Growing cover crop-based organic no-till soybeans requires a different system approach than for standard organic production. Three years of extensive research trials in Ontario have guided the development of four key best practices for growing no-till organic soybeans following a cereal rye cover crop. This tip sheet is designed to provide practical advice for Ontario […]
Tar Spot and Fungicide Application Timings! Although tar spot was detected in Ontario in the first week of July the past two years, 2022 is much different than 2021 and shows the importance of environmental conditions for disease development. Remember, this holds true for any disease! The big difference was the dry conditions early and […]
New OMAFRA Strip Till Fact Sheets BMP Resources on Strip Till Food and Farm Care Strip Till Video Series Field Crop News (FCN) Articles on Bio Strip Tillage Systems https://fieldcropnews.com/?s=biostrip+till&submit=Search […]
Traps south of London and in Essex County have had very high captures of fall armyworm. Winter canola, winter cereals, forages and cover crops should be monitored for larvae – not just limited to the region of these traps. Some fields of newly-seeded winter canola had extensive feeding damage in 2021 and had to be […]
Managing cover crops ahead of the 2023 corn crop If you’re like many Ontario farmers, you are not only watching as your crops head toward the finish line, but also keeping an eye on the progress of the cover crops you seeded after cereal harvest. With recent rainfall in many parts of the province, cover […]
Ontario Hay Listings is a free classifieds service provided by the Ontario Forage Council. Producers looking to buy or sell hay or straw are encouraged to post an ad. Bt-resistant Corn Rootworm Corn rootworm is a serious pest of continuous corn. Root feeding reduces yield and increases the risk of lodging and “goose-necking” which can […]
Simple Summary – Changes in fertilizer:corn price ratios (not fertilizer prices alone) change optimum P and K rates. Corn prices increasing with fertilizer prices can limit price ratio changes. – Significant price ratio changes are required to appreciably change optimum P and K rates. For instance, changing fertilizer:corn price ratio ($/lb-P:$/lb-corn) in a recent Ontario […]
How Close is Your Corn Nitrogen Rate to Optimum? Testing Nitrogen Rates On-Farm. Simple Summary Three methods can provide insight for how close grower corn nitrogen (N) rates may be to the optimum Multi-Rate N Trial – the most accurate for determining optimum N rates, but also the most work Delta-Yield Estimation – provides a […]
Continuous Corn and Bt Corn Rootworm Resistance Unexpected damage on Bt rootworm (Bt-RW) hybrids – hybrids with below-ground protection – has been found in several fields and new counties this month. The damage includes significant stunting, root clipping, goosenecking, silk clipping and abundant rootworm adult populations mating and feeding (Figure 1). All of these are […]
Summary This article was written by Gia Shelp, OMAFRA Corn Specialist Assistant, Summer 2022. As the assistant to OMAFRA corn specialist Ben Rosser this summer, I have had first-hand experience on the importance of avoiding compaction in fields. From being mindful of how I drive machinery in our research plots to visiting farmer’s fields and […]
Root growth of corn plants (V5 growth stage) growing in soil compacted to different bulk densities before corn seeds were planted (Strachan and Jeschke 2017) […]
Soil structure is a key indicator of soil health. The Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) provides a simple framework for quantitatively scoring soil structure quality. It requires only a shovel for extracting a block of soil and a scoring sheet for evaluating it and can be performed in about 10 minutes with a little […]
Weather Much of the province received rain this past week, with significant rainfall (over 76 mm or 3 inches) in Huron Shores and Georgian Bay and eastern Ontario. A 25 to 50 mm (1-2 inch) rain mid-summer can still help finalize average yields, but it is too early to make final yield predictions. Crops that […]
Rain events across the province have interrupted a dry spring. While the water is welcome, the 5-7 days after a rain that ends a severe dry period increases the risk of nitrates in forage crops! Nitrates are of concern because they can increase silo gas production and cause nitrate poisoning in livestock. Silo Gas Silo gas […]
Ontario Hay Listings is a free classifieds service provided by the Ontario Forage Council. Producers looking to buy or sell hay or straw are encouraged to post an ad. The optimal time to summer seed alfalfa mixes depends on the length of the growing season: More than 3100 CHU: August 10-20 2700 – 3100 CHU: August […]