Do you want to increase your crop yields by 10-15%? Plant a windbreak!

Did you know that windbreaks: increase crop yield, improve soil moisture distribution over fields and reduce soil loss? provide shade and shelter for livestock? minimize spray drift and odours? decrease the amount of snow drift onto driveways and roads? enhance biodiversity and wildlife habitat can generate alternative income? Windbreaks have many benefits for farmers and […]

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Software Program Helps Ontario Farmers Prevent Soil Erosion

The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE2) is a software program designed to help farmers estimate the potential for soil erosion under different land management and cropping practices. The software overcomes many of the limitations of the previous USLE equation. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) has adapted the RUSLE2 for […]

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Steel in the field

I recently was asked if I knew of any good resources for farmers wishing to reduced herbicide use or transition to organic production. My favourite is called “Steel in the field – a farmer’s guide to weed management tools” Edited by Greg Bowman and published by the Sustainable Agriculture Network. If you want a print […]

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FREE Online Tutorials to Help You Use the Agricultural Information Atlas!

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) developed a series of tutorials to help you use the Agricultural Information Atlas (AIA). The tutorials provide step-by-step instructions on a range of topics – from the basics of navigating through the application to creating specific maps for submissions to OMAFRA. With the AIA, you can: […]

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Cover Crop Options for Wet Soils

Co-authored by Anne Verhallen, Soil Management Specialist, OMAFRA After a wet spring and a number of heavy rains there are fields with drowned crop or in some cases fields that have not been planted. Rather than let the weeds grow this offers an opportunity for soil improvement with cover crops. Wet holes or depressional areas […]

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Herbicide Injury Scenarios in Soybean – 2015 Ridgetown Diagnostic Days

Below are 10 herbicide injury scenarios applied to 4 different soybean varieties, specifically, Liberty Link (glufosinate tolerant), Enlist (glufosinate, glyphosate and 2,4-D tolerant), Xtend (glyphosate and dicamba tolerant) and Roundup Ready (glyphosate tolerant). Since it is possible that both Enlist and Xtend varieties may be available for the 2016 growing season, one of the main […]

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Western Bean Cutworm Update 2015

Author: Jen Bruggeman, Research Assistant, University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus Western Bean Cutworm traps have been up in Ontario for approximately 5 weeks, with nil to low catches being reported until now.  Just this week we have started to see an increase in moth captures, due to our resident population starting to emerge from the […]

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