Category: Crop Schools

2016 was a good year to grow soybean varieties with strong genetic resistance to sudden death syndrome (SDS).Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs plant pathologist Albert Tenuta explains that this season’s cool, wet early growing conditions, which then gave way to drought in many regions of Ontario, helped the disease pack a punch… Read More

If a corn plant emerges one, two, or three days after its neighbour, will it yield less?We’re about to find out as Corn School makes its first return visit to the flag test that Real Agriculture resident agronomist Peter Johnson planted this spring.National Corn Growers Association yield contest champion Randy Dowdy, who harvested a record… Read More

The amazing rise of soybean acres across Manitoba and into Saskatchewan is possible only because of the development of early, early soybean lines.Just how early? While zeros and double zero maturity ratings are great for “short” season areas in Ontario and Quebec, it’s the triple zero lines that shine in places like Arborg, Manitoba, well… Read More

It might only be the middle of October, but it looks and feels like winter in parts of Western Canada, especially as you move north and west in Alberta and Saskatchewan.Snow and freezing rain have left many canola growers with a helpless feeling as crop that was ready to be harvested is now under a… Read More

Canola seed companies are releasing more varieties with claims they have reduced susceptibility to sclerotinia, but how do they determine those ratings? Coming off a season with high sclerotinia pressure, what does it mean if a variety is labelled as ‘partially resistant’?In 2011, the Western Canadian Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee started searching for a test that could… Read More

Ontario’s winter wheat crop is growing like gangbusters thanks to unseasonably warm fall temperatures. But could it grow too much?“No way,” says agronomist Peter Johnson in Real Agriculture’s latest Wheat School episode. “The only thing we have to worry about is if it’s still growing on Christmas Eve, like last year.” In that case growers… Read More

Ontario’s corn crop is showing high vomitoxin levels and growers are being urged to harvest as quickly as possible to preserve corn quality.Last week, the OMAFRA Field Crops team revealed that 26% of the samples taken in its annual vomitoxin survey had DON concentrations of 2.0 ppm or greater. At these levels, vomitoxin produced by gibberella and fusarium… Read More

It all comes down to more acres per day for John Deere’s new F4365 high capacity nutrient applicator. At the recent Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, John Deere product manager Jason Beuligmann showcased the new, 330-cubic-feet dry spinner spreader. He explained that the company’s engineers had two goals in mind for the design – operator comfort,… Read More

Did you know in-bred(parent) corn lines are short wee things? And that gibberella genetic resistance is a multi-gene trait? If ever you’ve been curious as to where hybrid corn lines originate, this latest Corn School is for you.RealAgriculture’s Lyndsey Smith visited Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm to meet with Dr. Lana Reid, corn breeder for Agriculture and… Read More

A wet harvest has left farmers in many areas of Western Canada considering options for addressing soil compaction. One of the options that’s seen increased interest in recent years is the use of cover crops, specifically radishes, to break up root-restricting compacted soil.“Radishes are a cover crop that are being sold specifically for compaction alleviation. You see… Read More