39 Ate Today? Thank a Farmer. Better Farming | February 2024 The introduction of systems such as SWAT MAPS and some of the new planting adaptations allow us to vary seed drop across the field. We’re just starting and will see more. It will be a collaboration between seed dealers and agronomists to put together planting criteria for different areas of the field. We will even have more hybrid switching in variable fields. I can imagine hybrids with corn rootworm resistance being planted in certain parts of the field, and other hybrids being planted in areas of the field where rootworm is not as big a problem, ultimately slowing down the development of rootworm resistance. I’m excited about the genetics we will see in the future. And along with better disease resistance in corn, soybeans and wheat, we will see more novel traits introduced. We’ve already seen corn hybrids high in certain amino acids. The possibilities are endless. While the health sciences field continues to study human afflictions such as Alzheimer’s, dementia and attention deficit disorder, I can only imagine the breakthroughs in discovering these conditions are caused by the body’s inability to synthesize certain food products and that this could possibly be overcome by breeding plants that encourage proper food synthesis. In the meantime, we will see breeding to help overcome soybean issues such as soybean cyst nematode, sudden death syndrome and other yield-limiting factors. These are harder to breed into soybeans than corn since corn is a hybrid and easy to cross-pollinate and control genetics. Another area of change is plant nutrition. It seems like this is a very old topic, but we are just starting to understand and make headway with plant nutrition. We’re making great strides in increasing yields with fertility. Years ago, when I left OMAFRA, I set up a crop consulting program. Part of this program was to charge 25 cents per acre for soil sampling and analysis. Many told me I was foolish to leave a comfortable government job, and farmers certainly weren’t going to pay 25 cents per acre for soil analysis that they could get done for free. That was then. Now growers are willing to pay a lot more than 25 cents per acre for sampling and analysis. But some growers are paying $10 to $15 per acre for sampling analysis, interpretation and recommendations because they know that paying for this service makes them money. What I have a hard time accepting is why we have so many crops: the lynch fileS Weeds limit yields by stressing crops. Patrick Lynch photo
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