Huron Expositor, 2007-10-24, Page 10Page 10 The Huron Expositor •
October 24, 2007
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News
Hot, dry summer was good for corn yields where
soil had enough moisture, says crops specialist
Aaron Jack 1 i n
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While many crops suffered this
year from the dry, hot summer, one
seems to have thrived, according to
OMAFRA crops specialist Peter
Johnson.
"Growers have been pleasantly
surprised by how good the corn
yields are," he said.
He said that even in the fields
that looked like they had "some
really awful spots," there is still
good corn.
"Where the corn is good, the corn
is incredible," he said. "Where the
corn is poor, it's terrible."
He- said that a lot of fields have
enough good soil in them to produce
high yields.
"In areas where it is good, you'd
normally maybe expect 140
bushels," he said. "Well instead, in
those areas it's yielding 160 or 180."
When it comes to why this is hap-
pening, Johnson said that corn likes
heat and sunlight. He said that for
the good soil, where there was
enough moisture in the soil to
counter the lack of rain, "it was
actually a pretty good year."
He said growers are hard at the
corn crop and are probably half
done harvesting corn in our area.
As for other crops, farmers are
still busy.
"There are lots of guys who still
have a few beans left out and a little
wheat left to go on those bean acres.
So, if we get two or three days of
decent weather to bring the mois-
ture down in those beans, they'll be
switching back to beans to finish
that job."
With winter coming up, Johnson
said, "There's a fair buzz in the
countryside about diseases in the
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winter wheat," specifically powdery
mildew, septoria and rust. All three
are diseases that attack the leaves
of crops.
According to Johnson, there are
some who are- considering spraying
the winter wheat crop with a fungi-
cide to get rid of those diseases, but
he wouldn't necessarily recommend
it.
"From my perspective," he said,
"we really don't have any data to
suggest that is going to make them
money."
He noted that given the physiolo-
gy of the wheat crop, it's unlikely
that spraying is necessary.
"The disease takes away photosyn-
thetic area, so the plant doesn't pho-
tosynthesize as much," he said. "It
doesn't have as much carbohydrate
sugars to put into the crown."
Because it's the big wheat that
has the disease and probably
already has a lot of carbohydates in
the crown, Johnson said there isn't
a lot going on in the wheat plant
that should cause concern about leaf
disease.
It will be important when spring
comes around to
i
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watch fields that have a lot of dis-
ease pressure this fall.
Of the three diseases, Johnson is
most concerned about rust because
it has the most impact on yields.
"Typically, it does not over -winter
in Ontario," he said, noting that the
disease tends to blow up from
Texas.
"When we have this much, if we
do get some over -wintering then it
could cause us quite a bit more con-
cern earlier next year," he said.
Another concern they're facing in
the winter wheat is the potential
for snow mould, a fungus that
spreads plant to plant under the
snow.
"On both the fall application for
the leaf diseases and the potential
for snow mould, we're hopefully
going to be doing some plots to try
to sort out if it really makes sense to
do anything about these in the fall."
He said that if anyone is interest-
ed in doing plots to determine if
there's any benefit to fall control of
those diseases, he'd be interested in
working with them and can be
reached at 519-271-8180.
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