With canola swathing underway across Western Canada, now is the time for growers to assess the toll that diseases have taken on the crop. The “what to look for” list at this time includes the main suspects: blackleg, sclerotinia and clubroot. In this episode of the Canola School, Keith Gabert of the Canola Council of... Read More
Category: Crops
When a growing season doesn't go exactly as hoped — a late spring, a cool summer, too much rain — corn growers get understandably nervous. Corn is a C4 plant — it can tolerate hot weather and needs rather warm weather to grow, set yield and mature. As much of Ontario deals with "weird and... Read More
UPDATE: Brian Hall, of OMAFRA, says lab test confirms the primary disease is bacterial brown spot, a disease that has never been found in Ontario before. It is affecting azuki beans only, so far. The disease is also being reported in Colorado, Nebraska and Michigan. @realag_lyndsey all adzukus that have scouted in east central #ontag... Read More
With the news last week that the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association has become a member of Cereals Canada, some farmers in Saskatchewan are now wondering where their provincial organization — the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission — stands. According to its strategic plan unveiled earlier this month, the goal for the newly-formed Cereals Canada... Read More
Storing grain in bags has certainly caught on in popularity in recent years, however temporary storage does create one possibly permanent problem — what do you do with the grain bag itself? Recycling is an option for many grain farmers (re-using it as a slip and slide isn’t typically an option if you’re unloading in... Read More
If you've never been to Canada's Outdoor Farm Show, or it's been a long time since you've gone, Real Agriculture's Bern Tobin spent a day on the grounds talking with those in the know about the 2014 show set to start in just two weeks — September 9, 2014. From where you should stop first,... Read More
The Grain Farmers of Ontario have been rather busy — from moving in to a new, larger office space, to tackling big issues like announced increased regulation of neonicotinoid use in the province, to potentially bringing new commodity groups under the GFO banner, there's been no shortage to keep Henry Van Ankum, GFO chair, busy.... Read More
Hot summer days and over-wintered canola — a disaster waiting to happen, or a non-issue? Turns out, as of last fall, there was little if any research to reference on the safety of storing canola well into the hot summer months. Canola growers will be pleased to learn that that's no longer the case, as... Read More
Do you know the most likely way your farmland loses nitrogen? (Now would be a great time to review all the ways N evades being used by the plant. Check out the image in this post). Why does this matter? For one, putting down fertilizer that's simply lost to the water or air is just... Read More
There are at least two reasons why having an added herbicide tolerance gene built-in to a soybean variety makes sense — one, to make up for early season non-competitiveness of the crop, and, two, because of the increasing risk of glyphosate-tolerant weeds. To that end, Monsanto recently rolled out its soybean XTend trait — dicamba... Read More