Central Crop Consultant’s Meeting Minutes – Tues June 2nd 2015

Synopsis: Rainfall amounts over last weekend across region varied from 0.25″ in lakeshore areas to 2.5 – 3″ in Tavistock-Guelph area. See map of areas affected by frost on fieldcropnews- Extent of Cold Temperature map.  May 23rd frost was widespread and caused more damage than originally estimated.  Need to remind growers to get out and check all their fields. York, Norfolk, Peel, Halton, Dufferin areas experienced heaviest damage. Soybeans planted prior to May 8th & min-til soybeans suffered greatest damage.  Some replants of corn on muck and light sand soils. Overall acres of soybeans and corn replanted will be similar to other years, it just happened following one BIG frost.  Winter wheat beginning to head out, and fungicide application expected to begin next week.  

Corn:  Odd pattern to frost damage, with healthy and damaged plants in close proximity.   Provincial estimates of 1% of corn replanted due to frost. Cold soils slowing recovery with reports of corkscrewing of corn. Warmer temperatures will accelerate recovery with new growth pushing out from dead tissue. Worms pulling dead leaves down into burrows will hurt recovery of those plants.  Some reports of greater soil insect (wireworm, billbug, seedcorn maggot) damage to corn.  Weeds that escaped pre-emerge treatments are getting large and with some corn now at 6 leaf, control options very limited.  Options on larger corn include Impact, Armezon, Peakplus up to 7 leaf; and Accent., Callisto up to 8 leaf stage. Refer to Guide to Weed Control for more details.  Accent availability very limited. Grass control options are more limited at advanced corn leaf stages.  Worth while to remind customers that even where there was pre-emerge herbicide ‘failure’, weed pressure is much less and the pre-emerge will provide some residual control when it is activated by rainfall.  Need to remind growers in staging corn for herbicide application, to count dead leaves, that frost damaged plants are at same stage of physiological maturity.  If a grass herbicide is being used to burnoff remaining corn in replant situation, need to be careful with which product is used. Excel works well on small corn, while other products like Venture or Poast may not be best because they have some residual activity. Check label first.

Soybeans:  Most of frost damage occurred in fields planted prior to May 8th; with min-till fields hit harder due to cooler soil temperatures and because residue prevents radiation of heat from soil. Estimates place replanting at 3% of acres. Most replants involved thickening up stands, with limited replants of entire fields. Overseeding rates varied with remaining healthy plant population; 75,0000 up to 125,000 (1 bag seed)/ acre common seeding rate. Shorter season varieties in limited supply. Growers that used burndown with pre-emerge herbicide in min-til situations are seeing benefits of burndown giving early weed control until pre-emerge herbicide activated.  Biggest issue this spring was shallow seeding and planting into residue. Good technique one grower uses while planting is setting a timer as reminder to stop every 3 hours to check planting depth, and take a break.

Canola:  A couple of instances of replanting due to frost. Flea beetle pressure very low, and may not be much of problem as most canola is growing rapidly. Swede midge now being caught in traps, with near threshold numbers (20 total to date per 4 traps) in historical high midge area (Arthur, Shelburne, Orangeville). Ontario Canola Growers Assoc providing traps, and have a map with reported midge captures on their website: SWEDE MIDGE TRAP CAPTURES OCGA

Hard frost in Western Canada affected up to 1/3 of canola with lots of replanting, supporting new crop harvest prices that are now over $500/t.

Forages:  Most newly established stands survived the frost. Forage harvest underway with yields 75% of normal to date.

Cereals:  Spring cereal crops look excellent and like other crops, in need of weed control. Second application of nitrogen (UAN) caused some foliar scorch, but most of this is below flag leaf and will have minimal impact on yield. Most of this injury occurred 2 weeks ago when application during cold weather following warm spell.  Concern that the wheat crop will be much shorter than normal, which could continue to support strong straw prices.

Agricorp:

  • About 1200 damage reports to corn and soybeans to date provincially. To minimize delays in replanting, Agricorp is accepting recommendations to replant from crop advisers in some areas where damage reports are the highest. Of the farmers that report damage some 30% report needing to do some reseeding. Provincial estimates of 3% for corn and 10-15% for soybeans of those with damage claims, with some replanting.
  • New forage seedings that are insured, coverage extends until May 31st of following year or when first harvested. There is 10% deductible on acres, which is similar to deductible for grain crops. For more information refer to ‘New Forage Seeding production’ plan : New Forage Production Insurance – Agricorp
  • Remind farmers that they can save time by reporting seeded acres by reporting on-line.
  • Please consider signing up for direct deposit.
  • June 15: Last day to report unseeded acreage. June 30: Spring seeded final acreage reports due. July 10: Premiums

Weather

  • Weather Central provides excellent information of current and forecast spray conditions (SPRAYcast). Sponsored by Bayer CropScience and Pride, data is provided by OWN. For more information: Weather Central. Other tools are provided including DONCast, BINCast.
  • Wind Finder also provided wind, current and forecast weather information.  There is App for mobile devices including iphones and android phones. Website: Wind Finder Phone App
  • Intellicast : USA based weather information site, provides historical, current and forecast weather, including WINDcast. Phone App is available for download. For WINDcast : WINDcast by Intellicast

Important Dates:

July 8 & 9, 2015     – Southwest Crop Diagnostic Days, www.diagnosticdays.ca University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus

January 5 & 6, 2016 – Southwest Agricultural Conference www.southwestagconference.ca University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus

Please direct any questions, comments or agenda items to either:

Brian Hall, OMAFRA, Email: brian.hall@ontario.ca, Phone: 519-271-0083

Ian McDonald, OMAFRA, Email: ian.mcdonald@ontario.ca. Phone: 519-824-4120 ext 5-6707