Knowing your soil is critical to understanding a field's potential and setting realistic yield goals that make economic sense for the 2025 growing season. Heading into a the new year with depressed crop prices, growers will be looking to sharpen their pencils this winter to optimize input investment, including everything from seed and weed control... Read More
Category: Crop Schools
Biologicals have tremendous potential to help growers manage the stresses that impact corn throughout the growing season. Questions remain, however, on how to deploy these products, which include living organisms, bacteria, amino acids or plant extracts, in the pursuit of higher corn yields. AGRIS Co-operative agronomy strategy manager Dale Cowan has been testing biologicals for... Read More
The old saying "it's not how you start that's important, but how you finish" applies to the story of the 2024 soybean crop on the Prairies and Northern Plains. Final yield numbers from crop insurance — usually the best overall estimate — are not yet public, but Statistics Canada says Manitoba farmers set a new... Read More
Better seed genetics and strong market prices are putting kidney beans on the radar for an increasing number of edible bean growers in Ontario. On this episode of RealAgriculture's Edible Bean School, Hensall Co-op origination manager Wade Bickell looks at the evolution of kidneys and how two new varieties, Dynasty and Gallantry, have helped fuel... Read More
Weather is one of the many, but main, factors that determines yield outcomes at harvest. It's also a factor that is completely beyond a grower's control. Or is it? While farmers can't make the rain fall or the sun shine, there are plenty of things that can be done to mitigate the stress that a... Read More
How does commercial nitrogen fertilizer impact soil organic matter? Does adding nitrogen burn up organic matter or does it actually enhance organic matter levels in farm soils? Earlier this year, Syngenta soil health assessment lead Jordan Wade and Washington State University agronomist Andrew McGuire teamed up to answer that question. After reviewing decades of academic... Read More
With herbicide resistance on the rise, the need for more tools in the toolbox is higher than it has ever been, because as Dr. Breanne Tidemann of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says, there are no magic bullets. While any single management strategy is unlikely to be the final solution to herbicide resistance and weeds generally,... Read More
Dandelion control in soybeans was a significant issue across Ontario in 2024 — large dandelions set roots in many fields and killing the weed was a troublesome chore for growers and agronomists. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness weed management specialist Mike Cowbrough says he hates to sound like a broken record but best... Read More
Ecosystems are strange and wonderful places, and the ecosystem within canola fields is no exception. It can be easy to overlook the incredible abundance of interactions between different arthropods, including insects and spiders, happening within the canola canopy. Plus, when a farmer or agronomist sees damaged plants, it can be challenging to figure out if... Read More
Genetics and fungicides are the two pillars of disease defence when it comes to yield robbers like tar spot. But weather and technology also play a key role in helping growers defend their crops against the foliar disease. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Corn School, Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Agribusiness pathologist Albert... Read More