Soil Testing for Making Fertilizer Rec’s
Can Soil Health Testing be Used for Making Fertilizer Rec’s? The Haney test, designed to evaluate soil health indicators like soil respiration, water-soluble carbon and organic nitrogen was evaluated recently by University of Minnesota for generating corn fertilizer recommendations. Read the report here: http://b.link/c5dgy
Read MoreNitrogen Rate Prediction Tools
Which Nitrogen Rate Prediction Tool is best for Corn? The Economically Optimum Corn Nitrogen Rate (EONR) is a moving target, every season is a little or lot different and growers are left at doing an ‘educated guess’ at the most profitable rate. A researcher told me recently in reviewing 40 years of N rate research […]
Read MoreMessage on Soil Sampling
Getting the message out on Soil Sampling How is it that with the rapid adoption of new technologies on the farm for tracking everything and everyone, and sophisticated smart data collection, that soil testing, one of the most fundamental principles of good agronomy is still lagging in adoption in some farming areas? Farmers know that […]
Read MoreCover Crop Decision Tool
Midwest Cover Crop Decision Tool Midwestern states and Ontario are included, but we need growers and industry in other areas to push more provinces to join and contribute to make it a resource for everyone. Great tool; regionally specific: b.link/fqjzl @CoverCropsMCCC
Read MorePost Emergent N in Spring Wheat
When Does Post Emergent N in Spring Wheat work ? Historically, split applying N in wheat has not resulted in higher yields. However, some growers intentionally may delay applying part of their nitrogen until they have better idea of yield potential or as way to boost protein. Read more in this SaskWheat study : https://bit.ly/3dtZHXR
Read MoreBenefit of Late split N in Corn
Studies Question Benefit of Late split N in Corn Results from a multi-state US split N study suggest that in only 24% of sites there was a benefit to split N. Ontario field trials indicated similar results. The greatest potential benefit was seen on soils more prone to N loss (sands & heavy clays). Read […]
Read MoreBoron to Flowering Canola
Should you Apply Boron to Flowering Canola Canola and alfalfa are two field crops with the highest requirement for boron. Canola uptake is 0.3 – 0.5 lb/ac (60 bu/ac yield), alfalfa 0.3 lb/ac (4 t/ac yield) Tissue testing for boron can be useful as soil testing has not proved reliable. Organic matter usually supplies enough […]
Read MoreTissue Testing vs Soil Testing
Tissue Testing vs Soil Testing Tissue testing asks the crop ‘ What’s wrong’ and can be money well spent for growers to confirm a deficiency, or as a check if their crop needs more nutrients. In field crops, plant analysis providing a snapshot in time of nutrient uptake and most useful to indicate when nutrient […]
Read MoreFavourite Plant Deficiency App
Do you have a favourite Plant Deficiency Symptom App ? Recently we tested out a couple of phone apps for diagnosing crop deficiency symptoms look like, their function, what soils types are prone to this deficiency, and correction recommendations. The two we tested both have some good features, but left us somewhat disappointed. We only need one […]
Read MorePhosphate and Potassium Decline
Rethinking P & K Fertility. Soil surveys conducted in a number of provinces across Canada are revealing a general decline in soil P and in potash. This has come as a surprise to many growers that have fertilized based on the ‘replacement approach’ of applying amounts of nutrients removed by the crop. Growers and agronomists […]
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