Tis' the Season

Tis' the season, which got me thinking about a different type of farming.

Christmas tree farming is big business in Ontario. A 2001 report stated that there were 8808 hectares planted to Christmas Tree production and annual revenue is $8.3 million in Ontario. The Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario is a non-profit organization that is funded by it's farmers to expand business in Ontario. It's main goal is to educate its growers to in turn grow higher quality product that will maintain prices and consumer loyalty to Ontario grown trees. The organization provides this through correspondence courses, field days and an annual meeting.

Just like growing a field of corn, there are lots of the same decisions to be made when growing Christmas trees. Soil Type, drainage, climate, site preparation, layout, variety selection, seedling quality, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides are all things to be considered. However, you'll get your chance to harvest your crop of corn the same year you plant it, with Christmas trees you have 10 long years to wait.

But over those ten years, those trees are doing wonderful things for our environment. Christmas tree farming is the second most environmentally friendly crop production there is, second to a cultivated woodlot. In one year, one Christmas tree can remove up to 13MT of pollutants from the air and release Oxygen back out. And since harvest can only occur after 10 years, most Christmas tree farms only harvest 10% of the farm yearly.

Ontario Christmas Tree growers have a lot of things in common with grain producers. To purchase and apply crop protection products, they must also have a Grower Pesticide Certificate. They pay yearly membership dues to their organization and lobby the government on export issues. They face the same challenges with weather, invading pests and volatile markets.

For more info you can check out the Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario website at:
http://www.christmastrees.on.ca/ctfo/new-grower-information.html

Merry Christmas!

Winter Meetings

The next few months are prime time for winter meetings and events, and you should take advantage of it! Here are a few dates to mark on you calendar.

Southwest Agricultural Conference

The 19th annual SWAC will be held on Jan 4th and 5th 2012 in Ridgetown. You can choose to go one or both days. Eight 50 minute sessions are held each day and you choose the sessions you want to attend. Topics that caught my eye include "Fertilizer Hot Buttons", "Market Outlook 2012", "Wheat, The Next Big Step" and "Disease Dilemmas". Also, each day there is a Featured Speaker at 1pm. The speaker on Jan 4th is Dr. Patrick Moore who has gone from co-founding Green Peace to a more "sensible" environmental approach - should be interesting! The complete registration package can be found at:

http://www.southwestagconference.ca/

Grower Pesticide Safety Course

If your Grower Pesticide Certification has expired, or you will be purchasing pesticides next season but are not certified, you will need to attend the Grower Pesticide Safety Course. A complete schedule of courses and locations offered is found at the link below:

http://www.opep.ca/index.cfm/courseexam-schedule-dates/

Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic

An annual event, the GFO March Classic is continually growing year after year. Although the speakers have not yet been released, the GFO promises "speakers from around the globe discussing issues of trade, world markets, and new opportunities."
More information can be found at the link below:

http://www.gfo.ca/marchclassic.aspx

Western Fair Farm Show

The Western Fair Farm show will be held on March 7-9. This year there will be 250,000 square feet of show to see!

http://www.westernfairdistrict.com/events/attend/western_fair_farm_show

The New Bug in Town

Over the past year, there has been some chatter in the industry about a new insect arriving in Ontario. It's big, it smells, it could invade you home in the winter and eat your crops in the summer and right now we have nothing to control it.

The Brown Marmorated Stinkbug (BMSB) arrived from Asia in Pennsylvania about 15 years ago. Since then it has spread to 33 states and has been found in shipments of imported goods destined to Canada. It has no known natural enemies in North America.

BMSB has over 100 host plants in North America - tree fruits, berries, vegetables, field crops (including corn,soys and edible beans), and trees and shrubs. It overwinters in shelters such as houses and barns. In Pennsylvania, where the populations are high there are reports of home attics with tens of thousands of BMSB found. Although they will not bite or sting humans, they will omit a foul odour when disturbed.

The BMSB can be distinguished from other stink bugs by its size (up to 17mm), smooth thorax and two white bands on its antenna.

Photo Credit: Perdue

Collaboration between numerous Canadian and American governmental agencies is occurring as currently there is no know chemical or biological control of the BMSB. Also, there are numerous surveys and trapping projects occurring to monitor for any invasion of the BMSB into Ontario. It is estimated that the BMSB caused $37 million damage to the mid Atlantic states apple crop last year. It is however producing a spin off economy for some resourceful inventors. Homeowners in some states have been so overrun with the BMSB in their homes that some have taken to inventing and marketing traps to control or remove the BMSB.

With careful monitoring and collaboration, hopefully we can stay on top of the BMSB and find some measures of control before it becomes an epidemic. You can help too. If you think you have found a BMSB, place it in an airtight container and freeze to kill it. You can take it to any OMAFRA or CFIA office or the University of Guelph to have it identified and logged.

Post includes info found at:

http://www.marylandstinkbugs.com/home/

http://bautebugblog.com/

http://www.omaf.gov.on.ca/english/crops/hort/news/hortmatt/2011/16hrt11a2.htm

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/08/03/18506506.html

Some Clarification on the OCYT

Today, I had the chance to speak to Greg Stewart with OMAFRA. Greg is the Corn Production Lead with OMFRA and runs the Ontario Corn Yield Trials.

The OCYT are conducted in 21 different plots separated into 7 different areas depending on heat units. The seed corn companies select and provide the hybrids for the trials. OMAFRA takes all the hybrids and randomizes them over three repetitions. Only two rows of the hybrid are planted, and both rows are harvested. The harvested length of the rows is about 20 feet. The average yield of the each plot is tallied and from there, the individual index for each hybrid is calculated.

A few thoughts to ponder on the trials:

1)Since the trial is randomized, you could have a very short hybrid beside a tall one resulting in less sunlight for the short one. You would therefor have a lower index of the shaded hybrid on the two rows harvested than in a full scale field trial. Greg did mention that next year, there will be four rows of each hybrid planted and only the centre two rows will be harvested for the index. This will eliminate some of the shade effect.

2) Twenty feet of two rows harvested is 0.0023 acres. Since there is 100+ hybrids in the OCYT, I understand that there is no way to harvest any larger area per Hybrid. Randomizing the three repetitions does help to eliminate field variability but not all of it.

I am not discounting the OCYT, they are a great tool to use and Greg and his team put a lot of work into planning, planting, harvesting and tallying the results. The OCYT should be just one of many tools used to come to a decision on what hybrid is best for your farm - not the only one.

Why planting refuge is important

At this time of year, we are all trying to decide on what the best corn hybrid to plant is going to be. Looking for the highest yield, the best standability and plant health. In the back of your mind, you think - I really should comply with the refuge requirements but I don't want a yield drag. I'll get to that, but first off - here's some reasons why to comply.

1) Populations of Corn Root Worm in the US have developed resistance to the Cry3Bb1 BT gene. A complete article can be found at:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0022629
The resistance developed in fields that were consecutively planted to corn at least three years in a row and did not follow refuge requirements. The resistance is not totally unexpected as it could be selected for in laboratory studies, however with compliance to refuge requirements it would have been delayed.

2) European Corn Borer could develop resistance.
http://www.cornpest.ca/index.cfm/bt-corn/resistance-development/resistance-in-ecb/
If every acre of corn in North America was planted to BT corn, it could take as little as 3-5 years for the population of ECB to become resistant.

3) The CFIA is watching. Over the last few years, the compliance to refuge requirements has fallen sharply. The CFIA is performing random audits on Ontario grower's compliance.

So it is not all bad news - you do not have to give up yield to be in compliance. Pioneer is offering a lineup of CFIA approved Optimum Acremax products to suit you needs for ECB. These products are 95% of a leading hybrid with 5% refuge in the bag. For example the optimum Acremax version of 35F40 is 35F50AM-R. This product even with it's 5% refuge has been tested to perform at the same level as pure 35F40. No need to worry about selecting the proper refuge, having enough refuge or where to plant the refuge block. The Optimum Acremax lineup make planning and planting simple and in compliance.

Ontario Corn Yeild Trials

The Ontario Corn Yield Trials were released late last week. They can be found at:

http://www.gocorn.net/v2006/CornReports/2011cornreport/2011performancetrials.html#

Looking at Areas 3 & 4, Pioneer had a good showing. Notables in Area 3 include P9623HR, P9519HR, P9675XR, P9855HR, and P9910XR. In Area 4, have a look at P0118HR, P0216HR and P0474HR.

The Ontario Yield trials are a valuable tool in the tool box but it is important to base your hybrid selection on multiple sources of information.

November Wheat Almost Two Weeks Later

Today, I went out to check on some November wheat that was planted Nov 4th.

The field was cultivated prior to seeding, to give it a chance to dry out a little more. Depth was a little inconsistent due to the no till drill on the loose soil but it averaged about 1.25". Seeding rate was upped to account for the lateness. Since the 4th, the field had received just over and inch of rain and overall, the weather has not been horrible - a nice mix of sun and cloud for the most part.

When I arrived at the field there was a nice layer of white snow and no green to be found. This is not good I thought. The soil was quite wet, sticking to my shoes.

I began to dig and low and behold, there were the seeds with roots about an inch long and a nice shoot of about 1/4".

I predict once the January thaw comes this field will be green. I'll post pics then!

radish radish everywhere...

Wow, there is a lot of radish out there!

It is especially noticeable with it's bright yellow colour now that it has been either sprayed down or frosted. Currently, there are two main types of radishes being grown as cover crops in Ontario. Below is a comparison of the roots:

Tillage radish tends to grow a tap root straight down without any fibrous roots branching out. Oilseed radish can grow a more rounded tap root with a few more fibrous roots. There are claims that both forms can break up compaction and add to soil health.

For me, the jury is still out on Radishes. Here's why:

-I'm all for adding organic matter to the soil but am not so sure that radishes are any better than a cover crop of clover. I need to see some more research on it.

-One of the first lesson that I learned in science was that "matter can not be created or destroyed". Planting radishes is not going to magically increase your soil fertility if you are not adding any commercial fertilizers or manure. Radishes do not fixate atmospheric nitrogen like clover does. They will trap nutrients from manure applications for future crops but the availability of those nutrients is dependant on the rate of breakdown of the radishes.

-the price of seed is still a major restriction for use.

-radishes are not the silver bullet for compaction. Yes adding organic matter to the soil will help but think about how the root of the tillage radish grows. Rather than compacting the soil vertically, the root is spreading the soil sideways creating horizontal compaction, almost like driving a post into the ground. The best solution for compaction is a fibrous root system that works it's way through the compaction in many small channels rather than one big one.

-one last point. Remember, those big tap roots need to break down in the field to do the soil any good and when they breakdown they rot... and stink.... if you do use them, don't plant them too close to your home or your neighbours!

November Wheat

The combine just left, it's November 3rd and you are out standing in your field that the beans just came off of. The grounds not too wet but Agricorp's fall seeded wheat winterkill deadline was 3 days ago. What to do, what to do.....

Short answer: If the ground is fit, put the seed in the ground.

Long answer: There are a few things to consider -the ground, the depth and population of the seed.

If the ground is ready, it is ok to plant wheat even if it is November. If there is any smearing or the slot is not closing over the seed, put the drill away. Mudding the seed in is not going to give you a good stand in the spring.

Planting late means that it is more important to watch your seed depth. 1.25" is optimum for November seeding. Anything less than 1.25" runs the risk of the seed being popped right out of the ground by the frost. Anything more than 1.25" runs the risk of the shoot running out of nutrients and failing to emerge.

Finally, the later you plant wheat, the less time it has in the fall to tiller. Depending on variety, in September and early October you would be planting anywhere from 1.2 to 1.5 Million seed per acre. November planted wheat needs 1.8 to 2 Million seeds per acre to have a full stand in the spring.

As a note: Speak to Agricorp to see how your November wheat will qualify for production insurance with inspection in the spring.

Wow! Where did all this corn come from?

With some area's experiencing HUGE yields this year, while outstanding in the field beside your combine, you might be wondering Where did all this corn come from?

There are lots of factors to consider but it seems that some areas have won the weather lottery and their corn is running well over 200 bushels. Of course, we can't change the weather so what other factors were right this year to bring in the big yields?

Variety Traits: It all starts with the seed. 9 times out of 10, the top yields are coming from a traited variety. Now this does not mean that the variety with the most traits is going to out perform every time. Rather, the right traits need to be used in the right situation. For example, if you are in an area with a high WBC population this past year, perhaps you need to think about a Hurculex variety for next year. If you are in a corn on corn situation, give the crop what it needs with the proper traits or seed treatment.

CHU's: This year, from May 15th to Oct 25th, the Staffa area accumulated 287 more CHU's than the 30 year average for a total of 3193. Varieties like Pioneer's P0126 and P0474 are running 230+ bushel in some plots. These varieties are in the 3100 range. I am not saying plant all your acres to late day corn but it may payoff to plant a portion of your acres to a variety later than the average CHU's for your area.

Weed Control: A clean field is going to yield more than a dirty field. As well, a clean field from pre-emergence is going to yield more than a field sprayed with an application of Glyphosate at 3 or 4 leaf. Set up Chemical programs are vital for giving your corn the start that it needs. You can not rely on a couple of passes of Glyphosate to give you the big yields.

Nitrogen: In a year with all other variables pointing towards a big yield, do not leave your corn hungry for more nitrogen. 150lbs/ac N is not enough for a 200+ bushel crop. If you don't want to spend the extra money on commercial fertilizer, look at N values from clover and other crops. Also, pay attention to when and how you apply your manure to get the most N available to the crop.

Compaction: One years ruts are the next years yield drag, and the next years, and the next years... If you must be in the field when wet, do everything possible to limit compaction.

The Weather 649: You never know, some years you win with that million dollar rain at emergence to break the crust, and at silking to aid pollination, and at cob fill to bring the test weight up ... and every other timely rain.

Disclaimer: These are just a few factors that effect corn yield, following these guidelines will not guarantee a large corn yield. Every crop is different.

Out Standing on the Web

As promised, here are some of my favorite Non-OMAFRA agronomy related websites.

www.pioneer.com
or for your smart phone:
https://www.pioneer.com/home/site/mobile/

This site is all things Pioneer. Tabs include: Products, Agronomy, Livestock Feed and Nutrition, Programs and Services, Markets and Analysis, and News. You can find your local Pioneer Rep, calculate your CHU to date, and access local field trials. There is also very good market information and crop reports available. The mobile site is pared down for easy reading on your smart phone. If you have a Black Berry, Pioneer also offers a free ap for you to download.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/

For those addicted to the weather like me, this site is a necessity. Forecasts are broke down into hourly, 24 hour, 7 or 14 day. This site also offers a larger list of Ontario locations than Environment Canada. There is a mobile version available as well.

http://www.intellicast.com/National/Radar/Current.aspx

Another weather site, this site offers American radar with coverage into southwestern Ontario. Forecasted surface analysis is also available out to 48 hours. With the "pan and zoom" feature you can get very accurate detailed radar for your area. Precipitation shows as snow, mixed or rain.

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/radar/index_e.html?id=WSO

I am sure that most of you have this site bookmarked but I thought that I would include it for those that don't. Environment Canada's Exeter radar page is a must have tool for those in the area. Just be careful, depending on what the radar is set on - rain or snow, it can be a little distorted. If it is raining and the radar is set on snow, you could be thinking it is monsoon season!

www.refugeselector.ca

As we hear more and more about Corn Root Worm developing resistance in the US Midwest, we need to continue to be diligent about our refuge requirements when planting BT corn. The refuge selector is a great tool to let you know how much is needed, where it needs to go in the field, and what varieties of refuge are available to compliment your BT pick.

www.youtube.com

...because there is always a video to cheer you up and make you laugh when it is raining at harvest or the market went down...

Linked Up

Sometimes while out standing in a field, you need a little more info on the bug you see on your soys, or on the amount of Nitrogen your field has from last years manure application. In this blog post, I am going to share some of my favorite go to OMAFRA websites for agronomic information - some more tools for the tool box.

http://bautebugblog.com


Tracey Baute is the Field Crop Entomologist-Program Lead with OMAFRA. She maintains this website and posts valuable up to date information on the bugs that are effecting Ontario's field crops. She provides info on threshold values, clear photos for identification and pesticide information. There is a easy to search archive of her blog entries for anything that you may have missed. You can also follow Tracey on Twitter.

www.gocorn.net

Everything to do with Ontario corn, and then some! This web site is maintained by Greg Stewart, OMAFRA Corn Specialist and sponsored by the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

Relevant information dealing with topics such as tillage, fertility, weed management and storage can be found under the index. The last five years of the Ontario corn yield trials can be found in the reports section.

My favorite section is the interactive tools section. Here you will find the Ontario Manure Nutrients Calculator. Ran in Excel, this spreadsheet is easy to use with your manure sample or with generic values for all types of livestock found in Ontario. Take some time and play around with the spreadsheet. It is an eye opener to see how changing the month of application from August to October or time till incorporated effects the amount of Nitrogen available to next years crop.

Another great interactive tool is the Corn Hybrid Selector. With this tool you can take the Ontario trials and select varieties to go head to head. It is a helpful tool while selecting what variety to grow on your farm.

www.weedpro75.com

Weed Pro 75 is the easy to use online version of OMAFRA Publication 75. Rather than paging thru pub 75, this website allows you to select crop, application method, weed spectrum and density thus giving you the most economic and cleanest field option. Based on current herbicide values and the most recent herbicide trial results, this website is up to date and very useful.

Of course, before you can use the Weed Pro 75 website, you need to know what weed you are trying to kill, so for that I use:


www.ontarioweeds.com

This website is the online version of OMAFRA's weed identification guide. Here you will find complete descriptions, detailed drawings and colour photos of most of Ontario's weeds. If you have a weed that is not listed, you can submit photos and a description to the site and OMAFRA staff will offer suggestions.

www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/cropline/index.html#audio

Here you can find the last few crop line recordings in downloadable Audio MP3 format. You can save them to your MP3 or IPhone for listening to in the field. Since the crop line only offers the latest recording when you call in, this gives you a chance to listen to any that you may have missed.

These are just a few of the sites I use through out the season. Let me know if you have any other helpful sites.

My next post will list my favorite non-OMAFRA sites.

Ripening or dying?

While out standing in a field of corn this time of year you may be thinking "did my corn die prematurely or is this just normal dry down?".

Here are some answers from our area Pioneer Agronomist Blair Freeman.

There’s lots on Northern Leaf Blight (NLB) out there depending where you are… also lots of anthracnose dieback and stalk rot. Remember that once these diseases set it, they open the door for other saprophytic fungi to invade… eventually you end up with an ugly looking brown plant and it can be hard to tell what the initial disease was and what actually took out the plant (also remember that it could be frost related, or it could just be mature and shutting down). You can have combinations of NLB and anthracnose that take out a field of corn. When leaves are brown you can usually hold them up to the sunlight to see cigar shaped lesions if they were there.
Grab cobs and twist them to see if plants died early. Early death usually leaves kernels shrunken (low test weight), and the cob very loose and twistable. NLB typically invades the entire canopy. Anthracnose dieback can happen on sporadic plants as you walk down the row, or it can just affect everything depending on severity.

There are major pockets of NLB or Anthracnose or both in many of the areas I have been lately. Some fields of corn died early.

Soon the sun will come out and soy beans will come off...

While out standing in a field of mud and soybeans, it's a good time to think about how your combine is set up for the looming harvest and how you can measure it's performance. Growing soys with the top genetics and managing the crop to it's fullest with weed control and fungicides is not going to matter much if you are loosing beans out the back of the combine or have misjudged the moisture and your beans are down under 11%.

Minimizing losses before you even get to the field is the first step. At R8 (full maturity) 95% of the pods are brown and the beans will reach 13% moisture in as little as 5-10 good drying days. Even if not all the leaves have dropped from the stems the beans could be dry. Harvest delays after full maturity can result in an increase in shatter, lodging and reduced grain quality.

When you get to the field with the combine, it is important to look at losses in three different areas. In front of the combine(preharvest losses), behind the header (gathering losses) and behind the combine (machine losses). 4 beans in one square foot is equal to 1 bushel of beans lost per acre. Once you pinpoint where you are loosing beans, you can make the proper adjustments you your combine to minimize losses.

With references from Field Facts: Reducing Harvest Losses in Soybeans. Steve Butzen, Pioneer Agronomy Information Manager

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my new blog While Out Standing in a Field.

The title eludes to the fact that I have always joked that while scouting, I am definitely outstanding in many fields! Also, I plan on using this blog to convey some of my personal agronomic experiences that happens while out standing in a field.

For those of you who do not know me, I will give you a little background. I grew up in southwestern Ontario on a hog farm. Leaving the pigs behind, I completed my bachelors degree in Agronomy from the University of Guelph. During the summers at university, I worked as a crop scout for Cargill and a sales intern for BASF. After graduating, I spent some time working on various chemical help lines and rebate programs answering phone calls from across Canada. I also worked at Thompsons Limited in Hensall as a sales representative. This is where I gained my Certified Crop Advisor certification in 2007. Recently, I have started with Van Roessel Farms as a crop consultant and sales representative. I also involved in a dairy/cash crop farm with my husband and his family.

I hope to use this blog to bring you relevant, local and timely information. Feel free to leave comments and questions, the more discussion the better!