Wheat Pete’s Word, Jan 20: Soybean yields, boron, ice on The Lakes, and attention to detail

If you’re looking for the magic formula to growing great wheat, you’ve come to the right place.

In this week’s Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter Johnson sums up how the soybean year finished off yield-wise for Ontario, why corn yields failed to impress, and then he digs in to the best crop ever — wheat!

Have a question you’d like Johnson to address or some yield results to send in? Disagree with something he’s said? Leave him a message at 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at [email protected].

SUMMARY

  • Yields are in and the 2020 crop ended up at 112 per cent of average for soybeans, for a provincial average of 52 bu/ac yield average versus 46 bu/ac as the 10 year average
  • 142 per cent of average near Temiskaming. Wow!
  • The Cinderella zone this year? 120 per cent to 130 per cent of average.
  • PEC, The County, only 88 per cent of average. Ouch.
  • Edible beans have a much larger range, as they don’t take the stress as well
  • Corn can really suffer, too. Slightly above average provincially, for 2020. Only 177 bu/ac.
  • Old crop wheat is over $8/bu!
  • Inflation issues. Argentina is sky high, y’all. But we’re not immune. Have you seen land prices?
  • The quote of the year so far with Horst Bohner, “I am done with no-till!”
  • Zero till needs attention to detail
  • The one tool that every farmer has access to, and the one used the least, is patience!
  • Bohner isn’t talking converting to full tillage, either though
  • Some feedback on tillage from Woody Van Arkel
  • Ergot and copper relationship? Northern Ontario saw an impact with boron added, not copper.
  • Rye is cross pollinated, so more susceptible to ergot. The key is getting pollination to happen FAST
  • Wheat time! Ice on the Great Lakes means nice weather and an early spring?
  • Ice on the Great Lakes isn’t the deciding factor on an early spring
  • If the fields are clear and the soil is above zero….Watch The Agronomists here, specifically the episode on ultra early seeding.
  • Kill the wheat crop three times, right? I think we’re on death number two, possibly.
  • Colourful wheat …is it atrazine carryover, is it a nutrient deficiency? Cold, damp soils but green plant making energy with no where to go. Throw in wind, and ouch. Pete did a Wheat School on this, check it out here.
  • N stabilizers vs. split-app N? In general, stabilizers will prevent loss, but it doesn’t fully replicate a split app, as the release just isn’t the same timing (and subject to other factors)
  • Heads per square foot and yield is a strong correlation, not always planting date or N rates. Does it matter how you get there? As in, could you just slather on the seed?
  • More than 80 heads per square foot, you worry about lodging, no-one likes scraping wheat off the ground
  • Spreading vs. liquid for fertilizer delivery — one isn’t always better
  • Top wheat yields also need attention to detail!

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