Guelph, Ontario, USA
July 26, 2012
On July 19, 2012, Bayer CropScience welcomed agricultural retailers and crop advisors to its annual Dead Weeds Tour. The Tour, now in its twelfth year, brings together industry specialists and retailers to advance knowledge in agriculture. This year’s attendees had the opportunity to connect with industry experts to discuss current agricultural threats native to Ontario’s corn, soybeans and wheat, and ways in which to overcome these challenges. Highlights from the various sessions included:
Corn Disease Management
In his presentation, Albert Tenuta, Extension Plant Pathologist at OMAFRA, emphasized the importance for growers to scout their fields.
“When it comes to disease management, genetic resistance is still one of our main cornerstones,” said Tenuta. “What we’re now seeing is that resistance sometimes isn’t enough. We have new races developing, in particular new varieties of northern leaf blight.”
Awareness of diseases present in the field and where they are situated on the crop is critically important for growers. These factors play an important role in helping them to combat disease impact on overall yield through well-timed fungicide applications.
Corn Fungicide Applications
Helmut Spieser, a Field Crops Conditioning and Environment Engineer with OMAFRA, reinforced the importance of proper fungicide application. In his address, Spieser discussed how various considerations such as the time of application, nozzle selection and position, water volume and sprayer boom height can affect overall crop yield.
“When they [growers and custom applicators] go to spray they’re often concerned about what sort of droplet size they need,” said Spieser. “If we look at fungicides in particular, the number one priority is timing. You have to be there at the right time to protect the crop.”
Weed Resistance Management
Additionally, Peter Sikkema, Field Crop Weed Management Specialist with the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus, reviewed weed control strategies, addressing the importance of crop and herbicide rotation to combat glyphosate resistance in weeds found in corn, soybean and wheat crops.
"There's really only one reason why this problem developed in the province. We've had an over-reliance, and in some cases an exclusive reliance, on glyphosate for weed control," said Sikkema. "To combat this issue, we have to reduce the reliance on glyphosate by incorporating other modes of herbicide action."
Soybean Management
OMAFRA Soybean Specialist Horst Bohner rounded out the speakers with his discussion on ways to achieve maximum yield in soybean crops through pest control, variety selection and soil fertility.
“Soybeans have a reputation for not needing any fertilizer, which is actually not correct if the soil test is slipping,” said Bohner. “Growers often underestimate the importance of having enough nutrients for the crop.”
Topics
Species
