Wednesday, May 29, 2024

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AGRONOMY WEEKLY NEWS

Wheat

Most wheat fields were heading this week, which saw the sprayers starting to apply the final application (T3) of fungicide which has been impeded again by weather. The window for wheat fungicide is typically 6 days, but this year, with it being very wet, it's a good idea just to get it on. If you are able to get the fungicide on during pollen shed, it has a direct correlation to improved control on fusarium. By applying a fungicide even after the ideal window, you are still able to better control leaf diseases and give the crop a yield bump.


If you still need convincing on why fungicides are worth their money, striped rust has been seen in the area. This disease needs to be sprayed as soon as possible to stop the spread. It appears as brown or yellowish patches throughout the field. It causes extensive quality and grain yield loss. Miravis Ace or Prosaro Xtr are both solid choices for leaf disease and fusarium control.

Agronomy Tip of the Week

Mike's Tip of the week: "If you haven’t had your wheat fungicide sprayed yet there is still time. With how wet things have been it is still beneficial to spray to keep leaf diseases and fusarium at bay. Even just after all flowering is done, it is still worth getting an application on"

Preparation/Planting

'Rain, rain, go AWAY'. Major rains have shut down all field activity until at least this weekend as our spotty rains turned into a general shower across the county this week. Spotty rains throughout the past couple of weeks have led some areas planting progress to be well ahead of other areas such as Eastern/North Lambton County. There are some forecasted rains on Saturday that we can hopefully miss out on to open up a new planting window. What is the opposite of a rain dance?


Last week, with the combination of heat and wind, some areas had a couple days of decent planting conditions. We estimate that about 60-70% of corn seed is in, and 50% of soybeans across the county. There is still time to plant corn, but if you are getting concerned, we would encourage you to talk to your agronomist about the pros and cons of a lower heat unit variety.


FS Agronomy Solutions wrote today about switching corn and it had a lot of great material I wanted to pull into our edition this week. You can read more in their article here.

  • For each day past May 1st corn needs 6.8 GDU’s less to reach black layer
  • Know the average number of GDU’s accumulated for your area from the prospective planting date to the first killing frost.
  • Generally, changing hybrid choices before the first week of June reduces yield potential more than sticking with original hybrid choices appropriate for a given maturity zone


In the past two week's editions, we have included a poll asking whether you had been able to start fieldwork yet. Two weeks ago, nearly 60% of respondents were waiting for things to dry up, while 25% had started planting, and 15% were in the field but not yet planting. This past week, 55% of respondents stated they were still waiting for things to dry up, with 25% started planting, and 20% in the field but not yet planting. We have seen that planting progress has been spotty and the numbers clearly verify this. This week, I have 2 polls... one on corn planting progress, and one on bean planting progress. I will share the results in next week's edition!

Have you planted corn?
Yes, all of it
Yes, some of it, wanting to put more corn in
Yes some of it, switching remaining acres to beans
No, haven't started but want to put corn in
No, switched to beans
Have you planted beans?
Yes, all of it
Yes, some of it
No, been too wet

Do you have any questions that you want our agronomists to answer in our next edition?


Let us know at this anonymous feedback form OR reach out to one of our agronomists!


Jason (519) 330-9746

Darrin (519) 330-9812

Natalia (519) 383-4843

Mike (519) 466-9200

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