Who would have thought that wireworms would cause so many calls and concerns? A discussion from a few weeks ago has certainly opened — ahem — a can of worms on the topic, and we're here to set the record straight, mostly. In this week's edition of Wheat Pete's Word, you'll hear that, plus we... Read More
Category: Crop Production
The practice of variable rate seeding for corn continues to increase as growers attempt to match seeding rates and hybrid characteristics to the varying yield potential across their fields. With the growth of precision agriculture, every year more growers adopt variable rate seeding strategies but are they effectively evaluating and fine-tuning this strategy on their... Read More
There are more than a dozen decisions to make before the sprayer hits the field. Are conditions right? Are the tank-mix partners correct? Do I have the right nozzles? How's my water? Should I be adding in something more? The key to making the right call for these and all the other decisions that go... Read More
Building organic matter is a complicated and sometimes slow process, but you can't build soil organic matter without carbon and biological activity. There's some research out there to suggest that adding commercial nitrogen fertilizer to cropping systems burns through organic matter — but field level research doesn't show the same results. What's happening? First time... Read More
Canada has quietly joined a coalition of countries promoting “sustainable productivity growth” in agriculture. The Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition for Food Security and Resource Conservation, known as the SPG Coalition, was first championed by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021. The coalition's stated goal is to “accelerate... Read More
2021 won't be forgotten anytime soon in the cattle world. The January 1, 2022, Cattle on Feed report from CanFax showed a 12 per cent increase in the number of cattle on feed from a year ago, with placements down a bit. As Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange explains in our latest Beef... Read More
When it comes to increasing soybean yield, University of Illinois plant physiology professor Fred Below has two words of advice — plant early. In his presentation earlier this month at the Ontario Agricultural Conference, Below shared data from eight years of trials that show growers in Illinois lose almost half a bushel (0.47 bu/ac) for... Read More
There are those that say if you talk about something enough, it's more likely to happen. If that's the case, you can blame Kelvin Heppner for the rate of inflation and perhaps Shaun Haney for the fact that you can't lock down enough glyphosate for the spring. While I'm mostly kidding, both supply chain disruption... Read More
Regina is on its way to becoming the canola crush hub of the country. The most recent canola crush announcement, made last week, includes a 1.1 million metric ton capacity plant, funded by AGT Foods and Federated Co-operatives Limited. While announcements have been fast and furious the last few years, Chuck Penner of LeftField Commodities... Read More
The global phosphate market is experiencing some shortages lately and there is a potential domestic solution. Over the last ten years, Arianne Phosphate, based out of Montreal, Que. has been working on the largest green-field, or undeveloped phosphate deposit, located north of the Saguenay region. "It's a very big deposit. Today it's the world's largest... Read More