Jake Munroe, Mike Cowbrough and Sebastian Belliard (OMAFRA) Cereal rye (Secale cereal) 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…
An invasive perennial weed from the milkweed family, dog strangling vine, is extremely difficult to control once it gets established (Figure 1). Progress has been made on biological control of this weed in Ontario through the release of Hypena opulenta, a leaf feeding caterpillar. However, integrated strategies that include both biological and chemical methods are often most effective at…
A pre-harvest herbicide treatment can make harvest more efficient when there are an unacceptable number of weeds in a soybean crop. Both conventional and glyphosate tolerant fields that are weedy can benefit from a pre-harvest herbicide. Drier plant matter will pass more easily through the combine, lowering seed losses and reducing seed staining…
This post will serve as a repository for all information associated with the management and control of waterhemp in Ontario.
Mike Cowbrough May 3, 2020 1752 Comments Off on Mixing “ATS” with herbicides: The importance of a “jar test”Each year I get more questions about mixing the liquid fertilizer, ammonium thiosulphate (ATS) with herbicides. With reductions in atmospheric Sulphur deposits, Ontario research has shown positive yield responses in some crops when Sulphur fertilizers are applied and so it makes sense that farmers are looking at ways to add Sulphur to their crop in an efficient manner. However, my…
Scentless chamomile has a reputation for being difficult to control and a 2019 on-farm research trial evaluated several herbicide treatments. Although 10 treatments provided over 80% visual control of emerged plants, new seedlings continued to emerge several weeks after application resulting in a significant amount of plants at the end of August. In order to significantly reduce the population of…
The following link will take you to a .pdf version of the wild carrot chapter from the book entitled “Problem Weed Guide for Ontario Crops – Volume 1”
Summary Some years it’s a pleasure to grow soybeans. Other years producing a crop can be a real challenge. The 2019 growing season will be remembered as being very stressful for those involved in crop production. During this challenging year, Agricorp focused on optimizing resources to ensure that customers had the information they needed and that program payments were delivered….
OMAFRA Field Crop Team June 13, 2019 2321 Comments Off on Ontario Field Crop Report – Week of June 10th, 2019Corn Significant planting progress was made the end of last week and through the weekend as sunshine and warm temperatures dominated for a string of days. Despite the calendar date and reduced yield potential of later planting, many continued to plant corn noting the competitiveness of returns relative to soybeans. Many areas are reporting corn planting reaching 90-95% of intended…
OMAFRA Field Crop Team June 6, 2019 1876 Comments Off on Ontario Field Crop Report – Week of June 3rd, 2019Corn Progress was made over the last week in areas with lighter textured soils. Those areas now have upwards of 80% of their intended corn acres planted. However, regions with heavier textured soils such as Lambton, Essex, Niagara and Middlesex have 30% of their corn acres planted. Overall, ~60% of the intended corn acres are planted in the province. With…
Mike Cowbrough March 22, 2019 2930 Comments Off on What’s Working on the Farm? Practical Solutions for Problem Weeds“Do not be cheap. Weed control is an investment into the current and future crops on every field.” That was parting advice from Norfolk and Oxford County farmer Ann Vermeersch at the 2019 FarmSmart Conference in Guelph. In front of 80 farmers and agronomists, I moderated a session with Vermeersch and Steph Kowalski, a Certified Crop Advisor and Lead…
Mike Cowbrough November 20, 2018 2995 Comments Off on Managing Glyphosate Resistant Canada Fleabane with Cover Crops and TillageMy colleague Dr. Clarence Swanton (University of Guelph) used to say that based on research he did in the 1980’s, one should not expect to control weeds with cover crops. Their utility was in preventing soil erosion and improving soil health but not in significantly reducing weed populations. However, Dr. Swanton has had to re-think his long held position on…
The OMAFRA Guide to Weed Control for Field Crops (Publication 75A) is available in the following formats: ELECTRONIC ENGLISH VERSION (PDF): click to download ELECTRONIC FRENCH VERSION (PDF): click to download PRINT VERSIONS: Go to Publications Ontario and search the term “Guide to Weed Control”
The latest best management practices for common ragweed competing in corn, soybean and winter wheat can be found here: Common ragweed control (Source: Problem Weed Guide for Ontario Crops)
Mike Cowbrough August 8, 2017 3460 Comments Off on 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 with several herbicides. This training…
