A cool, wet spring has slowed fieldwork and dreams of early planting appear to be disappearing as the calendar turns to May. But the backward conditions have not stalled weed growth in fields across Ontario. That means growers will need to keep a close eye on winter annuals and mounting weed pressure in soybean and corn… Read More
Category: Soybean Disease, Weeds & Insects
Corn yield records are made to be broken. That was certainly the case in Ontario in 2021 when the provincial average topped 200 bushels per acre, smashing the previous average yield mark. But all the corn brings with it an abundance of organic matter to return to the soil. When it comes to soil health… Read More
Glyphosate supply has been a hot topic this winter as growers look for ways to navigate through short supplies of this critical weed control tool. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, University of Guelph weed scientist Dr. Peter Sikkema joins Bernard Tobin to discuss best practices and strategies to help growers make the most of… Read More
The 2021 growing season was one of challenge and opportunity, and Ontario’s soybean specialist, Horst Bohner, says that it all added up to a record average yield for the province at 51.6 bu/ac over 2.9 million acres. The record isn’t a surprise, given that early field tour estimations pegged yield potential well above average. On this… Read More
2021 will certainly be remembered for the drought in Western Canada, but there were other factors, such as late frost, damaging winds, and new pests that also challenged the soybean crop on the eastern side of the Prairies. Despite all of those stresses, there was still a crop to harvest in most cases, with yields… Read More
Which management practices help boost soybean yields and give you the best return on investment? That’s a question Wisconsin soybean specialist Shawn Conley and his colleagues have been working on for four years, and the answers may be surprising for many growers. On this episode of the RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, Conley shares how the researchers… Read More
When it comes to applying a pre-harvest burndown, getting in the field for an accurate pod assessment is crucial. When a harvest aid is applied at the appropriate time, it can work quickly. On this Soybean School episode, Bernard Tobin is joined by BASF agronomist Ken Currah in the field to talk staging soybeans for… Read More
Does it pay to invest in weed control in a dry year? When soil moisture is scarce, one way to help conserve it is to prevent weeds – they can rob the precious resource from emerging and growing plants. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, we travel to the BASF research and development site… Read More
Wet, humid weather across Ontario this summer has required many soybean growers to apply two fungicide applications to help control white mould. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plant pathologist Albert Tenuta discusses best practices to help manage the yield-robbing disease, including canopy construction. Tenuta points… Read More
We know that planting a soybean crop is half the battle in getting good yields, but once it’s growing and the potential is there, how can growers protect soybean yield potential? In this Soybean School episode, Ken Currah, agronomist at BASF, joins Bernard Tobin in the field at Oxford County, Ont., to talk white mould,… Read More
Grasshoppers are a concern this year for many soybean growing areas. The decision process to spray, not to spray, when to do it, and how much of the field should get covered, requires scouting to get an average number. Brunel Sabourin of Antara Agronomy joins Kelvin Heppner in this episode of Soybean School to discuss… Read More
A spring of extremes — first cold, dry and windy, then hot, dry and windy — has resulted in weeds getting a head start in many soybean fields in the soybean-growing areas of Western Canada. While wind and cold temperatures delayed burnoff applications at the start of the season, questions about when to spray in… Read More
Scouting soybeans is a big part of any Ontario agronomist’s year. Emergence, a consistent plant stand, and seeding depth are the first few things to scout for in the field. Ryan Benjamins, who owns and operates Benjamins Agronomy Services, gives tips for scouting soybeans and what to consider further along in the growing season, in… Read More
We rely more and more on artificial intelligence and powerful computers to accumulate and process information. Can artificial intelligence help us grow a better soybean crop? In this Soybean School episode, Bernard Tobin is joined by Shawn Conley, University of Wisconsin-Madison soybean extension specialist, to talk about his research in artificial intelligence derived management systems for… Read More
Resistance to Group 2 herbicides has been common and assumed in many cases with kochia in Western Canada for years, but weed survey results show glyphosate (Group 9) resistance in the invasive tumbleweed species has exploded in recent years. In 2013, less than 1 per cent of kochia populations sampled by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada… Read More