Category: Crop Schools

It might seem counter-intuitive, but slowing down corn emergence may actually boost yields. Plot results are in, and it would seem that optimum distance between corn plants matters far less than uniform emergence. And achieving perfectly uniform emergence takes planting deep. We already know that even emergence is key to top yields, but the mechanism... Read More

Harvest started strong in most parts of the Prairies and then has either came to a complete halt or fallen into a slow grind of doing a few acres, checking moisture levels, changing fields, waiting, and getting frustrated. RealAgriculture's Saskatchewan field editor Dale Leftwich went out to a couple of fields with Canola Council of... Read More

The phone is ringing off the hook at PAMI. Some very difficult questions are being asked by farmers as a result of the late harvest and the cool, damp weather. There are no easy answers, of course, but luckily PAMI has done a lot of research over the years and although they can't change the... Read More

Canadian canola producers are among the most efficient when it comes to cost-of-production — with the exception of seed costs— but Canadian growers also receive slightly lower on-farm prices than canola and rapeseed producers in other parts of the world. "We're basically leading, together with Ukrainian producers, in cost-of-production," explains Joerg Zimmermann in the Canola... Read More

Your thirty second elevator pitch: We are often told we should have one. For many of us it is hard for us to even stammer out who we are in 30 seconds, let alone talk about something intelligently. Afterwards, we often think we should have said more, but with fewer words. In this episode of... Read More

Can dissolved urea increase your wheat yield? If it burns the crop will it still put more bushels in the bin? In this episode of RealAgriculture's Wheat School we catch up with our resident agronomist Peter Johnson as he inspects a field of winter wheat that received 15 gallons per acre of dissolved urea with... Read More

It's time for corn growers to take a hard look at variable rate planting. That was agronomist Pat Lynch's message to growers as they watched variable rate planters in action at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show (COFS) in Woodstock, Ontario. In this episode of RealAgriculture's Corn School, Lynch says the ability to adjust seed population while... Read More

Soybeans are most often grown places that get abundant rain, particularly in August. This usually happens in southern Manitoba, so an unusual problem is emerging there: soybeans are drying down, but staying green. In this episode of the Soybean School, RealAgriculture's Dale Leftwich talks to Glenda Clezy, regional grow team advisor with Federated Co-op, about... Read More

There is more and more and more demand for information about straight-cutting canola. In response to this demand, the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) continues to conduct research, quantify assumptions, and provide knowledge to farmers. Recently, PAMI put all that work together into a straight-cutting guidebook for canola. In this episode of the Canola School,... Read More

If you're noticing a little fuzzy trouble with your corn crop this year — you're not alone. With rainfall after rainfall at pollination (but not before!), the weather created perfect conditions for gibberella infection and spread. If you've scouted your corn crop and have found pink mould growth at the tip of the cob, chances... Read More