Corn crown rot, droned-on seed success, and potash pop-up questions

Crop alerts, 35-tonne silage, and a whole lot of harvest progress across the province kick off this September 30th edition of Wheat Pete's Word. Host Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson marks this Truth and Reconciliation Day and breaks down the incredible variability in yield, ideal planting conditions for winter wheat, and crucial mid-season corn alerts that growers need to know. Have a question you’d like Wheat Pete to address or some field results to send in? Agree/disagree with something he’s said? Leave him a message at 1-888-746-3311, send him a tweet (@wheatpete), or email him at pjohnson@realagriculture.com. - Silage & Grain Yields: Massive yield ranges are being reported, from outstanding 35-tonne per acre silage in the Ottawa Valley to average results in Oxford County - Soybean yields vary widely by region, ranging from 40 to 60 bushels per acre up to 80-plus bushels per acre - South Central Ontario reports early grain corn yields of 275 bushels per acre at 21% moisture, alongside 89.5 bushel soybeans - North American Extremes: Wet harvest weather dominates Western Canada, while extreme drought and blowing dust cause road closures in Washington State - Dry Beans on green stalks? Ideal September harvest weather has created dry 11% soybeans sitting on frustratingly green stalks - Soybeans left in the field past maturity will not suffer phantom yield loss unless pods split or pests feed on them - Unlike wheat, which loses 1 pound per bushel per rain, it remains unconfirmed if soybeans suffer test weight loss from rainfall - Ideal Wheat Planting: Excellent fall weather has Ontario growers pounding winter wheat into the ground with high yield potential - Seeding Depth Rules: Wheat can be safely planted up to 3 inches deep to reach moisture without significant delay in emergence - Warm late-September soils allow wheat coleoptiles to easily extend 2.5 to 3 inches to emerge successfully - Bump winter wheat seeding rates to 2 million seeds per acre when broadcasting rather than drilling - High-Speed Disc Setup: Set high-speed discs at a 3-inch depth when incorporating broadcast seed to place the majority in the top 1.5 inches - Potash Responses in Wheat: Research shows Ontario winter wheat responds almost exclusively to phosphorus, showing virtually no yield gain from added potash - Soil Test Variability: Phosphorus levels can vary significantly even from foot to foot in small field plots, but soil tests remain essential - Aerial Seeding Success: Broadcasting over 2 million seeds per acre into standing soybeans early in September has yielded impressive stands - Liquid vs. Dry Fertilizer: Wheat responds to the total amount of available phosphorus, not whether the product is applied in liquid or dry form - Lime Options: While K-lime provides additional nutrients, standard dolomitic limestone remains the most cost-effective option for adjusting soil pH - Corn Standability Warning: Scout fields immediately for stalk strength, as some areas show up to 50% stalk breakage during push tests - Fusarium Sprouting Alert! Sprouted kernels at the tip of corncobs indicate Fusarium infection, requiring prompt harvest to manage potential toxins - Strip-Till Edible Beans: Two years of trials demonstrate that strip-till kidney beans yield well and offer viable erosion control - Tissue Test Insights: Potash critical values in corn tissue tests differ by soil type, with higher levels required on sandy soils compared to clay - Manure & Clover Burn: Liquid hog finishing manure and 28% nitrogen can severely burn red clover, whereas sow manure and dry urea show much safer results. Tags: Trending Shared responsibility, equipment maintenance, and proactive communication are key to keeping workers safe during the harvest rush. With tight weather windows, long hours, and increased machinery on rural roads, harvest pressure creates unique hazards that require active management to prevent incidents. In this episode of the Farm Safety Roundup, host Shaun Haney speaks with Jay... Read more » Big yields, 35-ton silage. Now that's more like it. Good day and welcome to Wheat Pete's Word here on Real Agriculture for Wednesday, September the 30th, this Truth and Reconciliation Day. On this episode of the Word, we're gonna talk harvest. We will talk wheat. Of course we will talk wheat. We'll talk fertility, corn alerts, and agronomy answers. Let's go! This Wheat Pete's Word podcast is brought to you by Syngenta. When strong soybeans are your plan from the start, you need Victyrato Complete soybean seed treatment. As the new standard in seed treatment, Victyrato Complete targets nematodes and key establishment diseases, helping beans establish quickly and stay green from start to finish. Talk to your seed supplier to learn more or visit syngenta.ca. Yes, I asked for Were there some good silage yields? Because I'd heard a lot of mediocre. Unbelievable. Talking with my good friend Paul Sullivan out in the Ottawa Valley, yields out there are incredible. He had one report of over 35 tonne per acre silage. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Meanwhile, back here in South Central Ontario, Getting a report of grain corn harvest starting yesterday, Tuesday, the 29th of September. Now, this is in that central Wellington area where there was a field of soybeans at 89.5 bushels per acre. That same area, they really must be in the Goldilocks zone this year because 5 acres, only 5 acres of corn, but 5 acres of corn harvested, 21% moisture. You heard me right, 21% moisture, 275 bushels per acre. Man, if all the corn could yield like that, 35-ton silage, 275-bushel grain, that would be absolutely outstanding. There are lots of great reports of soybeans out there. My good friend Ryan Benjamin's super agronomist from North Lambton County, saying lots of 70-bushel soybeans, some 80s. Meanwhile, I go just a little bit south and Kathleen Bokhoven with Parkland Farms, their agronomist, saying, man, we're not that good. We're 40s to 60s. Like, it's good in a lot of fields, but it's not outstanding. Stratford area, Jacob at 74. It just— there is There's lots of good, but it's quite area-specific. I think that Lambton County example shows that. And my own area where I farm, there is a lot of disappointments and some average, but way more than expected. The soybean yields are just not outstanding. Even corn silage yields, when I get into Oxford County, there's a lot of average. Most— now maybe that's because Oxford County is always outstanding, but no, these are average yields, not what we were expecting. Yeah. Right. Given the year that we've had. So quite a difference from that standing when you look across the province, just wide, wide ranges. Meanwhile, as we move out of the province, just a few other things that are going on. Harvest has been super wet in Western Canada. Meanwhile, it is so dry in Washington State that they are having brownouts near the town of Ritzville in Washington. They actually closed roads because there was There was so much dust blowing. Now, I don't know the details, whether they were working ground to plant winter wheat there or just what was happening, but oh my gosh, that is just a frustration when that happens. So vast differences, as always it seems, vast differences as we go across agriculture and across North America. Moving back to Ontario, we have had such great harvest weather. September has been incredible for harvest, so that's awesome. Now, it has led to a few things. Yes, the soybeans you are combining oftentimes are way too dry, and yes, oftentimes those way too dry soybeans, those 11% soybeans, are still on green stalks, and that is a frustration. There's no doubt about that. Josh and Mac both asking, Peter, is— are soybeans like wheat? Like if we leave them out, because these green stems in Matt's case, they are just plugging the rotor, and can I leave them out till after the rain? I'm pretty sure they'll combine better after the rain. Do they lose test weight? Do they lose yield? So soybeans will not lose yield. There's no such thing as phantom yield loss, unless of course pods split open, that can happen, or if the mice or the birds feed on them, but otherwise there's You should not lose yield. I will say, and I've said this about every crop, nothing good happens once those beans are ready to harvest, once they've passed physiological maturity, which for almost every crop is 30-ish percent moisture. Nothing good happens. But if you can't get them through the combine, you really should not lose much yield. So that's okay. Do we lose test weight in soybeans? My expectation is that that answer is yes. But to be perfectly honest, I've never tracked it. Okay. That's something that Pete should do to find out. And if somebody knows, let me know. Remember, with wheat, for every rain, we lose 1 pound per bushel in test weight. And that's because the pericarp shrinks and it wrinkles as it shrinks that second time. I don't know if soybeans do that. I simply don't know. That is a great question. The other great thing that has happened because of this super harvest weather, man, we are pounding wheat acres into the ground in some of the Best weather that we have ever had, some of the great— greatest conditions. Jim saying, Peter, forecast to rain tonight, Wednesday, September the 30th. We are gonna end wheat planting tonight. No, we aren't, Jim. There will still be lots of acres planted. It's dry here. In fact, the creek that runs behind my house is basically dry, which is really strange for the end of September. I expect we'll plant more wheat, but September wheat in Ontario is just set up for such good yield potentials. Seed sales have been a bit above expectations. I hope all of that seed is in the ground and that— by the way, the other thing I should talk about, because it drives me nuts, and I will just briefly, is this whole planting depth debate. So another Twitter discussion about how deep do you plant wheat. It's It's become dry. I mean, gosh, when we started planting wheat back in mid-September, there was lots of moisture, but it's dry now. You plant wheat to moisture up to 3 inches deep, and the reason is this. Even if I am planting today on September the 30th and there is rain forecast tonight, and I have to plant wheat at 2.5 inches deep to put it into moisture, I am likely to do that because there is no guarantee the weatherman is right and that it will rain tonight. If you plant that wheat 2.5 inches deep, it will take about an extra 2 days to emerge from planting an inch and a half deep at these temperatures. Totally different as we move later and totally different, like soybeans are the same thing. In the spring, We cannot plant soybeans 3 inches deep to find moisture because they won't come up. But in July, when we double crop soybeans, we can plant soybeans 3 inches deep and they come roaring out of the ground because the soil is just that much warmer. Yes, I know we had one cold night last week, and yes, it is getting a little bit cooler, but the daytime temperatures are still warm. The soil is still warm. The coleoptile on virtually every wheat variety we grow in the eastern seaboard, soft red wheats, even the hard red winter wheats, they will extend for sure 2.5 inches and 3 inches almost guaranteed. So you can plant up to 3 inches deep. Now, if there's no moisture at 3 inches deep, you go at an inch and a half or an inch and a quarter, but you get the seed in the ground regardless. I just, I've had this discussion before, but it happened again. And I just— one of those things that I just needed to chat about. So yes, 100%, we need to get that wheat in the ground, and it has gone into the ground in amazing conditions. So that is an excellent place to start. On that note, Simon saying, Peter, I'm going to broadcast some wheat this year. I haven't done this before. How deep do I work it with the high-speed drill— or disc, rather, the high-speed disc? And what fertiliser do I put with it? So a few things. We're going to broadcast wheat, we have to up the seeding rate. So instead of hitting, you know, right now we're at 1.5, we're going to soon go up to maybe 1.8 million seeds per acre. As soon as you broadcast, we would suggest you use 2 million seeds per acre. Set the high-speed disc at 3 inches depth. That is because 80% of the material you spread on the surface will only be in the top 50% of your working depth. So we want most of the seed in that top inch and a half. To get it in the top inch and a half, we set the disc 3 inches deep. That's going to do the job. Simon asked, does he need to disc it once or twice? That'll depend on your field situation. If you disc it and it's coming up lumpy, then you're gonna have to work it twice. If you disc it, make a good seedbed, once will be enough. And as far as what to put with it, and Again this week, I've had several people ask this question. Brian reaching out to me saying, Peter, I'm hearing I should add some potassium sulphate with my MAP when I seed my wheat. What do you think of that? And Fida saying, Peter, I have really low potassium soils. Do I add potassium with my phosphorus starter? Oh my gosh, the Ontario data is extremely clear. Shane and I did the wheat data, Dave Hooker did the corn data, Horst did, and Greg Stewart when he was here, Horst Bonner did the soybean data, like all of that data that we did on those long-term studies. Wheat, winter wheat in Ontario at least, does not respond to potash. It responds to one nutrient that we could find and it's called phosphorus, phosphorus, phosphorus. So maybe, I don't know, if you really need some magnesium, could you need to put some magnesium with it with the Sulpamag, right, the K-Mag? Perhaps, but we have not seen that. And as far, Fida, as adding potash, we just don't see much response. Maybe 2 or 3 bushels if you're really, really lucky and you got super low potash, but the phosphorus has to be there as well. And typically, at the Elora Research Station, where we had a 50 part per million potash soil test, our typical response to potash applied in the furrow was zero. So it's really, really low. On a 50, would I say don't add none? No, but man, as far as the potassium sulphate with the MAP, I go, well, why? If the potash isn't needed, the sulphur we need in the spring, we talked about that last week, it just does not make sense to me. One of the other things I will note though, Jamie reaching out to me, they've done some trials on his farm and he says, Peter, like they took a tonne of soil samples on my farm. And I cannot believe the variability in the phosphorus from one small plot to the next small plot. And Jamie, that is the way soil test works in Ontario. We have variable soils. I remember Ivan O'Halloran, who was the soil fertility specialist at Ridgetown Campus, just went out to see, and I believe he sampled every foot. And the variability in phosphorus he could find from foot to foot was pretty significant. So the variability from small plot to small plot, it does exist. Soil tests still work. You still need phosphorus on winter wheat. That's just all there is to it. And just before I leave winter wheat, TJ sending a picture out on Twitter tagging me in, and I appreciate when people do that, man. You got something agronomy related, tag me in. But he's broadcast wheat into his standing soybeans at the beginning of September, and he has a very impressive-looking stand there. So we got enough rainfall to start the aerial-seeded wheat. We've discussed the challenges with it before, but TJ said he seeded over 2 million seeds per acre. So yes, it does take more seed to get there. All right, going to move into a little more on the fertility. Thomas saying, Peter, You talked about MAP versus MES, but what about liquid fertiliser? Does it get the same response as dry? And in fact, many people try to tell me that it's liquid, so the liquid fertiliser is more available to the seed than the dry fertiliser because it's already liquid. Okay. Phosphorus does not care what form it comes in, liquid or dry. The wheat plant does not care what form the phosphorus comes in, liquid or dry. What wheat cares about is how much phosphorus is there. So I run a liquid, typically 5 gallons of a liquid is going to give me about 16 pounds of phosphorus. If I run 50 pounds of MAP, it's 26 pounds of phosphorus. So I get 4 bushels to my liquid at 16 pounds of phosphorus, and I get 6.5 bushels in yield increase to my 26 pounds of dry fertiliser, or dry phosphorus rather, right with the seed. The 50 pounds of MAP that brings the 26 pounds of phosphorus. So it's just a phosphorus response. And this concept that liquid fertiliser is more available is just simply wrong. I mean, it just is 100% wrong because we put as much fertiliser in that liquid as the water will hold because we don't want to truck around any more volume than we have to. Well, as soon as I dissolve everything that water can hold, the wheat plant can't take that up because it's way too hot. So we need water to come in and dilute the liquid fertiliser until the salt concentration has gone down enough that we don't damage the wheat plant. So at the end of the day, there is no difference between liquid and fertilisers. This whole concept that it's more available because it's liquid is just simply wrong. Hey Peter, you talked about pH, you did not mention K-lime. So Alan, if you need the other nutrients that are in K-lime, it is a great liming resource, and it's potassium hydroxide. So does it Does it change the pH a little bit faster than dolomitic or calcitic lime? Okay, but we typically put on a lot less because to put on, you know, the 2-ton per acre that we would put on with dolomitic lime gets to be a little pricey. So it can work, it's a good source if you need the other nutrients, but man, if all you're trying to do is change pH, then I think probably you If you price it out, I'm pretty sure that dolomitic limestone is still going to be the cheapest source. All right, I do need to move on and alert, alert, alert. Oh my gosh, I hate doing that, but get into your corn crop because there are a couple of things going on and they are important to identify in your field. The first off is standability. My great partner in agronomy consulting, Adam Queen, has been out in cornfields. I have been out in cornfields. I've been talking to other agronomists. Standability on our corn stalks this year is quite disappointing in particular areas and in particular fields. It's not every field, but there are fields that Adam has scouted where 50%, that is correct, One half of the stalks would snap when he did the push test. You can do the pinch test if you'd rather bend over and get down close to the ground, however you do that. But when half the stalks break, this is bad news from a standability perspective. And exactly why this is, maybe we have a big cob there, maybe the cloudy conditions and rainy August that we have, we didn't get as much photosynthate. Maybe it's crown rot. We do have some crown rot out there. I don't know what exactly is going on, but you need to make sure you identify the fields with poor standability and get them harvested quickly. The other thing that is out there, and this drives me nuts, but we have jib in the corn crop. Again, only in specific areas. And in fact, Rob Miller from BASF, he was on the Agronomist on Monday night talking about fall weed control. He and I got into a conversation. this morning about some of the things that were— that happened that night. And he sent me a picture with a whole bunch of sprouted kernels. And sprouted kernels on a corncob are because of Fusarium, which is effectively the same thing as Gibberella. They're the same disease organism. Don't need to go through the details, but Fusarium in a kernel changes the hormonal balance of which causes that kernel to sprout. And these were tip kernels. I mean, gosh, if they're kernels at the butt of the cob, you can say, well, the cob's standing straight up and we got rain and that rain sat in the bottom of the cob and that's why we got germination. Maybe that's true, although there's been basically no rain in September here in Ontario. But when you see kernels sprouting at the tip of the cob, that is Fusarium. And Fusarium and GIB The same disease caused the same toxins. We have to get out there. We have to harvest that as quickly as we can. By the way, the corn is drying incredibly fast because tracking that corn that came off the field at 21%, not so long ago it was, I think, at 33%, and it has dried incredibly fast. So that's a bonus. So just be aware that this corn may be ready to combine. before we expected to. Eric Larson from Mississippi tweeting out a great corn hybrid plot. And they did a really strange thing with that corn hybrid plot. I've never seen this before. But they put the weight of 250 kernels beside every hybrid. Now, it's in the United States, so I thought it would have been ounces. But no, they— it was in grammes, which is kind of cool. Okay. So we're reporting grammes, but grammes per 250 kernels, I converted that about 70,000 kernels per bushel. Man, if we can do 70,000 kernels per bushel here in Ontario, we are going to have big corn yields in the good corn areas. Okay, I'm going to move on and finish up with a few cool things and some agronomy answers. So first off, I want you all to know, because Pete is a strip-till guy, and I actually finished my strip-tilling in my wheat stubble yesterday, and man, the conditions were were so nice. We put out a little TikTok post about it. I'm pretty happy with how that strip looked. But strip-till kidney beans work. So we've done this now for 2 years. Matt has done it at Thorndale and it's just working. The yields are great, the weed control is working out. Like we've really got so far. Now I will admit just 2 years, but things have been working pretty well. So Jamie, if you're listening to this and you're worried about erosion, You know, we don't necessarily need clean-tilled ground to grow these edible beans. I think there are other options, and I just think where we're highly erodible prone, that we have to look at other options. So yes, strip-till kidney beans work. If kidney beans work, man, you'd think basically every edible bean would work in that situation. Here's one from A RealAg video that Bern Tobin did with Chris Rowlands and Danny Jeffries from Honeyland Labs. And this is really interesting because they've done a tonne of tissue testing. And what they have learned in corn is that the critical value for potash in a tissue test changes if you're on a sand soil or if you're on a clay soil. And immediately I say, oh well, the clay holds more. more potash, and so therefore, on a clay soil, we need higher tissue tests in our corn crop, right? No, it's the exact opposite. We actually see higher potash levels in the corn on sand, and that's just incredibly interesting, and really, in my mind, makes me wonder as an agronomist if we shouldn't be putting some potash with the seed, or in a 2x2 band in the starter, On corn on sand all the time, just to make sure we can support those higher potash levels. So some really cool stuff there. I really suggest you, you go and watch that. We'll link that in the chat. Ken from Elgin County saying, hey Peter, at the Elgin Soil and Crop Directors meeting, we applied finishing manure on some of our wheat this spring where we had spread red clover. And if you spread 5,000 gallons of liquid finishing manure, hog finishing manure, on red clover, you know what? You burn it off and there ain't nothing left. In another field, we did the sow manure, we did some with none, and the sow manure, it didn't do anything to the clover at all. So yes, we can see salt injury on red clover, and if it's just nicely germinated, It can definitely do some damage. Jason actually saying, does 28% burn red clover? And the answer is yes. In our trials, not all the time, it's really strange and it's hard to predict when it does and when it doesn't. But in the trials that Shane and I did on red clover seeded into winter wheat, there were some springs and particular sites, I mean, sometimes you get a site where the 28% did not hurt the red clover, same spring, Different location, the 28% burned the red clover, and where we only used urea, we had much better red clover. So that is another note that, that is out there for sure. Hey, here's something really cool. Syngenta has developed a system of applying microRNAs to a plant, and so RNA is the The messenger RNA, right? Like, it's what makes the plant do what it needs to do. And they're using microRNAs applied to the leaf to get the plant to do more of what it would already do anyway. That's really interesting. They call it the Extort Programme because they're kind of getting the plant to give more of what it would give anyway. If you go back, and I bet you it's 10 or 12 years, maybe longer, the University of Western Ontario, a researcher there, so that's London, Ontario. A researcher there was talking about foliar applying RNA to get the wheat to generate higher protein levels. That the RNA would, would tell the wheat plant to make more protein. And that, I never found or heard that that went any further, but here is something that is really cool. I think it could really change crop production. If we can actually get it to do a little bit more of what we want it to do by, you know, using its own mechanism, that's very, very cool. And last, before I close up shop for today, 2 plot results that have come in. And how come only 2? Like, this is what I want to ask. How come I have not been flooded with plot results? How is Wheat Pete supposed to learn anything if you don't share with him what you have learned? And I want this from way more than just Ontario. Actually, the feedback system has been a bit quiet from much of the rest of Canada and the US this last week, and I think it's just because we're into harvest and whatnot, but come on people, where's the feedback? Where's the plot results? So Josh, trying out Victrato on his soybeans, 4 replications, a 2.5 bushel per acre gain. So that's pretty exciting. We need to replicate it a few times, but that's pretty exciting. And Adam saying, you know, Pete, I recognise that Horst says there is not a yield gain to planted beans versus drilled beans, but we've done this for a while. Our 20-inch planted beans gave a 2.8 bushel yield advantage over the air seeder over multiple replications as well, and we just see that advantage. And this is where it really, every farm is different and you need to do your own trials. Because if I go to Elgin County and my great friend Alan McCollum, super agronomist, farms there as well with his brothers, and he all, his adage always is, rows for show, drill for dough. So they get higher yields when they drill their beans, but in Adam's case, I mean, I'm going to take the 3 bushel more yield with the 20-inch planted beans and they're going to look prettier. I will have to fight weed control. Remember, the wider the rows, the more we have to fight weed control. But at the end of the day, it's all about yield. And with that, send me more plot results. That's it, that's all. On behalf of the team here at Real Agriculture, this is Wheat Pete with the Word for Wednesday, September 30th. Comments, questions, feedback, and we'll talk way too long next week. See you then. Thank you for downloading the Wheat Pete's Word podcast, brought to you by Syngenta and the new soybean seed treatment Victrotto Complete. As the most complete soybean seed treatment, Victrotto Complete defends your soybeans from below-ground diseases with above-ground results you can see. Ask your retailer to learn more.