14 Ate Today? Thank a Farmer. Better Farming | April 2024 Old dogs, new tricks Thank goodness for winter agronomy meetings. They allow growers and ag industry folks to get together and see what is working in agriculture. They also help us pass the time in Ontario’s cold, blustery winter months. As I did last year, this article will cover some key topics from this winter’s Ontario CCA conference, the Great Lakes YEN panel, the Ontario Agricultural Conference, and our internal Pioneer North America agronomy conference. As the old saying goes, if you do not keep up with innovative ideas, you will quickly become irrelevant. Winter wheat Winter wheat acres continue to increase. Here are the key tips for a higher-yielding crop if you are in this game. Planting date, planting date, and planting date – that is the key. Earlier planting dates, within your ideal planting window, rules. This promotes more biomass accumulation, both above-ground and below-ground, allowing the roots to secure more water and nutrients early on. Joanna Follings, OMAFRA cereals specialist, commented recently that a six-day difference in planting dates can account for vast yield increases. The key is to plan for management practices that allow you to plant six days earlier than normal. Head count matters in wheat. The number of heads per square metre is critical for higher yields. This ties in with earlier planting dates, as earlier planting dates have more tillers per plant. More tillers in the fall equates to higher yields than additional tillers added in the spring. Ideal heads per square metre are 700 or greater. Data from Michigan State University shows that winter wheat planted earlier responds more to fall-applied fertilizer than wheat planted later. Simply put, more roots and biomass earlier in the season allows the plant to continually access more nutrients and water. Managing for higher soybean yields The debate continues around the countryside: Does corn out-yield soybeans in terms of overall rate of genetic gain? Looking at North American trends over the past 20 years, corn has averaged 1.6 bushels-per-year gain. Soybeans over the last 50 years have gained 0.48 bushels per year. There is a straightforward way to look at soybean yields on your farm and determine if they are keeping up to your corn yields from a genetic gain standpoint. Don Kyle, soybean breeder with Corteva, commented on the yield and soybean gains in North America over the past 15 to 20 years. He looked at the yields of corn on average in bushelsper-acre for both crops. He then compared the ratio of corn yields to soybean yields. As an example, in Ottawa-Carleton region in 2022, the average corn yield was 177.6 bushels per acre and soybeans was 54.8 bushels per acre. If you take the corn to soybean yield ratio, the ratio would be 3.2. Don would suggest any ratio below 4.0 means your soybean yields are keeping up with your corn yields on an annual genetic yield gain basis. If your ratio is above 4.0, what are some things you can do to achieve OUR SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE SEASON REVIEW OFFERS IDEAS & INSIGHT. CAN YOU TEACH AN ‘OLD DOG’ NEW TRICKS? By PAUL HERMANS Paul Hermans photo
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