Can heavy July rains fuel nitrogen leaching and push the valuable nutrient beyond the reach of corn plant roots? That's a question Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs corn specialist Ben Rosser has been hearing a lot lately as many areas of the province have been dealt a deluge of rain. On this... Read More
Category: Crop Production
Zappers, seed grinders, and robots, oh my! What's the latest in weed control technology? For this episode of The Agronomists, host Lyndsey Smith is joined by Chuck Baresich of Haggerty AgRobotics, and Kim Brown Livingston of Manitoba Agriculture, to discuss the trouble with problem weeds and the new (old?) ways to deal with them. From... Read More
SaskCanola, in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, will continue to offer free disease testing for blackleg and clubroot to farmers, with the addition of testing for verticillium stripe new this year. Verticillium stripe was first reported in Canada in 2014, and there is still much to learn about this disease. It presents symptoms... Read More
Those green plants sticking out of the crop — are they regular redroot pigweed, or a much nastier pigweed species, such as waterhemp, or even Palmer amaranth? This has become an increasingly common question for farmers and agronomists on the eastern side of the Canadian Prairies as waterhemp that's resistant to multiple herbicide groups continues... Read More
A new report suggests that the removal of glyphosate from the farming toolbox would have negative financial impacts for farmers and cost the environment, as well. The report, "A Future Without Glyphosate," was authored by Aimpoint Research and funded by Bayer. In it, authors looked at the complexities of glyphosate’s impact on agriculture and outlined... Read More
There are so many things that can't be controlled on the farm, including when Mother Nature decides to provide some moisture. Irrigation provides more control over the moisture situation — however, the water is not limitless. Maximizing the water allowance not only makes growers happy, because it allows them to become more profitable, but it... Read More
If you're wondering what on earth is going on with the canola market, you certainly aren't alone. Shaun Haney, RealAgriculture founder, took this question to Jonathon Driedger, vice president of Leftfield Commodity Research, to gain some clarity. At the time of the interview, November canola was almost at $800. At the end of May, the... Read More
The meeting of food production and solar power off the same acre has a name — agrivoltaics. It's both a new term and a new concept, still in the beginning stages of an industry in Canada. While new, early adopters and research alike point to some real benefits of marrying power and food production, contrary... Read More
The federal and Saskatchewan governments have announced a change to crop insurance offered by Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) to allow more acres of low-yielding crops to be redirected to help livestock producers. Following on the heels of a similar announcement in Alberta last week, SCIC is again doubling the low yield appraisal threshold, allowing... Read More
Corn growers who dodged the tar spot bullet last season are unlikely to be nearly so lucky this year, as the disease has been identified in southern Ontario and conditions are conducive to its spread. Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson has that discussion on this week's edition of Wheat Pete's Word, plus an insect alert, an... Read More