Year-round cover crops growing in a three-crop rotation — sounds like a great idea that could create healthier, more productive soils, but can Ontario growers make it work? That’s a question the Thames Valley Soil and Crop Improvement Association and the Heartland Region are trying to determine with its Roots Not Iron project. In this... Read More
Category: Crop Production
AGCO Corporation is bringing to market White Planters 9800VE series planters equipped with SpeedTube seed tubes from Precision Planting. With SpeedTube on White Planters 9800VE Series planters, farmers can now achieve precise seed placement of corn at speeds nearly double traditional operating speeds, says AGCO. In field tests, the 9800VE Series planter with SpeedTube produced... Read More
How healthy is your soil? If you want to know all you have to do is bury your underwear, says Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) soil management specialist Adam Hayes. Last summer, Hayes helped members of the Renfrew County Soil and Crop Improvement Association bury underwear in their fields to determine... Read More
When you're on the hunt for that new seed drill one of the major consideration is row width configurations. There continues to be an influx of European thought on cereal production with the push to run sub-7.5 inch row widths. Some would argue that Ontario growers have gone narrower at a faster rate than Western... Read More
Will your wheat survive all the thawing and freezing during this up and down Ontario winter? It’s a question Real Agriculture agronomist Peter Johnson hears every day. “I always get calls from guys asking, 'Did the wheat break dormancy? If it gets cold is it going to die?' The simple answer is no – your... Read More
Are you tired of planting wheat every year? What if you only had to plant the crop every four years? If those questions spark your interest, you won’t want to miss this episode of Real Agriculture's Wheat School featuring Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist Jamie Larsen. He’s working to develop perennial wheat that would... Read More
Corn plants do indeed yield less when they emerge one day after their neighbour. What's more, the yield gap widens even further for later emergers. That’s the bottom line on the 2016 Real Agriculture flag test research,conducted by resident agronomist Peter Johnson. In this episode of Corn School, Johnson tells co-host Bernard Tobin that, based... Read More
We're kicking off February with a correction — no, that wasn't Greg Stewart in the production guide you saw last week, it really was your Wheat Pete's Word host Peter Johnson. This week, Johnson covers a whole lot of ground, including a reminder to check on your tiled fields to help identify broken tiles, a... Read More
Researchers with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the University of Guelph say they've found a new midge species causing damage to canola in northeastern Saskatchewan and east-central Alberta. This new species is similar to the swede midge, and belongs to the same Contarinia genus, but has yet to be named and scientifically described, according to... Read More
Ontario’s extremely dry 2016 growing conditions provided ample evidence of the benefits of growing cover crops and lengthening rotation to improve soil health and moisture-holding capacity. University of Guelph soil scientist Dr. Bill Deen shared some of that proof with agronomists attending the recent Ontario Certified Crop Advisor Association conference in London. For example, at... Read More