Hail, Hail, Go Away

As occurs most years, summer thunderstorms brought localized hail events through parts of Ontario, particularly during the last week of July (Figure 1). After a hail event, our first question is usually how much leaf tissue is still out there? When evaluating damage, it’s good to wait a week or so before going in. This […]

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Nitrogen Status in 2018 Corn Fields

Co-authored with Ian McDonald Background OMAFRA Field Crop Unit staff have traditionally conducted an annual Pre Sidedress Nitrogen Test (PSNT) survey across Ontario at the beginning of June to measure background soil nitrate levels mineralized from the soil as an indication of year-to-year soil nitrogen status. In past years, 80-100 samples would be collected from […]

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Crop response to herbicides applied prior to and after emergence.

For over 30 years, the Ontario Agriculture Weed’s team has competed in the Collegiate Weed Science Competition organized by the North Eastern Weed Science Society. In preparation for the “herbicide identification” portion of the competition, an area at the Elora Research Station is planted to a number of different crop and weed species and then sprayed […]

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What to consider when selecting corn silage hybrids

This article originally appeared in Milk Producer Magazine. As another harvest season approaches, it also marks the time for deciding which corn hybrids to select for next year. It is always important to choose hybrids that are well adapted to the area and have good agronomic characteristics for your fields, although some characteristics commonly selected […]

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How Variable Are Your Corn Stands? On-Farm Plant-Plant Variability Study for Corn in 2016

Stand

Past research in Ontario and abroad has demonstrated the importance of uniform emergence for maximizing corn yield. At the Southwest Ag Conference in January, Randy Dowdy, 2014 National Corn Growers Association yield contest winner from Georgia proposed the “flag test” – returning to a plot every 12 or 24 hours and flagging every newly emerged plant using a different coloured flag for each […]

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