Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s winter wheat crop is living up to its great expectations after a warm winter and lots of spring rain got it off to a great start. Farmers have been harvesting the crop for two weeks in the southwest of the province, but are just getting going in other areas. “I think the wheat’s looking […] Read more
Ontario winter wheat crop yielding well, quality good
The fine balance of controlling crop diseases
It's a classic example of where short-term decisions can mean long-term problems
Reading Time: 7 minutes Randy Kutcher recalls that when he moved to Saskatchewan 25 years ago, farmers were using hardly any fungicide. “They were using a bit of fungicide for sclerotinia in canola, and that’s about it. Now it’s pretty much part of the program, and often crops are getting two or more applications, and it’s almost become like […] Read more
Crop diseases take a bit of a break in 2015
Drier conditions this past season kept a lid on most crop diseases — but this is probably just a brief respite until environmental conditions line up again
Reading Time: 8 minutes The bad news is that dry weather cut yields across much of the Prairies in 2015. The consolation? This same weather kept fungal diseases in check. In fact, areas that were in the sweet spot of lower pressure but enough rainfall to carry yield were rewarded with exceptional crop quality. Country Guide recently spoke to […] Read more
University sets its sights on fusarium
This major U of M lab program hopes to stop fusarium before it starts
Reading Time: 4 minutes Protecting crops from the ravages of fusarium is a never-ending job for investigators like Dr. Dilantha Fernando and his staff at the University of Manitoba. The most common species of the pathogen is fusarium graminearum, commonly known as fusarium head blight (FHB) or fusarium scab. It’s a cereal crop pathogen that has become the most […] Read more
Protecting pollinators in 2014
Ontario best-management trials include using fungicide-only seed
Reading Time: < 1 minute Country Guide recently had a chance to sit down with Tracey Baute, Field Crop Entomologist, during the 75th annual AGM for the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA). Baute’s presentation focused on protecting pollinators and how a new partnership with OSCIA using “fungicide only” seed and insecticide treated seed in comparison trials will help […] Read more
Field notes
Protect the emerging head for yield potential, insect-ravaged corn, and cereal plant diseases
Reading Time: 3 minutes Stretching flag-leaf timing It’s one of the baselines of cereal crop agronomy — protect the flag leaf, because protecting the flag leaf equals protecting yield potential. Bayer CropScience’s Troy Basaraba told a recent Agronomy Summit meeting of crop advisers that another variable frequently enters this equation — whether or not the application could also be […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
