Jake Munroe, Mike Cowbrough and Sebastian Belliard (OMAFRA) Cereal rye (Secale cereale) has several strengths as a cover crop option. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to kill. Rye improves soil structure, builds organic matter and helps protect against water and wind erosion. It can suppress weeds as discussed here (see Figure 1). It’s also very winter hardy and often the…
Have you ever looked up the official Ontario fertilizer or liming recommendations? They’re featured in “look-up” tables in OMAFRA production guides, such as our Agronomy Guide for Field Crops (Publication 811), and provide rates for phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, zinc and manganese, as well as lime, based on soil test values. A new way to access Ontario fertilizer and liming recommendations…
Organization: Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) Division/Branch: Economic Development Division / Agriculture Development Branch Position Title: Research Assistant in Soil Management Job Term: Temporary for 14 weeks, beginning spring 2020 Salary: …
Nutrient deficiencies can seriously impact crop yield. Certain deficiencies are seen every year in Ontario field crops, such as nitrogen deficiency in corn and manganese deficiency in soybeans. Others are brought on or made worse by environmental conditions – for example, potassium deficiency in soybeans and boron deficiency in alfalfa (Figure 1) during dry spells. Knowing how to identify deficiencies…
Jake Munroe June 20, 2019 947 Comments Off on Heartland and Eastern Valley Soil and Crop Tier Two Project, 2018-2020: Pushing the Management of Cover Crop RyeAchieving sufficient biomass from cover crops is essential to reaping their soil benefits. Dr. Humberto Blanco, Professor of Soil Management and Applied Physics at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, spoke recently at the University of Guelph about his cover crop research. He concluded that when cover crop biomass is less than 0.5 ton/acre (see Figure 1), benefits – such as improved soil…
Jake Munroe December 17, 2018 3269 Comments Off on To plant green or to plant brown? Rye cover crop termination timing before soybeansGo here for the updated version of this article. Cereal rye has several strengths as a cover crop option. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to kill. Rye improves soil structure, builds organic matter and helps protect against water and wind erosion. It also competes with weeds, as Mike Cowbrough has written here (see Figure 1). However, in most cases, rye…
Did you know that OMAFRA has a handbook that’s all about nutrients and soil fertility? It’s called the Soil Fertility Handbook and was first published in 1998. The book covers topics such as soil testing, soil pH and lime and fertilizer application. There’s a chapter on organic nutrient sources, like manure, biosolids and cover crops, as well as tips for…
Jake Munroe September 20, 2018 3759 Comments Off on Cereal Rye – A Simple but Effective Cover Crop OptionWith fall now officially here, thoughts are turning to harvest. And with each acre harvested, there is potential for a cover crop to be seeded. At this point in the season, the main cover crop option left is cereal rye. Not to be confused with annual ryegrass, rye is a cereal that is competitive, winter hardy and, like winter wheat,…
Strip-tillage is not a new practice – it’s been used by some Ontario growers for almost two decades. It’s gaining traction across the province more recently, however, due to advances in equipment, GPS technology, and advantages in fertilizer placement. What is strip-tillage? Strip-till is a system that creates residue-free strips that the following crop is planted into. The strips typically…
Jake Munroe June 22, 2018 2304 Comments Off on Ontario Field Crop Report, June 21, 2018: Sulphur response in Ontario’s field cropsSulphur (S) had been a neglected nutrient in Ontario for many years. For decades, in much of Ontario, sulphur came in significant quantities from the sky – deposited from emissions from industrial activity. Even before that, impurities in fertilizers and more widespread application of manure helped ensure a regular addition of sulphur to our soils. In recent years things have…
Correcting soil pH problems is one of the first steps in good soil management. If you have soil sampled recently and found that pH is low, you should act on it. Soil pH affects the availability of a wide range of nutrients in soil; if it is too low or too high, nutrients are less available to crops. If pH…
Before long, the 2018 winter wheat crop will be seeded across the province (Figure 1). Long-term research at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus shows that winter wheat in rotation provides an additional 10 bushels per acre to corn and 5 bushels to soybeans. At current crop prices, that means an extra 107 dollars per acre over a rotation. What…
It is National Soil Conservation Week this week, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to look at the impact of erosion on soils in Ontario over the past few months. Throughout the middle of April we’ve had some intense rain events. We had a mild winter this year in southwestern Ontario, with little snow cover, and had…
Cover crops are well proven to help reduce soil erosion and improve soil structure. They can also have nutrient benefits. Whether you have been growing cover crops for decades or are just getting started, it is helpful to know what specific cover crops can (and cannot) do from a soil fertility standpoint. There are three main ways that cover crops…
We live in interesting times when it comes to understanding soils. Our concept of what soil organic matter actually is, how it is formed, and how long it sticks around is evolving. The basic principle that has guided management of soil organic matter (SOM) for many years has been that the level of soil carbon is determined by its net…