by Maja Menegotto, Undergraduate Student Experiential Learning (USEL) program student What is a Falling Plate Meter? A falling plate meter is a tool that can be used to estimate dry matter yield within grazing pastures (Rayburn and Lozier, 2003b). To do this, an acrylic plate is lowered against a metre stick in the center of the plate, onto the grass….
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….
Fall 2018 The cool, wet spring in 2018 resulted in delayed soybean planting for many producers across the province. This ultimately had an impact on winter wheat seeding in the fall of 2018 as soybean harvest was also delayed due to prolonged wet conditions. Growers who opted for early maturing soybeans were able to get their soybean crop off and…
(This article updated on March 5, 2019 with yield data from Agricorp. See table at end of article) Planting and Growing Conditions Acreage of dry beans in 2019 increased approximately 20% over 2018 acreage, with notable growth in acres of white and adzuki beans. Challenging planting conditions for corn and soybeans were likely a factor in the increased acres of…
Farmers who may be struggling to get corn dried this year are looking for alternate options. It is possible to use natural (unheated) air to dry the corn. Natural air drying is gentle and does not require any specialized equipment, other than a grain bin with a reasonably-sized fan, and maybe a small heater. However, the drying speed and final…
Many grain farmers may have questions about storing and drying corn this year, with recent propane shortages and a lot of wet corn still in the field. Decisions for harvesting corn will vary from farm to farm based on local conditions and factors (corn moisture, distance to alternative dryers, crop standability). Some farmers may already have harvested wet grain and…
Spring Canola Planting and Development Spring canola acreage in Ontario declined 25 per cent in 2019 compared to the previous year. Insured acres totaled just over 30,000 compared to approximately 40,000 in 2018. Five counties that grew canola in 2018 did not appear in the insured acreage statistics this year. Some producers were unable to plant all their intended canola…
Six tank-mix partners are recommended for the removal of Roundup Ready Alfalfa and since they vary significantly in cost (Table 1), their effectiveness was evaluated in a trial conducted at the Elora Research Station in 2018-19. Growing degree day accumulation after herbicide application appeared to have the greatest effect on the control of Roundup Ready alfalfa. Presumably because alfalfa has…
The benefits of earthworms in agricultural soils and how to reap them Earthworms are the ecosystem engineers of the soil. In most terrestrial ecosystems they represent the most abundant belowground biomass1, and in the same way beavers create habitat for a host of other species to thrive, earthworms make the soil ecosystem work. They help to break down and incorporate…
At harvest individual soybean plants that remain green may become evident. The whole plant or just the stem stays green and there are often fewer pods present on these plants. In severe cases the pods may also be small or rounded and have little or no seed. These pods are called parthenocarpic (seedless). There are a number of causes for…
Joanna Follings November 20, 2019 443 Comments Off on Considerations for Fungicide Applications in Oat ProductionWhen we think about fungicide applications we naturally think about protection from disease. However, there has been more discussion and reflection about the additional benefits that fungicides may provide including an improvement in overall plant health and harvestability of a crop. This was something that was discussed at the Ontario Cereal Crop Committee (OCCC) table this fall as we made…
Scott Banks November 20, 2019 610 Comments Off on Is this Peas with a Bad Case of Mustard?…No, it’s Peaola!Jennifer and Mike Doelman farm near Douglas, Ontario where Mike spoke about their experience growing peaola at a recent Soil Network event. The Ontario Soil Network goal is improving Ontario’s Soils. Growing peaola is the intercropping of peas and canola together in the same field, at the same time. Figure 1 shows the Doelman’s 2019 peaola field when both crops…
2018/2019 Fall and Winter Conditions Environment Canada stations recorded higher than average rainfall in August and the resulting forage growth prompted many harvests during the fall rest period to increase feed inventories. Southwestern, central, and eastern Ontario experienced several thaws between January and March. These reduced or eliminated snow cover and were often followed by cold snaps that caused ice…
Joanna Follings October 28, 2019 1525 Comments Off on Impact of Planting Date and Growing Degree Day Accumulations in Winter WheatEveryone is probably sick of me talking about the importance of winter wheat establishment and the need to seed winter wheat at the optimum time for improved success, yet we continue to push winter wheat seeding dates later and later each year. While there may be situations where we get away with seeding wheat into late October and November, it…
So your corn was planted late and got damaged by frost, or maybe it wasn’t quite fully mature when you harvested. You ended up harvesting low-test-weight corn. Now it needs to be dried and stored. Storing in your own bins may provide some marketing advantages. There may not be much tolerance for lower-quality grain sold at harvest, since everyone is…
