Adopting warm season crops, like corn, in cool season areas, like Western Canada, takes time, patience and adaptation. The first crucial step is access to shorter season varieties, which we've got, but from there the nutrient/pest/harvest management trial and error learning has to follow. Hear & download more Agronomy Geeks podcasts by clicking here Grain... Read More
Category: Podcasts
Contrary to what it looks like outside my window right now, it is officially spring. Eventually the snow will recede and the warmth will return and the ice and frost will disappear just long enough to eek out another crop from the prairie soil (apparently I wax poetic after 5 full months of winter). When... Read More
What costs the canola crop the most in yield each year? Lack of fertility? Harvest losses? Spoilage in storage? Swath timing? The question isn't actually entirely fair, as we can't necessarily answer this question precisely, but we can most certainly start to stack up the evidence to support or refute each of these management areas'... Read More
Farmers love to grow corn, that much we know. But there's a limit to how far love will take you when prices are low and land prices are sky-high. As farmers get antsy for spring planting to begin, talk inevitably turns to what will go in the ground this year. Not all the planned winter... Read More
If it's late May and your winter wheat crop is awake and starting to look good so you figure it's time to top up the nitrogen, you've already missed the ideal window for a spring application. Plus, if you didn't take care of winter annuals last fall, those tiny seedlings that over wintered took off... Read More
Its the beginning of February which means it is time for the annual National Cattleman's Beef Association (NCBA) meeting. With the cash market higher and feed prices lower than a year ago, cattle producers are seeing some strong margins and reasons for putting increased cattle on feed. Shaun Haney and Anne Wasko discuss the meeting... Read More
Farmers in Manitoba know the symptoms of fusarium head blight all too well — bleaching of the grain head, sometimes with a pink tinge, that results in shriveled and shrunk kernels. Sometimes called scab or tombstone, fusarium head blight not only bites into yield, it's also a downgrading factor of grain. Grain with fusarium damaged... Read More
As Ontario farmers get home from Southwest Ag Conference and FarmSmart, everyone is probably getting itchy for spring. The only thing maybe holding us back is the horrible snow storms that we have been getting. Planting does seem far away but like always at this time of year it is closer than we think. In... Read More
Explosive. It's the only way to describe beef cash prices out of the U.S. this January. Sure, yes, there was optimism about what 2014 would bring, but no one could have expected this giant jump in prices as the market resumed after the holidays. Need production info? Click here to see all 30 episodes of... Read More
If you've got a GPS-equipped yield monitor in your combine, I have good news. You're already well on your way to developing a practical precision farming plan for your farm. Well of course I am, you say. But, if we're all being very honest here, what do you actually do with that yield map beyond... Read More