of increased bee deaths in the spring of 2012 in areas of Ontario and Quebec were alarming, but, at the time, attributed at least in part to the unseasonably cool and wet spring. This past spring, however, had more average temperatures but also had a higher than average reported bee kills. What's troublesome about... Read More
It's time once again for the least serious 10 minutes in ag news! And this time the RealAgriculture production team has gone above and beyond the call of duty and put together a truly entertaining package of highlights from Canada's Outdoor Farm Show. In this mostly-not-serious edition of Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Shaun Haney and... Read More
The pre-harvest period is a great time to get a handle on what plagued (or is plaguing) the soybean crop this year, how well some of your management practices turned out and filling out the check list for late fall work and early season planning. In this Ontario soybean crop update, three agronomists — Dan... Read More
This week Calgary is hosting ABIC 2013 which is a global conference on food and agricultural biotechnology. I had the chance to sit down with Jim Wispinski, President of Dow AgroSciences Canada, and discuss the panel that he moderated about the past and future impacts of biotechnology agribusiness and farmers. If you cannot hear the... Read More
This mornings frost warning had some Ontario farmer's teeth chattering, but it wasn't the cold that did it. Farmers in the certain counties of Ontario would be understandably nervous depending on how far along their corn crop is. Frost at the wrong time can take a sizeable bite out of your corn yield. Once temperatures... Read More