Western bean cutworm took a big bite out of many Ontario cornfields in 2016 as high populations of the pest caused increased levels of fusarium and gibberella ear rot. With the pest expected to overwinter and be a threat again in 2017, many growers are asking whether they need to spray and when. Real Agriculture... Read More
Category: Crops
Grain markets ended the second week of January a little higher than they started things, mainly thanks to a relatively bullish WASDE report from the USDA, on Thursday, January 12. The January report tends to provide some fireworks, and it did not disappoint this year, helping guide futures values higher. Soymeal, up 7.1% for the... Read More
Put two great corn minds together and you come up with seven corn management concepts to help you boost yields in 2017. University of Guelph professor Dr. David Hooker and Maizex agronomist Greg Stewart shared the results of their brainstorm with growers attending the recent Southwest Agricultural Conference, held at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown... Read More
What impact do fungicides, plant population, and row spacing have on your soybean yields? The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) has been working with growers in the state for years to help assess the impact of crop inputs and management options. In this episode of Soybean School, ISA researcher Tristan Mueller joins Real Agriculture’s Bernard Tobin... Read More
It's a busy week in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, this week for CropSphere and the Crop Production Show. RealAgriculture's Shaun Haney, Kelvin Heppner, and Peter Johnson got together to wrap up the week-long conference. There was a surprisingly high level of optimism at the show with farmers looking ahead at 2017 as a new opportunity and a... Read More
As the winter learning season rolls forward, the agronomy questions are flooding in, and Peter Johnson, host of Wheat Pete's Word, wouldn't have it any other way. In this week's episode, Johnson tackles some very complicated — but super important — ins and outs of nitrogen management. Confused about which crops leave a credit and... Read More
Every wheat farmer has watched with glee as the number on their yield monitor jumps 20 to 50 bushels as the combine travels through the field. In this episode of Real Agriculture Wheat School, agronomist Phil Needham of Needham AG Technologies offers advice on how farmers can drill down through yield maps and soil tests... Read More
Who are the most profitable corn growers? The answer to this question is really quite simple, says Ken Ferrie, one of North America’s leading agronomists and crop consultants. The most profitable corn growers are those who most effectively manage the big three crop production variables: sunlight, water, and nutrients. An independent agronomist, the Illinois-based Ferrie... Read More
Ontario's farmers are relatively familiar with using red clover on wheat to fix nitrogen and keep the soil covered into the fall, but cover crop use has quickly surpassed a one-species on one-crop approach. Lyndsey Smith, Ontario field editor for RealAgriculture, sat down with two farmers to ask them 4 Questions on cover crops: what's... Read More
Ontario farmers rarely see the yield monitor hit 240 bushels in their wheat crop. But Barry and Tyler McBlain hit that number in 2016. What’s even more amazing is that it happened on the tough clay soils southeast of Brantford in Brant County. In this episode of "Real Wheat Farmers", agronomist Peter Johnson talks with... Read More