“Carbon to nitrogen ratio imbalance” is a term used to describe a type of nitrogen deficiency. A field recently had pulp and paper biosolids applied. The newly planted crop looked great, until the seedlings ran out of seed reserves and started utilizing soil nutrients. The crop then turned a neon shade of yellow. What happened? […]
As of July 1, 2015, new requirements for buying and using neonicotinoid-treated corn and/or soybean seed are being phased in to allow growers to adapt to new requirements. This fall (2015) – to prepare for the 2016 growing season Required for Seed Order To purchase and plant 50% or less of your total grain corn or total soybean crop for […]
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: […]
Farmers wishing to plant oats to increase feed inventories after an early corn silage harvest likely don’t need to worry about atrazine negatively affecting oat establishment and yield. It is not without risk because atrazine dissipation in the soil is slower in dry years and oats are a relatively sensitive species to atrazine. However, given the […]
Trap counts are still quite high this week in Ontario which indicates that peak flight hasn’t plateaued yet. So there is likely still lots of egg laying happening. Moths will prefer to lay eggs in later planted corn that is still in pre to early tassel stages or will find dry bean fields nearby. Just […]
Lots of people have been sending in pics of eggs, nymphs or adult stink bugs and asking which stink bug it is. So I thought I’d try to help sort them out for you. There are predatory stink bugs and then there are plant feeding stink bugs. It is important to make sure you can […]
With the exception of the last few hot days, these slightly cooler than norm July temps are ideal for soybean aphid development. They can double their populations in a matter of days when temperatures are moderate. There haven’t been many reports of threshold levels being found in the fields so I am a little worried […]
A few tweets, text messages and reports from our scouts have indicated that WBC egg masses are being found in corn this week. The next two to three weeks are key for scouting and managing WBC for the bulk of the corn crop. Though the typical hot spots (eg. Bothwell area) are more prone to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
First flower open on soybeans means that they have reached the R1 stage. From this stage until the start of R6, where the pods on the top few nodes of the plant are filled with a swollen seed, soybean aphid thresholds kick in. A few fields were colonized earlier this spring but for the most […]
There are many opportunities to include cover crops in the rotation. The goal is to keep the soil covered with at least 30% crop, cover crop or residue, 100% of the time. A second goal is to have living roots in the soil as much as possible. Research at University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus has […]
Thanks to Pioneer for sponsoring Breakfast. Chair for this meeting was Aric Bos. These meetings have been a great success because of your attendance and participation. Thank you to all those who took the time to participate in 2015. All the best for the rest of the growing season. Rainfall was widespread last night and […]
In 2013, Grain Farmers of Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) met with a number of farm service companies and producers to discuss what obstacles exist to farmers getting started with precision agriculture techniques. The group created a list of research topics that would benefit farmers and consultants in […]