Jake Munroe – Field Crop News

Getting to Know Your Knolls Part 1: Understanding and Managing High pH Knolls

Jake Munroe September 23, 2020 448 Comments Off

Jake Munroe, Soil Management Specialist – Field Crops, OMAFRA We’ve all seen them. Hilltops. Whitecaps. High spots where the crop struggles year after year. Eroded knolls are common to Ontario agriculture and cost farmers in lost productivity each season. However, not all eroded knolls are alike. In this two-part series, we will explore knolls: how they’ve formed and how they…

Introducing PLATO, the Phosphorus Loss Assessment Tool for Ontario

Jake Munroe June 24, 2020 518 Comments Off

Soil Health

Keeping soil covered and minimizing erosion is a key principle of soil health. Maximizing the efficiency of crop nutrient uptake and minimizing losses are the foundation of 4R Nutrient Stewardship. When combined, these principles form the basis of a new online tool from OMAFRA called PLATO (Phosphorus Loss Assessment Tool for Ontario). PLATO is a calculator that you can use to estimate the risk of phosphorus loss on your farm. It’s part of the newly re-vamped AgriSuite and uses your specific soil, crop and nutrient application information to provide a risk rating and options to improve your score.

How Ontario farmers are minimizing erosion on their farms

Jake Munroe April 21, 2020 667 1 Comment

Cover Crops

It’s the time of year when you can see the impact of erosion on farm fields across the province. Whether it’s subtle (Figure 1) or obvious (Figure 2), erosion affects soil by reducing fertility, decreasing organic matter and lowering productivity. With National Soil Conservation Week happening from April 19th to 25th, I wanted to highlight some strategies Ontario farmers are…

Organic no-till soybean production: is it possible in Ontario?

Jake Munroe April 7, 2020 1378 2 Comments

Cover Crops

Why organic no-till? Organic soybean production relies on a significant amount of tillage. When done well, yields can rival conventional production. There are drawbacks, however, including a high labour demand in the spring and the potential for soil degradation over time. Cover crop-based organic no-till soybean production techniques have been developed in recent years and proven to work in parts…

To plant green or to plant brown? Rye cover crop termination timing before soybeans (updated with 2019 data)

Jake Munroe March 30, 2020 1413 2 Comments

Cover Crops

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…

Introducing Soil Test Manager

Jake Munroe March 23, 2020 1002 Comments Off

Soil Fertility

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…

Diagnosing Nutrient Deficiencies

Jake Munroe September 23, 2019 2123 Comments Off

Soil Fertility

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…

Heartland and Eastern Valley Soil and Crop Tier Two Project, 2018-2020: Pushing the Management of Cover Crop Rye

Jake Munroe June 20, 2019 1255 Comments Off

Cover Crops

Achieving 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…

To plant green or to plant brown? Rye cover crop termination timing before soybeans

Jake Munroe December 17, 2018 4347 Comments Off

Cover Crops

Go 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…

New Soil Fertility Handbook Released!

Jake Munroe December 11, 2018 4224 Comments Off

Soil Fertility

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…

Cereal Rye – A Simple but Effective Cover Crop Option

Jake Munroe September 20, 2018 6013 Comments Off

Cover Crops

With 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-Till at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show 2018

Jake Munroe September 10, 2018 2138 Comments Off

Corn

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…

Ontario Field Crop Report, June 21, 2018: Sulphur response in Ontario’s field crops

Jake Munroe June 22, 2018 2751 Comments Off

Crop Reports

Sulphur (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…

Soil pH and liming decisions

Jake Munroe October 30, 2017 5078 Comments Off

Soil Fertility

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…

Soil fertility benefits of wheat in rotation

Jake Munroe September 5, 2017 6192 Comments Off

Soil Fertility

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…

Author: Jake Munroe