The province received variable precipitation this spring which had pathologists and producers expecting the arrival of members of the leaf spot complex. However, Kelly Turkington with the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lacombe Research and Development Centre said they may have been scorched by the July heat wave.

That’s no reason for farmers not to scout their fields. A late arrival of stripe rust spores blew into the province in late June, said Turkington. They likely originated in the state of Washington.

“Towards the early part of July there were reports (of stripe rust) out of Warner County and Vulcan County from a consultant and some reports in Lacombe County and then down the Highway Two corridor towards Calgary, both west and east,” he said.

Depending on the point in the season growers seeded, a stripe rust presence in cereal fields may mean a fungicide application, he said. Early-seeded crops may be out of luck from a timing perspective, but producers that seeded later may still have time to tackle the rust.

Those who may still have the chance to spray for stripe rust include those who seeded spring wheat for swath grazing or silage in late May or early June.

“Often we’ve seen in the past our worst stripe rust problems in those late-seeded fields where you might be looking at silage or swath grazing, especially where the variety is highly susceptible,” said Turkington.

Watch Glacier FarmMedia publications for more on this story.

The post Cereal leaf disease minimal in Alberta but be aware of blown-in stripe rust appeared first on Country Guide.

But that also means disease of all kinds — including cereal leaf diseases — are coming out to play. And now is the time to get them, said a plant pathologist.

“For disease this is our peak season. That’s when fungicide decisions are made,” said Randy Kutcher with the University of Saskatchewan. The big cereal leaf diseases in the province tend to be tan spot in wheat and durum and net blotch in barley, he said. Durum has also attracted some septoria in the past as well as bacterial leaf streak, particularly among seed growers under irrigation. Cereal crops are usually sprayed for leaf diseases at the fully-unfurled flag leaf stage. However, most crops in Saskatchewan have already passed that benchmark, said Kutcher.

The good news is that many (if not most) cereal producers today use one fungicide pass to take out fusarium head blight (FHB) at flowering and hope that it will also have some impact on leaf diseases. Kutcher recommended that practice.

“I see there’s lots of spray tracks in some of the fields,” he said. “I would think a lot of that is for fusarium head blight, but that application of fungicide will also help to mitigate the leaf diseases to some effect. Generally we like to hit the leaf diseases a little earlier.”

When that flowering takes place, of course, depends on when growers seeded. Due to the cool, wet spring interfering with seeding in some cases, that timing may vary, said Kutcher. Regardless, it’s just nice to have moisture, he said. “We’ve had quite a number of dry years. so I think everybody’s pretty happy. We’ve had a bit of replenishment of moisture in the soil and pretty good growing conditions.”

Watch this space for more coverage of cereal leaf diseases on the Prairies.

The post Back to normal for cereal leaf disease in Saskatchewan appeared first on Country Guide.

Argentina, the world’s no. 3 corn exporter, once expected a record haul of corn, but since March the crop has been hit by an unprecedented outbreak of bugs, which led the exchange to slash its forecast by 6.5 million tons to 50.5 million tons last week.

Leafhoppers are insects that carry the harmful spiroplasma disease and whose population tends to spread in hot and dry conditions.

“Corn is very affected and this is something we fear and that worries us,” Cristian Russo, head of agricultural estimates at the Rosario Stock Exchange, told Reuters.

“It is likely that this will be a factor in further losses, which will not be minor losses.”

Russo said that in the worst-hit northern provinces such as Chaco, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán, the losses caused by the disease ranged between 40 per cent and 50 per cent, when normally the figure only reached five per cent at worst.

He added that severe cases of leafhoppers, which thrive in humid and warm conditions, were also being seen in regions where they usually did not appear, a reflection of the unusual nature of this year’s damaging outbreak.

“It has reached areas where it never reached before. It took the technicians by surprise. It hit the center and north of (the province of) Santa Fe and (the province of) Córdoba very hard and reached the (agricultural) core region,” Russo said.

—updated Apr. 17 to read 50.5 million tonnes instead of 50.5 tonnes.

The post Argentina corn harvest faces more deep cuts from stunt disease spread appeared first on Country Guide.

The report by the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC), in collaboration with the Manitoba Crop Alliance, says new Canadian malting barley varieties can be grown successfully in Manitoba.

With yields and quality comparable to the check variety — AAC Synergy — the study found new varieties including AAC Connect, CDC Fraser, CDC Copper, CDC Churchill and AAC Prairie are the next generation of varieties for Manitoba growers, the CMBTC said in a release Friday.

“The study showed that these new varieties offer good agronomics and the high end-use quality traits that are the hallmark of Canadian malting barley,” CMBTC managing director Peter Watts said.

According to the Manitoba Crop Alliance, total barley acres, whether for feed or malting, have declined over the last two decades on “a combination of disease concerns, market forces and difficulty to meet malting grade.”

That said, seeded acreage reports from Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp., the provincial crop insurance agency, have found Manitoba barley acres steadied in the years 2020 to 2023, at a level between 365,000 and 400,000.

Producers in Manitoba have struggled with diseases such as fusarium head blight in malting barley, but with improved disease resistance packages, better fungicide products and improved management practices, fusarium has not been a significant issue in recent years, CMBTC said.

Producers growing malting barley varieties have the option of both malting and feed markets. With a malt barley variety, farmers gain an additional 2.5 million-tonne market that they could not access with feed varieties, the centre said. As well, malt barley generally offers a premium of around $1 per bushel or more.

“Manitoba is one of the best barley producing regions in the world,” Manitoba Crop Alliance CEO Pam de Rocquigny said in the same release. “This success can be attributed to climate and geography, and our advanced farming practices.”

Barley is a good cereals crop option, as it provides many benefits when included in crop rotations. It can be planted early in the growing season and is both competitive and high yielding. Furthermore, including barley in crop rotations can provide flexibility during harvest, as it matures early, allowing harvest to be spread out between crop types, the centre said.

“In combination, these attributes make barley a great option for farmers,” says de Rocquigny.

Registrations of new malting barley varieties for producer use in Canada in recent years led to the need to evaluate those new varieties in field-scale trials, under Manitoba growing conditions, to provide data for that province’s growers on how new varieties could fit in their cropping systems.

More details from the CMBTC study can be viewed on the Manitoba Crop Alliance website.

Several companies in Manitoba source malting barley to supply domestic and international markets including CMBTC members Cargill, Richardson, Viterra, Malteurop and Boortmalt, among others.

The post CMBTC study finds new malting barley lines a fit for Manitoba appeared first on Country Guide.

Contracts for frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) at ICE hit a high of $3.292/lb. during the session, the second highest price ever, just shy of the record of $3.3175/lb. seen on Aug. 17 (all figures US$).

Florida’s orange crop this year was already on the way to being small, only around half the size it produced just two years ago, due to diseases and erratic weather. The hurricane will exacerbate the situation.

“There is little hope for a bigger crop next year,” said commodities analyst Judith Ganes.

Fields in Florida were still recovering from the impact of hurricane Ian in 2019, while also suffering from a bacterial disease known as greening.

Authorities in Florida have yet to evaluate damage to infrastructure and agricultural production as the storm moved over to Georgia.

Also on Wednesday, Brazilian industry group CitrusBR said in a statement that stocks of orange juice at the end of the 2022-23 season (July-June) fell 40 per cent to 84,745 metric tonnes, the lowest level since the group started to collect the data 12 years ago.

CitrusBR said the fall is a result of a smaller-than-expected crop in the world’s largest orange juice producer and exporter, as well as falling juice yields from the fruits.

— Reporting for Reuters by Marcelo Teixeira.

The post Orange juice prices near all-time high as storm hits Florida appeared first on Country Guide.

“Anthracnose is a polycyclic disease, which means it can go through multiple life cycles during the growing season and due to this can spread rapidly in warm, humid conditions. Depending on timing and severity of infection, yield losses can exceed 50 per cent,” says Brown.

To make matters worse, anthracnose resistant to Group 11 strobilurin fungicides has started to show up in some lentil-producing areas in the Prairies.

Corteva Agriscience is offering a solution — a new crop protection product called Zetigo PRM with the Adavelt active. According to Corteva, the Adavelt active is a Group 21 fungicide with a novel mode of action that makes it a strong resistance management tool.

“This is good news for lentil growers,” says Brown. “With the recent confirmation of strobilurin-insensitive anthracnose populations in lentils, the introduction of a new fungicide group to lentil producers with activity on anthracnose is timely.

“This fungicide adds another tool to a lentil producer’s tool kit as the only registered Group 21 fungicide in Western Canada (which was only used) for late blight on potatoes until now. As part of an integrated pest management plan that includes cultural practices, a diverse crop rotation and mixing and rotating fungicide modes of action, it will help in fighting fungicide insensitivity.”

Kirsten Ratzlaff, product manager for seed applied technology at Corteva Agriscience, described Zetigo PRM as “a solid tool for disease management, but also a really important solution for resistance management” in an interview with Grainews.

“Novel modes of action certainly don’t happen every day … so we’re certainly excited to be able to provide a very critical tool for a very critical crop group in Western Canada,” she says.

“When we think about resistance management, there’s really only so many tools in the tool box. Bringing in new actives can help protect our technology and ensures we still get that high level of disease protection we need.”

Preventive and curative properties

According to a Corteva Agriscience press release, the Adavelt active offers preventive properties against a wide range of diseases severely affecting yield, along with curative properties when used in the early stages of infection.

“By adding Adavelt to disease management programs, farmers can simplify fungal control efforts and reduce resistance risks, while protecting the yield potential and quality of crops, both now and in future seasons,” stated the release.

Robert King, executive vice-president of crop protection business at Corteva Agriscience, states in the release that the commercialization of the Adavelt active is a testament to the company’s strong R&D pipeline.

“Farmers have a critical need for innovative fungicides to address the challenges they face today. Adavelt active delivers exactly that — a new, flexible option to protect crops and preserve yield potential.”

Bretton Davie, communications leader for Corteva Agriscience Canada, told Grainews the Adavelt active was developed after the discovery of a naturally occurring fungicide found in soil microbes, which scientists dubbed UK-2A.

“From there, Corteva Agriscience set to work making improvements and ultimately bringing to market Inatreq active, a naturally derived fungicide for cereal and banana crops,” says Davie.

“Researchers at Corteva then saw even more potential and turned their attention to designing a product that could expand fungicide options for farmers. The result was Adavelt.”

Zetigo PRM was approved and registered for use in lentils in Canada in March, and Corteva Agriscience is anticipating approval for use in additional pulse crops in time for the 2024 season.

“We really wanted to make sure this very valuable option for lentil growers is accessible as early as possible,” says Ratzlaff. “We are running an introductory launch focused primarily on lentils support for 2023, targeting the critical diseases there and most notably anthracnose, which we know is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, disease in that crop.

“Then we are working on expanding the label for the 2024 season. We’ll launch broadly with a much more significant volume with a very extended pulse crop and pulse disease label.”

Brown says that’s welcome news for Prairie farmers. “Registration on other pulses and diseases would be a benefit to pulse producers, increasing the fungicide options available to them and ultimately helping to fight fungicide insensitivity.”

Ratzlaff says the Adavelt active was trialled at a number of sites in Western Canada last year. She adds Corteva Agriscience plans to step that up this season with an extensive program of field-scale trials on pulse producers’ farms.

Canada was one of three countries — Australia and South Korea were the others — where the Adavelt active received product registration earlier this year. Corteva plans to offer Adavelt in more countries in the coming years, following regulatory approvals in those jurisdictions.

“There’s going to be a range of diseases ultimately on the label,” says Ratzlaff. “This is an active that’s going to provide a high level of protection in more than 30 crops across the world.”

– This article was originally published at Grainews.

The post New tool for anthracnose control in lentils appeared first on Country Guide.

Disease management has greatly improved in the past 10 to 15 years. One reason is the enhanced genetics, along with efforts to screen out seed lines showing susceptibility to specific diseases. Another is learning how to use newer fungicides — growers have certainly “upped their game” with help from agronomists and advisors. Finally, there’s a better understanding of the physiology of diseases and the relationship between pathogen, host and environment, and how if one “corner” of that triangle is missing, there can be no infection.

Yet white mould is that constantly nagging issue for many growers in eastern Ontario and into Quebec, almost to the point where it’s a greater concern than SCN or SDS. According to data from the Crop Protection Network (cropprotectionnetwork.org), 2021 saw an estimated 1.21-million-bushel loss due to white mould in Ontario, making it the third-highest yield-robber behind SCN and SDS.

Sheila Murphy says affected growers have learned to rely on best management practices to reduce infection and protect their yields.

“The fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is endemic to Eastern Canada and overwinters here, so the inoculum is present,” says Murphy, Corteva Agriscience seed product agronomist for Eastern Canada. “We know in eastern Ontario and western Quebec there’s a continued concern about white mould, whereas in southwestern Ontario, it’s not as concerning, and I think that’s largely attributed to the climate.”

Historically, crop advisors in parts of southern Ontario have encountered pockets of white mould, often in dairy operations. The addition of manure provides the moister environment to help white mould flourish. But the disease’s impact is much less in that region compared to SCN, SDS and a few others that can pop up from time to time.

The focus on white mould comes with the launch of Pioneer’s A-Series Enlist E3 soybeans, with 21 varieties available in a range of maturities for Eastern Canada. The A-Series offers a suite of enhanced traits that are expected to help with resistance to SCN, SDS, Phytophthora root rot and white mould.

Murphy says the Enlist E3 and A-Series bring together the strong agronomics of the A-Series, “Plus there’s the Enlist E3 tolerance which allows growers to use the E3 program with stronger products.”

Likes it cooler

For eastern Ontario, the environment is arguably the key. Although there are more dairy operations, it’s the tendency for air temperatures below 28 C that seems to be the key. According to resources from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), “White mould prefers temperatures below 28 C, moist soils and high humidity.”

For Darren McColm, that reflects conditions in eastern Ontario.

“There are instances of white mould in almost every county in Ontario,” says McColm, agronomy lead (east) for WinField United Canada. “However, parts of eastern Ontario see those moderate temperatures increasing the potential for the disease. White mould instances can vary from farm to farm depending on rotation, cultural practices and even soil types.”

Like Murphy, McColm believes agronomic practices can make a bigger difference, including wider rows, longer rotations and paying attention to high-fertility field conditions. Higher fertility increases vegetative growth that traps moisture in the canopy and provides an optimal environment for white mould. He also stresses row width and plant populations as key agronomic factors to combat the disease.

“You can also plant a variety with high tolerance,” says McColm. “No variety is a silver bullet but if you have bad white mould in the past, you can mitigate risk with a variety that’s rated for high tolerance.”

Murphy also cites the “silver bullet” reference, adding there is no complete resistance factor for the disease, meaning there’s no “easy button” other than best management practices. As much as breeders can work to impart characteristics that battle stresses, there is only one real metric that interests growers: yield.

“With any crop that we’re breeding, we have to balance all of those desired traits, whether it be yield, disease resistance or drought tolerance,” says Murphy. “Mother Nature throws everything at us, but for our growers, white mould is a concern, and it’s a very large part of what we do in the breeding programs — continuing to breed for yield, SCN and SDS resistance. But white mould is something we’re actively engaged in bringing tolerant varieties to the marketplace.”

The right tools

In the absence of any “total package” soybean variety, growers must manage using agronomic practices but they also have a good selection of fungicides. McColm mentions products from Groups 3, 7 and 11, yet notes growers aren’t using them as “insurance” or an annual measure. He also hasn’t seen any growers opt out of needed fungicide applications as a cost-cutting measure in the wake of higher fertilizer or fuel costs: when crops need a fungicide, growers protect that investment.

“There are tank mixes and some multi-mode-of-action products that are premixed that work great,” says McColm. “Fungicides are a tool that can be used, although very few use them as ‘automatic.’ Some growers will plan to use a fungicide application if environmental conditions favour that application and they have had issues in the past.”

Ultimately, growers have to pay stricter attention to avoid white mould. Environmental conditions and varietal selection are important. McColm says a variety with high tolerance doesn’t guarantee the disease won’t be a problem. Growers must be mindful of environmental conditions, and use a fungicide if conditions are favourable.

The post Managing white mould in soybeans appeared first on Country Guide.

“Market access issues in general are becoming a bigger issue globally,” said Ian Epp, an agronomy specialist and lead on market access and pesticides with the Canola Council of Canada. “We see more scrutiny under those things.”

And the reality is that the burden of that increased scrutiny falls directly into the laps of farmers.

The Keep it Clean program is designed to help farmers deal with that burden. It’s a joint initiative of the Canola Council of Canada, Cereals Canada, Pulse Canada and the Prairie Oat Growers Association, funded in part by the federal AgriMarketing program, and offers tools to help farmers ensure their crops meet the ever-changing marketing standards of Canada’s international trade partners.

“It’s kind of a one-stop shop for growers to get information around market access issues,” Epp said.

“Across commodities, we deal with a lot of similar issues, whether it’s similar active ingredients or similar markets of concern… So it’s a good way to give growers clean, uniform messaging on the things they should be thinking about as they plan for the growing season.”

The Keep it Clean website breaks down how farmers can meet these challenges into five tips:

• Use acceptable pesticides: The website offers an annual product advisory list (updated at the end of April) that lists products that are off limits. Farmers should only apply pesticides that are both registered for use on their crop in Canada to avoid trade concerns.
• Always read and follow the label: Before applying any crop protection product, read the label to find the application rate, timing, and pre-harvest interval (PHI).
• Manage disease pressures: Using an integrated disease management plan helps to maintain yield and profitability and can help protect Canada’s reputation as a supplier of high-quality canola, cereals and pulses.
• Store your crop properly: Proper storage helps to maintain crop quality and keeps the bulk free of harmful cross-contaminants.
• Deliver what you declare: The Declaration of Eligibility affidavit is a legally binding document, and any incorrect information, intentional or unintentional, can be traced back to the farm, and individuals can be held liable for the costs associated with the contamination of a bin or shipment.

While there is good buy-in for the program, Epp said, it’s easy to forget about these issues with all the pressures associated with getting the crop in the bin.

“There are a lot of things to manage throughout the season to get the most bushels into the bin, and that’s often when we check out,” he said. “But the next step, that is more and more important, is you actually have to sell that grain.”

With the vast majority of Canadian grain being sold outside the country (90 per cent of the canola, 85 per cent of pulses and 65 per cent of cereals are exported), Epp said it’s critical that those products destined for other countries be clean.

“Grain companies have to meet obligations in those other countries. So, we have to make sure that not only is it in the bin, but that it is ready to market,” he said. “Our customers are demanding that of us.”

Epp says one ever-present cross-commodity issue that the grain companies face is the international scrutiny on glyphosate, especially in the pre-harvest window. “If the timing and application are done correctly, it works really well agronomically, and we don’t have residue issues,” Epp said. But with the amount of scrutiny, glyphosate is something on which growers should keep a close eye.

“This is the time when growers are setting up their pesticide plans for the year,” he said. “So, now is a good time to run through pre-harvest intervals.”

Keep it Clean will hold a webinar April 26 to coincide with the release of its latest product advisory. Keep an eye on its website for details.

— Don Norman reports for the Manitoba Co-operator from Winnipeg.

The post ‘Keep it Clean’ program aims for more than just good advice appeared first on Country Guide.

As growers continue to look for every competitive advantage to maximize profits, two new seed treatments have entered the market, one for corn and the other for canola. Under its LumiGEN brand platform, Corteva Agriscience has introduced Lumiscend Pro, a fungicide seed treatment for corn, and is one of four effective modes of action for protection against rhizoctonia, pythium, fusarium and corn head smut. For added protection, canola growers in Western Canada can add Lumiscend seed treatment to their lineup alongside the company’s blackleg-resistant genetics.

A third seed treatment, Lumialza, is a biological product launched as a corn nematicide seed treatment, with more than 80 days of root protection against a variety of nematodes, including sting, lance, lesion, dagger, needle, stubby-root and root-knot species. The three additions join Lumiderm, an existing canola insecticidal seed treatment, in the suite of corn and canola seed treatments. The three new products will be available to growers in 2023.

For Jim Parks, the announcement translates into a wider array of offerings from one umbrella package. For the 2022 growing season, he tested Lumialza in three separate corn trials on his farm.

“It’s encouraging because we’re always trying to breed to get more yield and do a lot of different things to get more yield,” says Parks, who farms near North Gower, Ont., south of Ottawa. “But I don’t think we look enough at seed treatments and how beneficial they can be right from day one when the seed goes in the ground.”

He understands the ultimate metric for any seed treatment’s efficacy comes at harvest, and even when planting side-by-side, it can be tough to envision a particular response from a treatment during the growing season. Yet when he walked into the field early in summer, the visual comparison was evident.

“The first thing I noticed was the uniformity of the new seed treatment plants,” says Parks, who is also a seed dealer for Corteva. “Each plant was almost identical and a stronger, darker colour, so it actually looked slightly healthier than its counterpart beside it. It was the same lot number of seed, just with a different seed treatment.”

He examined the plants more closely — at that stage they were knee-high — noting the advancement of plants with the Lumialza treatment was further in terms of leaf stage, by about a quarter of a leaf. The stalks averaged an eighth of an inch larger than plants with another seed treatment.

“That tells me that plant hasn’t been held back — it’s moving forward — and as growers, we know that 50 per cent of our corn plant is the root system, the part you don’t get to see very much,” says Parks. “What’s taking place is it’s enhancing the root zones and helping roots to be bushier, heavier and thicker. There was more biomass to the root base underneath to provide such an even and healthier-looking plant, and that was at the knee-high stage, not 70 or 80 days later.”

The visual traits are impressive but Parks concedes the ultimate measure of success is when weighing corn at harvest.

The Prairies

For corn and canola growers in Western Canada, the introduction of Lumiscend, Lumiscend Pro and Lumialza provides an evolution of sorts as canola growers continue to manage for blackleg, part of the trio of diseases of concern affecting the crop alongside clubroot and sclerotinia. Estimates suggest roughly 55 per cent of canola acres in Western Canada are infected with blackleg, with an estimated average yield loss of nearly 10 per cent.

“We’re excited to introduce a new level of protection for canola growers,” says Kirsten Ratzlaff, product manager for seed-applied technology with Corteva Agriscience. “Similar to Lumiderm insecticide seed treatment, this fungicide package has shown excellent early-season seedling stand establishment, vigour and biomass.”

As corn production continues in Manitoba and Alberta, access to Lumiscend Pro fungicide seed treatment as well as Lumialza’s biological mode of action will offer two other management tools.

In 2022, Corteva engaged with growers and retailers to create roughly 200 sample sites to see the effects of Lumialza and collect data and provide valued feedback. As part of that effort, Corteva agronomists also conducted large-scale nematode sampling across the country. Although soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the more familiar pest affecting yields, especially in Eastern Canada, there may be other species that can cause damage.

“That’s what the survey is intended to determine,” says Ratzlaff. “Introducing Lumialza to the market carries the understanding that nematodes aren’t always a household name nor are the types of nematodes or the extent to which they might be seeing damage in growers’ fields. That level of education is still necessary.”

The post New seed treatments broaden protection against crop diseases, pests appeared first on Country Guide.

Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation reported 313,516 corn acres in 2022, down almost 15 per cent from 2021. In recent years they’ve ranged from 300,000 to 400,000 acres, with the highest at 406,620 in 2019. 

The decrease was mainly due to wet planting conditions. “Had it been an easy or early spring, acres likely would have increased over 2021 because of the high grain prices,” says Morgan Cott, agronomy extension specialist for special crops with the Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA). “Field plans had to change because fields were not drying up, the soil was still on the colder side, which meant slow germination, and seeding deadlines were approaching. A corn farmer knows to never ‘muck in’ corn seed in the spring.” 

Despite the wet start, Manitoba corn yields were above average due to the ideal growing conditions that followed. 

“It was wet, but we also accumulated more heat units than normal, so the moisture, heat and sun all worked together to create fantastic growing conditions when the corn needed it the most,” Cott says. “The pollination period was not hot and dry like it has been the last two years, which are very harsh conditions for the most important reproductive stage. This year it was warm and we actually had rains in July, which is fairly ideal for pollination. Corn has its greatest water requirements during R1 and R2 (silking and pollination), and it is fairly rare that we get warmth (not blistering heat) and rains in mid-July together.” 

Finessing in

It turned out that growers were wise not to put all of their nitrogen down at planting. 

“By taking a split nitrogen application approach, it enables the farmer to spread out the risk a little and reassess the corn crop a month after planting to determine if it deserves more nitrogen and how much,” Cott says. “We have to do this in- season nitrogen application fairly early (around V4) so that there is little disturbance and/or damage to the crop. The early timing still makes it a difficult decision on how much nitrogen to top up with, but deficiencies can still be corrected at that time. Corn doesn’t start using the bulk of nitrogen until around that time and later through the growing season, so it is a common nitrogen management practice in corn.” 

MCA has done a lot of research into in-crop N applications and Cott says the best practices seem to be either dribble banding liquid between the rows before a rain, or injecting liquid or anhydrous into the soil. 

“If farmers apply liquid nitrogen (28- 0-0) as a foliar application, it is so stressful for the crop that it can set it back. It does recover but it is literally burning the leaves and no plant likes that.” 

She says that in a year like 2022, supplementing N will make a difference in some situations but in others not. 

“It is very situational and it didn’t/ wouldn’t necessarily make a difference in each field — it just depends on how much was there to begin with, whether the farmer held back on his fall or spring N prior to this corn crop, how much rain they got, when they applied their spring N, etc.” 

Insurance a factor in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan’s 2022 grain corn area was in the usual range of 12,000 to 15,000 acres, according to Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) data.

[RELATED] Grainews: New corn varieties for 2023 

Late moisture in southeast Saskatchewan did create some problems with crop choices. “I know for sure some producers didn’t seed soybeans as they didn’t get in the fields until late May and this would have also impacted seeding of corn,” says Sherri Roberts, crops extension specialist for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture. “The cost of nitrogen would have been the biggest detriment to growing corn this year, as corn is a big nitrogen user.” 

What may have affected the province’s grain corn area has been crop insurance coverage only in designated areas, and the need for a dryer most years. 

“With the crop issues that have affected producers the past couple of years, most of them have to produce crops that crop insurance will cover,” Roberts says. 

While yield data was not in at the time of writing, southeast Saskatchewan also had ideal growing conditions, so good yields were anticipated. 

Roberts advises growers to choose varieties resistant to Goss’s wilt, which is expanding throughout the province. 

“I believe the majority of corn producers are unaware of Goss’s wilt even though efforts to do extension messaging have been done,” Roberts says. “They connote the symptoms to early dry-down instead of a disease. As this disease is caused by bacteria, fungicides are not effective in its control. Selecting resistant varieties and widening rotations are the current methodology for dealing with this disease. Fusarium is also increasing in those corn fields where producers have done continuous corn on corn and widening rotations will also reduce this risk.” 

Roberts also has advice for corn growers planting for cattle feed: they may want to try using corn pickers so whole cobs can be harvested and ground into nutritious feed. 

Alberta – steady under irrigation

Alberta grain corn acres were down slightly, probably due to good prices for other crops, but growers who stuck with corn enjoyed good conditions with consistent growing days once they got beyond the cool spring. 

“We had a very dry and cool start,” says Nicole Rasmussen, Pioneer Brand agronomist with Corteva Agriscience. All grain corn in Alberta is grown under irrigation and is confined to the south of the province, with the northern, dryland areas growing silage and grazing corn. 

“Cold irrigation water can slow early growth, but we are hearing of yields slightly above average; in the 10 to 15 per cent range,” Rasmussen says. 

Because grain corn is irrigated in southern Alberta, the carry-over of N due to drought was not a factor, so growers who followed regular N applications didn’t see any deficiencies. On the insect front, there was more European corn borer in areas where it had not been seen before. 

“It stretched northwest of Edmonton, causing some issues … especially in the early season where hybrids don’t have Bt protection,” Rasmussen says. “We also saw root lodging and green snap this year across the province. Some large summer storms hit the corn when it was at its vulnerable rapid growth stage, and high winds and lots of rain were to blame. I don’t believe it was significant for many growers, but it’s definitely not issues we are used to seeing here.”

– This article was originally published in the January 2023 issue of the Corn Guide.

The post A down then up year for Prairie corn appeared first on Country Guide.