Reading Time: 6 minutes Soybean production in the past 10 years has undergone a radical transformation at both ends of the statistical spectrum. On the positive side, yields are up, and so is the frequency of getting unexpectedly good crops. Unfortunately, what we get on one hand, we can lose with the other, and the yield losses where weeds, […] Read more
Getting that extra 15 per cent from your soybean yields
More intensive soybean production can pay off with solid per-acre returns
China’s farmers switch to soy amid corn market reform
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters — Wang Zhonghai, a 49-year-old farmer in China’s top corn producing province of Heilongjiang, plans to switch 80 per cent of his land to cultivate soybeans this year as the government ends a near-decade-old corn price support scheme. China announced last week it will stop its corn stockpiling program and allow markets to set […] Read more
CBOT weekly outlook: Corn, soybeans await data
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Soybeans and corn at the Chicago Board of Trade have been edging higher on investor short-covering ahead of a key report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While trade estimates are bearish for both of those markets, highly-anticipated reports often throw curveballs at investors, one analyst says. Soybeans – “This report is […] Read more
CBOT weekly outlook: Beans choppy ahead of data, corn sideways
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– Chicago Board of Trade corn prices are set to trade sideways over the course of the week as the market awaits fresh news, but that staleness is in direct contrast with the turbulence in soybeans. Soybeans – “They’re going to trade pretty choppy,” said Terry Reilly at Futures International. Soybeans should feel […] Read more
Pest Patrol: Any updates on vetch control in soybeans?
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 2 minutes In a 2014 column, I expressed my optimism for a herbicide treatment to control vetch (Viccia cracca) before planting soybeans. I wrote, “2,4-D Ester 700 applied seven days prior to soybean planting looks like a promising tool for the control of vetch in soybeans provided vetch has emerged at the time of application. More trial […] Read more
Blending scores big with cover crops — and diversity
More growers are exploring more blends with specific goals in sight
Reading Time: 8 minutes At Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show this past fall, the cover-crop focus was on diversity. There was a high-diversity blend, a six-way blend, a Merlin (Ontario) Multi-Mix and a soil-building mix. There was even a cool-season N-fixing blend, just to gauge its potential. If it seems like a lot to take in, get used to it. […] Read more
CBOT weekly outlook: Trade now watching weather
Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada — Soybean and corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade have posted solid gains over the past two weeks, but the rally may run out of steam while attention in the markets shifts to spring weather patterns. “We’ve had a very strong rally since late February,” said Rich Feltes, vice-president of research […] Read more
Waterhemp knocking at Canada’s door
This cousin of the feared Palmer amaranth has reached the Canadian border, and could soon begin marching across the West
Reading Time: 4 minutes A new alien is lurking in the fields of North Dakota and Minnesota, preparing to invade Canada and cause no end of trouble. The potential enemy is a noxious weed called waterhemp, a member of the pigweed family and a cousin of Palmer amaranth, a glyphosate-resistant weed currently plaguing cotton and soybean growers in the […] Read more
Last call for continuous soybean crops
Continuous soys are tough on the soil, tough on yields and tough on the pocketbook. So why do we still plant them?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Many years ago, Ross Daily, the television host of “This Business of Farming” spoke at a county-level federation of agriculture meeting, and in the course of his speech congratulated growers on their six-year rotations. The audience was frankly bewildered until Daily offered an explanation to clear the confusion. “You know what I’m talking about: soybeans-soybeans-soybeans-soybeans-soybeans, […] Read more
Soybean marketing will take strong nerves in 2016
Producers will need confidence to pull the trigger once the market has given all that it will give
Reading Time: 5 minutes In Canada, soybean production has been quite a success story. Where at one time soybean production was concentrated in the extreme southwest of Ontario, now it is an important part of cropping plans in an ever-expanding area. In 2016, however, there are many management challenges ahead for Canadian soybean producers. Change is our only constant, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
