Malibu Restaurant, Exeter
Chair for this meeting was David Townsend.
Thank you to BASF for sponsoring breakfast.
Chair for the next meeting will be Joanna Wallace.
Synopsis: A tremendous amount of field work was possible late last week and over the weekend in this region. Rain last night has stopped work for today. Rainfall amounts varied from as little as ¼ to ½ inch in the Stratford, London, and St. Mary’s area. Thamesford received ¾ inches while Ingersoll and Dorchester received 1.0 inch. Essex County was hit with 3-5 inches. Corn planting is nearing completion in this area with up to 90% of the crop in the ground. Less than 20% of soybeans have been seeded. A few adzuki beans are also in the ground. Some corn was seeded into less than ideal conditions so the rain that fell over the weekend was welcome in Huron County where conditions were actually getting quite dry. Early planted corn (May 1) has now emerged. It takes about 150 Crop Heat Units for corn to emerge. Alfalfa and wheat that was behind in development on May 1st is now quickly catching up. In the Guelph area 50% of the corn has been planted. Lambton County is further behind with some producers still struggling to apply manure. The amount of field work completed is dependent on soil type and drainage. Growers will start to switch to shorter season hybrids this weekend. There is concern that fields with a cover crop did not dry out fast enough this spring for timely corn planting. Corn growers that had a cover crop (even fall terminated fields) needed to do considerable tillage this spring to prepare fields for seeding. Fall strip tillage may be necessary to make cover crops work.
Wheat: The winter wheat crop has improved significantly over the last few weeks and early planted fields look good. Late planted fields are struggling. Late planted fields do not tiller adequately so it’s a good reminder that seeding rates should be higher when seeding late. Quite a few growers will leave poor looking fields for the sake of soil health and crop rotation, so the number of fields being taken out are limited. There have been about 400 damage reports to Agricorp mostly from Essex, Lambton, and Perth counties. The spring cereal seeding date deadline for Agricorp is today. A few growers have reported all their acres already so they are finished seeding crops. Weeds are now getting too large for good control in wheat. In a thick stand of winter wheat annual weeds cannot compete and will not reduce yields. On average, across a number of sites conducted by the U of G, wheat yields were only increased by 3% with the application of herbicides. Those growers that did apply a fall herbicide have much cleaner fields, so this practice should be promoted. Herbicides that contain tribenuron do the best job on chickweed control in wheat. There was one report of cleavers in wheat. Trophy and Pixxaro were suggested for control.
Corn row syndrome is now evident in the wheat (wheat is lighter in colour in strips across the field). This is due to the nutrients applied to previous corn crops. Phosphorus applied with wheat seed has shown consistent yield benefits in Ontario. Some sites are showing large responses to sulphur. Streamer nozzle streaks are also evident in some fields. Considerable numbers of cereal leaf beetle were found in a field north of Woodstock. No strip rust has been found in Ontario to date.
Early planted wheat is now at the right stage for fungicide application. Remember that fungicide sprayed during heading time is far more important to yield than early applications of fungicides. Fungicide, herbicide, nutrient tank mixes can cause crop injury. MANIPULATOR growth regulator is in short supply this year. Apply MANIPULATOR between GS31-39 (the 1-node stage to the flag leaf collar visible stage).
Waterhemp: Peter Sikkema reported that they have confirmed PPO-resistant (group 14) waterhemp at four fields in Essex county. The mutation confers resistance to all the chemical families in group 14. DNA sequencing has confirmed this form of resistance. There are currently waterhemp biotypes in Ontario with confirmed resistance to four herbicide modes-of-action – glyphosate, atrazine (but not metribuzin), group 2 herbicides and group 14 herbicides.
Corn: Some of the corn that was seeded went into tough conditions. Rains over the weekend are welcome. There was one report of a field that was mistakenly planted at ½ inch. Shallow planting will result in poor nodal and brace root development and will likely lead to a complete crop failure. The best advice is to spray it off and start over.
Soybeans: Very few no-till soybeans have been seeded. About 10% of the overall provincial crop has been seeded with 20% seeded in this area. There were no reports of any issues with soybeans to date, although fleabane has bolted in fields that have not received a burndown to date. The recommendation is to apply 3 products, Glyphoste, Sencor, and Eragon. Eragon sprayed during the daytime (10 am to 4 pm) has shown much better control than evening spray times. Higher water volumes are also necessary for large weeds. No changes in management (seeding rates, varieties, planting depth, etc.) are necessary for soybeans if seeding is delayed to late May or early June. New soybean insecticide and fungicides are being evaluated this year in test plots and should be available next year.
Upcoming Event
Southwest Crop Diagnostic Days (Ridgetown Campus) July 4 or 5, 2018
FarmSmart Expo 2018 (Elora Research Station) – July 12, 2018
Eastern Ontario Crop Diagnostic Day (Winchester Research Farm) – July 19, 2018
Source : Field Crop News