Despite a tough year, there are reports of Ontario elevators running at full capacity or right full. Some farmers are reporting a record wheat and soybean year, which explains the full delivery points, but as harvest winds down many farmers will be happy with average, at best.
That’s where we start with this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word, and from there Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture, takes us through several crop reports on impressive double crop soybeans, varietal differences in corn susceptibility to gibberella and vomitoxin production, and on to a caution about cover crops having gone to seed.
Summary continues below….
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Summary
Double crop soybeans:
- Some truly impressive yields are being reported on double crops soybeans after winter barley (183 bu/ac), plus $100/ac worth of straw, then resulted in 42 bu/ac beans — by far the most profitable field for this farmer this year.
- Why don’t more livestock producers use winter barley? While it does yield, it does winter kill more than winter wheat or fall rye.
- The highest reported double crop soybean number so far? 44 bu/ac
- But a word of caution: we had great conditions for double crop beans this year. It won’t work every time.
Corn:
- Are certain varieties more susceptible to vomitoxin production? Well, yes, but the growing season makes a huge difference; we don’t have good third party data to compare lines
- Can you dry 16.5% corn in the bin with just aeration? Yes, you can use BinCast to know when to turn fans on or off, or use relative humidity as your guide. Below 70% relative humidity, turn those fans on.
- Why are there more winter annuals between corn rows this year? And why you need to deal with them now, or be ready next spring
Myth debunking:
- Any truth to the 90 days post-fog means precipitation? Listen here for a full rebuttal on that one
- A recent article comparing GMO crop production in North America to GMO-free production in France is flawed, flawed, flawed — Wheat Pete points out at least three ways the story can’t make valid comparisons between the two systems.
Wheat:
- Can’t you just mow down too-large wheat?
- Purple wheat — what’s happening there? What about disease?
- Always beware of off-label pesticide application recommendations
Canola:
- Clearfield canola: no, you may not spray a different Group 2 herbicide. It’s only resistant to the imi group of products.
Cover crops & plant green:
- Cover crop cut for green feed: how long do you wait to spray? Don’t.
- Manure application vs tilled vs no-till vs tilled with added crops — what’s the result?
- If you’ve got 18″ high oats going into fall, do you spray then flail? It depends on the stem thickness
- Sunflowers and buckwheat gone to seed — plan ahead for these weeds next year
- In an oat/sunflower cover crop, a farmer wants to try strips of plant green. Good, but remember, plant green cost 25 bu/ac in 2016. Start small.
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