RealAg Radio: Weed pressure before emergence, sulphur by drone, and corn standability, Mar 16, 2026

This Real Egg Radio podcast is brought to you by Pounce 384 EC insecticide from FMC. Get fast, effective control of striped and crucifer flea beetles and cutworms in canola with light stable performance that lasts longer. Talk to your local retailer today. It's time for Real Egg Radio on rural radio channel 147 on Sirius. RealAg Radio and RealLagCulture.com is your home for insight and analysis of the issues that are impacting your farm business. Let's get real and get connected with RealAg Radio. Hello and welcome to RealAg Radio here on rural radio channel 147 Series XM. It is Monday, March 16th. Happy birthday, Kelvin Hepner. It is of course, also Agronomic Monday and we've got Peter Johnson of Real Agriculture fame back on the show. He's going to join me for the last two segments of the show. We've got plenty to talk about. He did host the Agronomist last week to talk about biologicals. I've got some questions on that. We've got just an absolute run on drone applications for fertiliser happening this spring. Some questions about that as well, some observations on corn standability. We'll talk about that and so much more. Pete's great at amassing all sorts of Q and A that comes from all over North America and brings it right here to Agronomic Monday. So thank you so much for joining us. We've also got a product spotlight on today. We will hear from Shaun Haney and Bryce Geisel with Coke Agronomic Services for our Product Spotlight of the Day. And but before we get to that, we've actually got a special segment. So you're going to hear a lot of Peter Johnson today, but in our first segment he sat down with Dr. Clarence Swanton and to talk about just fascinating research that Dr. Swanton did during his career. He worked on the very earliest signals of plants, how plants essentially talk to each other and applied this to how the crop that we put in the ground, how it could potentially be capping yield potential if it emerges at the same time or after weeds, and it senses this as it's emerging from the soil. It's fascinating stuff. So that is in our second segment of today, right after this break. All right, if you've got feedback on today's show, zip me an email. Lsmithealagriculture.com thank you all who have reached out after Friday show to talk about what we talked about in the bonus segment. You can cheque that out of [email protected] or cheque us out on YouTube. All right, let's take a quick break and I'll be back with more of Agronomic Monday right after this. Questions about about the markets SOA by Grainfox is your AI grain market analyst ready 247 to help you make smarter grain marketing decisions? 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Thanks for joining us in the Realite community as we continue to cover and serve North American agriculture foreign. Welcome back to Real Life Radio here on rural radio channel 147 SiriusXM. It is agronomic Monday, March 16th. I am your host Lindsay Smith and remember just a few weeks ago we had Mike Howell of the Dirt Podcast on well, from nutrient management to the latest weather, market and ag trends, the Dirt An Economics Podcast is your place for farm smart topics to boost your profitability. Join Mike Howell on season five of the Dirt Podcast coming this spring and I think it is actually the first episode has gone live, so go cheque it out wherever you get your audio. All right, I this segment is a very special one we've actually got we'll have Peter Johnson on to talk about all the agronomic questions and answers and discussions that are happening out there. But just a few weeks ago he spoke with Dr. Clarence Swanton about how plants so crops set yield and just how early they do it and how the interplay with sensing, yes, sensing of weeds that are emerged at the same Time or before the crop can actually fundamentally reduce the yield potential of a crop. It's a fascinating discussion. We're going to hop to that now. Peter Johnson at wheatpeatrealagriculture.com the Southwest Ag Conference, we have so many great sessions there, gives us lots of things to talk about here on real agriculture. And so one of the most interesting presentations at the Southwest Ag Conference this year was my guest today, Dr. Clarence Swanton. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph. And Clarence has done some groundbreaking research about how plants lose yield or how crops lose yield. And every farmer out there, Clarence, wants to know, you know, how do I prevent yield loss? But you said that crops lose yield by the minute. But isn't that obvious? Because if the crop is growing and the weeds are there, the weeds are taking the nutrients, they're taking the water, they're competing for sunlight and all of those things mean less yield for the crop plant. And is that not how it works? That's how we traditionally think about it. That's how we've taught about it as well. And we assume that that would be a battle for resources. But it's different than that. This is something that's unique that we've discovered and it's the role of light and how a certain wavelength red light and the far red light reflect off the neighbouring weeds. And even though there's lots of nutrients, this detection of the neighbourhood weeds can cause the plant to change its physiology. With that change, things are starting to show difference in yield very, very quickly. And so, like the plant, though, surely it's got to get emerged and it's got to have some time to feel that weed there, that, like, this has to be something that. And can I correct it or like, how does this actually happen? Well, how this happens is if the weeds are coming up at the same time as the crop seedling, this is. These neighbourhood weeds will reflect a signal to the, what's called the phytochrome in the plant, which is a protein that can detect light changes, it can detect the presence of neighbours. And when that protein detects this light signal from the weeds, then it changes the physiology of the plant, it triggers a series of great changes in the plant that can influence the growth and final yield output of the crop. So even before that crop, or as that crop is emerging, I can already be losing yield, despite the fact I've got all the resources there that the plant needs. Yeah, it's amazing how fast plants can detect and change. And so some of our Work has shown that as a seedling comes through the ground, as it gets close to the surface of the surface of the soil, it can detect what's above it through some of these light signals, through the very small millimetres of the, of the soil. And it can actually change how its growth pattern before it's even out of the ground in anticipation that it's going to be in a battle for survival when it emerges. So it senses that. So in other words, it's, as the title of your talk said, the plants are actually almost talking to each other through this, this differential reflection or absorption of light and they can pick that up. So they emerge ready to do battle. That's right. That's amazing. Within a very short period of time, the plan has been able. Because they don't have legs, they can't run away from competition. Right. But they can change their physiology really quickly. And the seedling stage, everything is happening at this seedling stage. So so much of management has to focus on this, how the plant, the seedling stage, whether it's the environment at that time or whether it's the presence of weeds, because those plants will adjust to those environmental cues and make those changes in what it appears at this point from our research that some of those changes stay with the plant throughout its growth and can influence then the outcome of yield. So this is an irreversible effect once it, once it occurs. Some of the changes that we've seen now the trouble is like we've looked at only one stage, we haven't been able to expand that research to other stages. But the fact that we can change the physiology early and then, and despite 99% of the growth cycle ahead, we can see a change in yield would suggest that some of the changes because of the presence of neighbouring weeds on the crop plant can be permanent and non reversible. Wow. And so in your presentation and we'll show the slide. But you said that the ship is on fire in Star Trek terms, the ship is on fire. Explain how that works within the plant. Well, one of the changes that's quite interesting to see, which is typical of many stress symptoms, is the presence of singlet oxygen. And when a plant is under stress, there tends to be an explosion of what we call singlet oxygen. It's a type of free radical and it is normally a helpful thing to a plant to have these free radicals that's involved in signalling, cell signalling. But if it becomes excess, and that's what the presence of a weed triggers, it creates a situation in the plant in the crop plant that you have excessive levels of that. Now you don't want to have that happen because this particular free radical can cause internal damage in the cell. So the plant has to deal with that. So it's like saying that the ship is on fire. I have to now expend energy to control the level of that fire and put it out. And so that's what a plant tries to do so that it can continue on. But that's a very serious moment in the development of a seedling plant to have excess levels of singlet oxygen. And as long as there's not another stress, the plants tend to be able to control it without delaying growth too long. Now, it could be like if you had weeds in the field that had you hadn't controlled yet and you had drought, that would be sort of the perfect storm. Right. And I think. And you would rapidly see the crop plants start to change, you know, changing in size, changing in colour. You start to see that happening. I think we've all had experience, we're seeing that in the field. Right. And so that's part of that struggle. So that's an example where you may have excessive stress. And so that's another argument by, you know, early season weed control is really critical to try to get that stress out of the way before a second one comes along. Yeah. And I mean, typically we don't have heavy drought stress in the early stages because the plant hasn't used that. But phenomenal that you could, that you could make that happen. The other things that you talked about, that it will actually change the regulation of different genes. Right. So you actually will down regulate the production of the chlorophyll. Why would the plant do that in that scenario? It's almost like you're shooting yourself in the foot. Right? Well, that's right. I haven't quite got the answer, the evolutionary answer to why the plant does that. But the fact that a neighbouring weed can suppress and down regulate photosynthetic genes, can delay, can suppress the production of chlorophyll in a plant just by being near it without touching the plant. You can clearly see, you know, if you don't have chlorophyll production, you're in trouble right off the bat. And that's just an amazing thing that that can happen. And of course, you're not producing the glucose, the sugar, the whole engine starts to suffer. Well, not only that, you're also down, or, pardon me, up regulating the antioxidants because they're the compounds that have to Absorb those singlet oxygens. Right. So this is again a cost to the plant. And so you have to think of an antioxidant like a sponge. It's got to go out there and try to smother out, gather up all these free radicals in the plant before it continues to damage. And those free radicals will damage the, the chloroplast. And then you have the chloroplast itself shutting down because there's no chlorophyll. So those two things are all happening at the same time in a seeding plant. Yeah. Interesting. And so effectively, and again, your Star Trek term, if I understood correctly, was now in the plant, the shields are down because it's dealing with its internal stresses and it makes it more susceptible to other stresses. That is correct, yeah. So the actual ability to the plant to hold off invasion, to survive insect damage, to survive disease damage, is now hampered, so it becomes more susceptible. So again, more importance for seed treatments, for example, where you've got to try to protect the plant because if you don't have some added effect, the plant itself, in response to the neighbouring wheat, becomes more susceptible to insect diseases. So it's trying to survive. And so certain mechanisms are being shut down, I think, in order to send energy and ATP and those types of things to the areas of growth, in order to try to escape from the pending terror of competition. And so that's, you know, that's critical. But you know, as I mentioned before, about why we recommend early season weed control and also the role of COVID crops. Right. Planting green, like when you planting green, that's okay. But I would think from this research it might suggest that as long as no other stress comes along, the plants are going to be fine. But it might be considered a slightly higher risk to management programme in terms of managing cover crops. We are going to leave it there. Thank you, of course, to Peter Johnson and Dr. Clarence Swanton for sharing that fascinating work that Dr. Quantum has worked on. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and I'll be back with today's Product Spotlight right after this. The future of phosphorus fertilisers is RhizoZorb. Craig Dick, VP of Sales and Marketing for Phospholutions, explains RhizoZorb 8390 is a next generation dry phosphate fertiliser that replaces MAP or DAP. RhizoZorb technology is incorporated into traditional phosphate manufacturing, resulting in a finished granule that enhances phosphorous uptake, reduces phosphorus use rates and maintains crop yields Preserve yield, optimise phosphorus, and reduce costs with rhizozorb. Peter Johnson at wheatpeatrealagriculture.com I'm the host of the Word, and I love doing the Word. I love the questions, I love the challenges. I love having to apply agronomics to all over the globe and areas outside of my normal jurisdiction. Also, I love the feedback the most. Where growers challenge me, tell me about their plot results, help me to learn the Word. Absolutely the best part of my day. As you look ahead to the next growing season, there's a lot to consider when it comes to your crop. You need every possible advantage available to you. The Pulse School on RealAgriculture.com has everything you need to make the best choice for you and your farm on Demand videos with leading industry experts available anywhere, anytime. Go into the season confident and ready with the Pulse School on RealAgriculture.com. And welcome back to RealAg Radio. It's now time for a product spotlight with Coke Agronomic Services. And we're joined right now by Coke Economic Services, Bryce Geisel. How are we doing today, Bryce? I'm doing well, Shaun. How about you? Good. You're ready for spring? You feeling. You feeling ready? It's starting to come in pretty quick. I don't know. The weather's up and down here, so it looks like we're getting a little warm and a little cold. We'll see when we get it. Yeah, it'll come. Calendar tells us it will. Okay, so let's talk about something that's really top of mind for a lot of growers is input costs. And with input costs, where they are, what. What changes in nitrogen strategies could we see from growers this season to, you know, to kind of react and respond to those sticky input prices as many people describe them. Yeah, it's one of these springs that there's a lot of challenges for farmers, I think. And as we kind of focus in on nitrogen, really, you know, the way I look at it, nitrogen management strategies really come down to kind of three big buckets that we kind of try to work within. Obviously, economics is one of those buckets. Agronomics is. As an agronomist, I spent a lot of time in the agronomics space of things and also operational efficiency. So those are kind of three things. And some of the things, you know, we're seeing and some potential changes and people are trying to adapt. One of the things where maybe might happen is right around the idea of kind of split nitrogen applications. You know, that's been around a little bit. There's a group of farmers that have been doing split nitrogen for a long time now. And kind of going back to what I mentioned, there's always going to be that group of farmers who operational efficiencies, they're going to want that nitrogen all up front at the time of seeding, planting, planting, just that's operational fits. But I think there might be a little bit more flux. And some people are maybe looking at doing split nitrogen applications that maybe haven't done it before or haven't done in quite a while and are kind of looking at as a way to kind of help manage it and work through that coming into spring. So if we see more split applications and like, I guess what should growers be be thinking about if they're, if they're going to do that? There's a lot of considerations and it really does kind of change how you kind of manage. And at Coke Aeronomic Services, we focus in on nitrogen efficiency as one of the core things that we do among some of the others and really around that is how do we help manage that nitrogen. And that will be a little bit different from a split application versus someone that's kind of done all up front or even fall nitrogen applications for parts of Western Canada as they kind of go through with that. One of the big things with that split nitrogen is being able to top dress that nitrogen. And when we top dress that nitrogen, so that's putting nitrogen onto an actively already growing crop is we've kind of reduced that lag period from when we've done that application to when the crop needs it. We see that when we do early spring applications, there's a period of time the crop, before the crop really gets growing and established, it doesn't need that nitrogen. And so when you kind of do a top dress on actively growing, it's able to be able to use that nitrogen a little bit quicker. And with that we tend to see a reduction in some of the losses in terms of leaching and denitrification. For those doing fall nitrogen or early spring nitrogen bleaching, denitrification is a big concern and something we try to manage through as we go into the top dressing. We don't usually see that. So we may not need to use a product in terms of stabilisers that has a nitrification inhibitor. Now there's always going to be exceptions to that. There are people, groups of farmers that ban and actively growing or use fertigation. And so those will Be a little bit different, you need to manage those different. But for those that are applying nitrogen onto the surface of that actively growing crop, you can probably look at just utilise a urease inhibitor. And the reason for that is, as we put that nitrogen, as that's going to happen kind of later into the spring, maybe into early summer, we're going to have hopefully some of those warmer temperatures that we know are coming. It's going to be a little bit more humid and volatilization loss becomes a big concern and a risk for that. So utilising a really good urease inhibitor like anvil is a way we can kind of help reduce that potential large amount volatilization losses, because we don't know what the year is going to give us and allow that nitrogen to stay in the field and be there for when the crop needs it. It's interesting that this strategy comes up when it comes to input costs, because the split application of N has. Has been a strategy for those people in the Western Canadian drought zone and the Northern plains, where it tends to be a little bit drier. Right. So you kind of hedge your bets. Do we get rain? And if we do get rain and I need to add more nitrogen, then I do that top up later in the season. But it also works in this situation as well. Also, again, relative to how the crop is progressing through the. Through the growing season, it's interesting the same strategy works trying to solve two different problems. So for you, Bryce, what's the key takeaway for growers heading into this season on this topic? I think for the. For the key. The key takeaway I really want people to think about. Again, I think I've talked about this before and if people have heard me talk about this, I really do try to articulate that that nitrogen management strategy is really going to be different, farm by farm, depending on all those different things that go into it. Your, the equipment you're using, the soil, the. The environment you have, the crops you're growing, the nitrogen source you're using. And so of those things, we kind of want to make sure that you're using the right product for the right application. That's one of the things I take pride on here at Coke Agronomic Services is that we have a lot of different options that farmers can use, depending on how they're using their nitrogen. That's going to help reduce those losses from any field right across Canada. And I try to bounce around a fair bit on different sides. And as we kind of work through that and making sure that people are using the products that are going to fit for the application, not trying to use the wrong product in the wrong way and so kind of going back the key takeaway. So if you are new to top dressing or you haven't looked at it or maybe you've been doing it and you haven't even realised that nitrogen loss is a concern when you do top dressing, I really encourage you to look at utilising a urease inhibitor. Again, an example that would be anvil nitrogen stabiliser to help make sure we reduce those volatilization losses, because that's the one we're really concerned about. Again, we'll just based on the timing and the way it's being applied, it's at the highest risk for those volatilization loss. We want to make sure we reduce that and again have that nitrogen there. The farmers are paying for it, they want to use it, make sure the crop is getting it. Great stuff. So to learn more about protecting your nitrogen investment, make sure you go to defend your N CA or talk to your local retailer. We've been talking to Bryce Geisel of Coke Agronomic Services. Hey Bryce, thanks so much for joining us here today. Thank you for having me. Great stuff. We'll be right back on RealAg radio, Rural Radio 147, right after this. Until you've used Via TUDE fungicide, you'll never know what your canola crop is capable of. Engineered excellence in Every Jug Via Tude combines two powerful actives, Group 11 and 3 for best in class Sclerotinia protection and superior resistance management by penetrating the plant and protecting against infection. Treat your canola crop to a healthy and productive season with Via tude. Ask your local retailer for more information. Before you get back in the field this year, spend some time with the corn school on realagriculture.com get all the information you need on hybrid selection, planning, depth, crop inputs and more from a wide range of industry experts. A massive library of video content is available on demand when you need it most. Spend your time outside of the field, inside the classroom with the corn school on realagriculture.com. Welcome back to RealAg Radio here on rural radio, channel147, SiriusXM. It is Monday, March 16. It is agronomic Monday. This segment brought to you by Oxbow, the latest innovation from nufarm, a versatile broadleaf in crop herbicide powered by by Duplasm Technology. Oxbow is your workhorse on resistant kochia and other tough weeds. All right, well Is it Agronomic Monday without Peter wee Pete Johnson? I don't know, but we don't need to know because he's here. So Pete, how are you? I am absolutely excellent, Lindsay. Although today has just been dull and dreary and you know, Pete loves the sun. And then the wind today, like, man, I feel like we're living in Lethbridge, there's so much wind. Yes. Yeah, we, we headed to the Sens game yesterday in basically a blizzard. Today like very, not a terrible one, but like a streamer, it was pretty bad and today is kind of rainy and warm, but so grey and so wet and mucky and miserable and we have again tonnes of snow back. So I don't know, it's Pete, I feel like it's just a more typical march. It's just we were spoiled for a while. It's. It's Ontario. Have a nice day. If you don't, you don't like the weather, wait a couple of hours, liable to change or at least wait a day and for sure it'll change in March. And so. Yeah, yes, that's probably true. Okay, now Pete, I did want to. Before we hop into, we've got lots to talk about agronomy wise. But tonight of course is the Agronomist. We're going to talk about sulphur. Sulphur on soybean specifically. But you've already said you can't make it because you've got a new theatre production coming up. What is this one? Where can people watch Pete in all his glory on stage? So we actually opened this Friday in Embro Thistle Theatre in Embro. The production is called the Mighty Men of Zora. So this is the third historical play that we've done about Zora and it's really phenomenally interesting. Don Hilborn is a real driver of this. But. But I think a lot of people don't realise how much history probably every community has. But in 1893, the mighty men of Zora won the world championship tug of war in Chicago at the Chicago World's Fair. And so this is, this is a storey about that and just, just a whole tonne of fun. Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing. Who does a play about a tug of war team? Exactly. Okay, that is. Okay, everybody go see Pete. It's Friday night, so there you go. Our friends down in the U.S. make the trip. It'll be worth it. Okay, let's then though move to. I did mention, of course tonight's conversation on the Agronomist, 8pm Eastern. Find us on YouTube or on Real Agriculture.com is on Sulphur now, specifically soybeans. But we're going to talk, we're going to start with a conversation on winter wheat and sulphur application, because you are hearing all sorts of demand for potentially using drones for this application. Walk me through that. Yeah. And so, Lindsey, if there's one place we can. We can argue about drones and spraying fungicides and herbicides legal in the us, not yet legal in Canada, soon going to be likely legal in Canada. But Tom Wolf just says, like, don't do it, because we don't. We just don't get coverage. But when. So. So we won't argue about that. We'll just stay. What. What do we know drones do a really good job of? And it's things like spreading cover crops, eat, spreading low rates of fertiliser when it's too wet to get out in the field or the crop is too big. And so I was really astounded with the off calf programme when it was opened last week in, I don't know, an hour and 17 minutes, all the money was committed and the demand for drones in that intake was just unbelievable. The drone people are telling me they're absolutely swamped. And so, Lindsay, on sulphur, on winter crops. And so it's not just winter wheat, it's winter barley, it's winter triticale for forage, maybe even cereal rye, winter rye for forage, it's winter canola. All of those crops have a very high sulphur demand. And that demand comes really early. And so it just opens up a window of opportunity when it's too wet to get across the field and put on, you know, 85 or 80 or 75 or 100 pounds of ammonium sulphate to get the sulphur there and a little bit of nitrogen for the early going to give that crop just that little boost, man. Drones can do that in a very efficient way. And so I think more and more we are going to see people looking at that as an opportunity, because the crop, once it warms up, I mean, you said it's warm today where you are. Well, you know, when it's warm, that crop is starting to grow. And not that it has a high nutrient demand, but it does have nutrient demand, and that early fertiliser can just give it that boost. And we know that sulphur is one of those nutrients that it. It needs the earliest, as well as nitrogen. But sulphur in particular on winter wheat and the data that Shane and I did recently, the nutrient uptake and partitioning data. Sulphur was one of those nutrients that kind of really surprised us with how early that demand is. So one of those things that. That I think growers are looking at. And the cool thing is that we've also learned that we don't lose sulphur the way we thought we did. So you put all that together and yeah, drones. Drones can do the job. So. And that, I think that was the one thing I wanted to just touch on, though, is that we are talking specifically at this time of year anyway, on sulphur, and because of exactly that, it's early, we don't maybe want to traffic on that field. And that sulphur is at a lower risk of loss. Because, of course, we do need to think about from nitrogen perspective or even, let's say there's a runoff perspective. Like, we still have to think about, is it the right time? But drones really do really allow you to go in at that earliest, earliest time and even earlier because you. You're not touching the field. It's fantastic. So loss is still one of those things to consider, but in the sulphur equation, much less of a risk, which I think is just so cool. We have used drones to put rye seed into standing soybeans and then also the nitrogen in the spring for a forage crop. And it was amazing. So high five to everybody who's trying it. And if you are booking drones, my guess is you need another one. Okay, go shopping, everybody. Okay. One of the other things that we want to touch on, though, is, is as we, of course, one of these days, the snow will leave and stay gone, and everyone is. Is gearing up for the planting season. For those who maybe didn't get their fall tillage done, though, there are some questions out there about what. What you can and cannot do or what may or may not work for the spring. Pete, I know you' tillage fan. So how do we go through this? Yeah. And so, Lindsay, I was two things. One, I drove to Elmville on Friday to present to the North Soil Simcoe and North Simcoe Soil and Crop Improvement Association. And I was astounded how much corn was out there. And so as soon as we see that, it's like, oh, well, if. If you're a tillage person of a fall primary tillage person, that's not done. And I've also had four different people reach out to me and say, I didn't get all my fall work done. I'm typically a Whatever disc grip person or moldboard plough or that. Like what, what are the options in this early spring time frame to get some tillage done so that my, my s tine cultivator isn't going to plug full of corn stalks when I try to work that field to whatever crop it is that I'm planting this spring. And so Lindsay, I talked to Greg Stewart as well. He's with Syngenta. He's just a wealth of information around tillagent. Both Greg and I are sort of of the same opinion. If it's a sand soil, if you have sand in the name, you can disc rip in March and likely get away with it. But if it's got, if it does not have sand in the name, if it's a silt loam, if it's a clay loam, if it's a clay, believe it or not, as much as I hate tillage, if you need that primary tillage to make your system work, we're going to lean to the moldboard plough and we're going to tell growers to do it as early as they possibly can. Get out there on the frost. You know, we keep thinking we're going to get a frosty night without snow and be able to carry the equipment and get that job done. But we need desperately, you sort of have to think about how does fall tillage work for us in the province of Ontario. And the way that it works is, yes, it does some soil damage if it's too wet in the fall. And if you're on heavy clay soil and you're it's looking like glass when you turn it up, get out of the field because even the winter doesn't do enough to correct that. But it's the freeze thaw and the wet dry cycles that really alleviate the damage you've done to that soil. So if you're going to do that in the spring, you have to do it as early as you can to get as many wet dry cycles, freeze exhaust cycles as you can to alleviate that damage. Or you have to leave it till it's dry and mostly speaking trying to get soil dry in May to a 6 inch depth, which it's hard to, to disc grip or plough at less than six inches. That, that's a tall order. So it's kind of like, yeah, I don't like either of those options. I don't. I mean, at the end of the day you have corn stalks out there, you need to deal with them. Unless you're an organic producer and Some of these growers are organic so they need that tillage for weed control. But man, if you are not an organic grower, leave the corn stalks and it's one pass with a high speed disc or just go straight, no till there. You can plant soybeans into those corn stalks without very much tillage. I was going to say there's always. What is it? Yeah, I don't know. There's a hundred ways you could do this and exactly that. There's always an option. And I don't know, I would imagine if like this happens, let's say two years out of five or two years out of six, like maybe these are options that you start looking at. But you're right, it depends on what is it. It's strategic tillage. You have to have a reason for doing it and there isn't always necessarily the right time to do it. So adapt, innovate, overcome everybody. Okay, one last thing on that corn left in the field. I know that, you know, one of the things that happens around here is farmers leave out corn next to roadways to act as snow fen. And that allows me, because I know they do it for me, it allows me to look at different standability between different fields. But you're talking about, you know, full fields necessarily left out. What are you observing on the standability front? You know Lindsay, if you have that corn out in the field and it's the whole corn field, unless there is some reason that the snow doesn't pile up into the corn stalks, like there are fields that, that have enough bush around them that the snow never really. They. There's already a snow fence to catch the snow and you don't get the snow fence effect in the cornfield. But I was talking to some growers last, I think was Thursday and they have some corn left out and they walked and they said like why we have one field, man, its standability is perfect. We walk to the next field and from the front to the back for the first 30 or 40 or something like that, feet in the corn is absolutely flat and the rest of the field's fine. Well, it's that snow fence effect. And if a grower is, is actually doing this as a planned operation, you should leave the first four or six rows depending on your header width or whatever grabs you right along the the west side or along the whole field because that acts as a snow fence and you harvest the next 30 or 60ft so that you don't get the snow drift where the corn still stands. Because once the snow goes over the cob, it's all over. It just won't withstand that pressure. As the snow melts, it pulls it straight down. In my experience, that's a 50% yield loss in those areas. But unless the snow goes over the cob, the standability on today's hybrid so far has looked really, really good. Okay, we're gonna leave it there. We're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come back with more of Agronomic Monday here on Reel Ag Radio on real radio, channel 147 Series XM right after this. I'm Lindsay Smith from RealAgriculture.com Join me Monday nights for the Agronomist, a one hour live and interactive show broadcast across YouTube, Facebook and X. Monday nights at 8pm Eastern, I host expert agronomists from all over the country to give you answers to some of the toughest agronomic questions. Join us live or catch the replay Tuesday morning. That's the Agronomist with me, Lindsay Smith. Monday nights live at 8pm Eastern. Hi, I'm Bernard Tobin, host of the Soybean School on RealAgriculture.com throughout the year on the Soybean School, we'll bring you timely agronomic video content from planting to harvest, from the latest agronomic research to the latest in production technology. Cheque out our massive video library on YouTube realagriculture.com or download the audio podcast versions wherever you get your podcast. The Soybean School is brought to you by Mazec Seeds and Lalamom Plant Care. Welcome back to RealAg Radio here on rural radio, channel147, SiriusXM. I am your host, Lindsay Smith. It is Monday, March 16th. Agronomic Monday. This segment brought to you by FP Genetics. FP Genetics brings new seed genetics to Canadian farms, empowering growers to thrive in ever changing conditions. Visit FPGenetics CA and join thousands of Canadian growers who trust FP Genetics to deliver innovative, reliable seed genetics season after season. Experience the next wave with FP Genetics. All right, bringing back in Peter Wheat, Pete Johnson. Pete, you got to play professor last week at the University of Guelph Ridgetown campus. How did it go? Oh, Lindsay, I just had an absolute blast. And anytime I get to interact with our next generation of agriculturalists, I have continuously been astounded at how much knowledge is there, how, you know, how invested they are. And I was really pleased because I was warned. You know, students don't engage much, man. They were asking me questions. They were following along, they were taking notes. I gotta admit. There was one student that fell asleep and it's kind of like, yep, that's, that's, that's just gonna happen. Exactly. But no, I was, I was ever so pleased to be given the opportunity. So thanks to Dr. Dave for that. And I actually had a students parents reach out to me after that session and say, hey, our daughter was in that class. She really enjoyed your, your information. And so thanks so much for doing that. And it's like, wow, people, people are good for the most part. And that was really nice to, to get that positive feedback. Mm, absolutely, it is. I, I have done some teaching and it's always fascinating to me to get just that fresh perspective. And also. So I personally, and I'm sure Dr. Dave absolutely loves this as well. It's really cool when you think something's really neat and you get to share that with someone and then their eyes light up and they're like, this is super neat. And you're like, yes. Anyway, it is very, it's very rewarding. Rewarding, that's the word I'm looking for. You're right. Okay. You know what's not rewarding? Fertiliser supply. Big questions, of course. I just want to touch on this briefly because we've, we've covered quite a bit of it in other things on RealAg. There are of course so many unknowns with the war in the Middle east, etc. In talking to some farmers. You know, many farmers have fertiliser supplies mostly either locked down, priced whatever. But there's going to be a huge amount of uncertainty on even, not just obviously prices going up, but on supply. Pete, what are you hearing as far as how growers are approaching this volatility in this unknown? Well, Lindsay, and I think you really have to be careful because western Canada is different than eastern Canada. From this discussion and in Ontario in particular, we simply have to bring in particularly nitrogen fertiliser, sometimes some phosphorus as well for just in time delivery in the spring. But a couple things have happened that I think are going to be a big positive. So one is that last year the supply of 28% nitrogen got to be really tight in season. And growers have learned in Ontario that most of the time if you can fill up your tanks, your 28% or your 32% nitrogen, of course 32% won't, won't overwinter. Here it salts out. That's why we make it, we water it down, down to 28%. But if you can Fill up a tank in August or September. That's typically the cheapest time to buy that nitrogen. And so we have been putting in liquid fertiliser storage tanks at a pretty phenomenal pace. And because we got short in 2025, some of our fertiliser suppliers said we don't want that to happen in 2026. And so the supply of 28% nitrogen, as I understand it, is not maybe as tight as it would have been a year ago or two years ago or three years ago. So that from a supply standpoint is a really positive thing. We still may get tight if things carry on too long with side dress nitrogen. But it looks like early season supply should be reasonably okay. If you are a grower that has not yet priced your, your fertiliser. All bets are off on that front. I have no idea. But I do think we are not long for nitrogen fertiliser. Don't misunderstand me. But, but it, that was a glimmer of hope for me when I heard that, actually heard that this morning, that we may not need to bring in as much 28% nitrogen this year as we have some other years. And, and just the way things have worked out, man, if that's the case, that's going to be a huge plus. Absolutely. So many unknowns. Not, not an easy spring to navigate on these things. But yes, there may be some. Maybe it is not as bad as it could be. So we'll take our wins as we can. Okay, moving on. Pete, you did me a huge favour last week. I couldn't host the Agronomist, so you stepped in for a fascinating discussion on biologicals, biostimulants. I highly recommend everybody to go cheque it out. There is a moment where wheat, Pete's entire year may have been made when Laura Lindsay says that the best biological is wheat in rotation. And oh my gosh, it was like, oh yeah, birthday, New Year's all rolled into one for Pete. Yes. So, but you also of course got feedback on that discussion. But this is just a very popular discussion that's, that's circulating right now and has been for, for many years. But specifically, you know, and you brought it up in the word, and I think it bears mentioning is, you know, just what we're expecting some of these products to do in an environment that is, you know, with these living organisms, that you're putting a living organism into an already established sort of, you know, apartment complex or whatever of a whole bunch more. And then we expect miracles. And I don't know if that's fair. Yeah, it's absolutely not fair. And by the way, the quote from, from Laura Lindsay, that man, I, I'm good. I'm making PowerPoint slides with it already. Is wheat the better biological. Putting it on a shirt. Exactly. It just, I, that that's so much fun. And, and she backed that statement up. And it's really interesting because she said that as soon as they put wheat into the rotation, in that rotation, they get 5 bushel per acre more soybeans. Well, you know what the data says in Ontario, and we've talked about this lots, but it's, and it's, it's an 11% increase in soybean yields two years after the wheat, which turns out for most growers to be about 5.5 bushels per acre. So to have that number the same across such a big region is, is just really interesting. But you're. Yeah. So the biological discussion, Lindsay. And, and I really loved the quote from Greg Stewart from last week's Agronomist. And thanks for letting me host it, by the way. I'm no Lindsay Smith, but it just was a tonne of fun. But Greg Stewart's comment was, you know, we're putting a living organism on the seed or in the seed trench, and we've grown that living organism in a totally different environment. Right. We put it in a vat to make it multiply under ideal conditions, and then we take it out of those ideal conditions and we put it into the soil with, you know, an absolute, like, it's, it's sort of like going from the equator to the North Pole from, from a condition standpoint. And not only that, we're putting those living organisms into an environment where there's 6 billion other living organisms that are already adapted to that environment. And we expect that it's going to do something for us. And the chances are really, really slim that we're going to see much benefit from living organisms. They can work because Rhizobium japonicum, whenever we look at rhizobium that we get nodules on alfalfa or soybeans or red clover, like any of the legumes that fix their own nitrogen. Well, if you don't have those rhizobia in the soil, then you can add rhizobium. And if it's the right strain, you can get them to fix nitrogen. But what's really interesting in that particular case is you look at our rhizobium when we put it on the seed. Well, we want at least you know, 10 to the 8th rhizobium per gramme of the product we're putting on so that the numbers of those living organisms that we put in, into the soil on that soybean seed are astronomical. And we hope, we hope that maybe we'll see eight or nine or ten nodules the first year that we do that. And so even when there's no competition, because there's no other organisms in a virgin soybean field to compete with that rhizobium and we put, you know, billion in there and we get five or six that survive and it's like, wow. So this really, I think, helped put it into perspective around where we could look at likely better success and where we kind of go like, wow, that's a tough gig to make work. Now the other conversation, and we're rapidly running out of time. And so it's probably one of those things we're going to come back to a couple times, everybody, I promise. But what goes hand in hand with this discussion is also, of course, organic matter adding carbon back into this, into the soil, into this cycle. And one of the questions that comes up, and I had this conversation with a farmer over the weekend, is where there is a tendency to at times try to exactly that we want a bug in a jug or a magical solution that is going to make up for other management decisions that we're trying to cut corners. Now, I'm not. I want to be very clear here. There are so many growers who using a biological is an addition to all the really great practises they're already doing. Right. But we've talked about it here on this show is that when, when money's tight, it's like, well, what if there's a silver bullet that's to going to fix all my problems. But to, to Laura's point that, you know, wheat is the better biological, we've still got to make sure that we've got, you know, a really solid rotation that is adding carbon back into the soil that is feeding soil microbes that is like, you still have to. Or more importantly, you need to address all the other management things before you expect miracles from a product. Yeah, Lindsay, if there was a silver bullet bullet, we'd all be using it already. And so this looking for the silver bullet is. I don't know, we'll find one someday. And as soon as we do, we, Pete will, will shout it to the rooftops. But guess what? We haven't found it yet. And absolutely right. Go Back to the basics. And one of the Andrew McGuire did a webinar presentation for Grey Grey Agricultural Services on Tuesday night last week following the biological discussion on Monday. And, and he just said all of this discussion about, you know, ways we make organic matter, the bugs in the soil, we know they make organic matter now. And all of a sudden we say, well, that's revolutionary. He said, well, wait a minute, the bugs make organic matter by feeding on the carbohydrates. If you don't have sunshine and you don't have the plant growth, just like we used to think about organic matter and that carbon to feed the bugs, the bugs can make the organic matter. So at the end of the day, capture the sunshine. That's the way to make organic matter. Absolutely. Okay, fantastic. There's so much more to say on that, but we'll, we'll save it maybe for next week or the week after, but would love anyone out there who's got questions, comments, give us your feedback. You can email me lsmith realagriculture.com if I can get it out. Peter is at [email protected] and he loves to answer questions on the word. So we Pete's Word, a podcast goes up every Wednesday. Cheque that out as well. Pete will leave it there. And I'm sorry you're gonna miss tonight's chat, but I'm sure you'll watch the replay and tell me what I did wrong. And that's fine. But good luck with your practises this week ahead of hitting the stage Friday. So thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me, Lindsay. Alrighty. Okay, we're gonna leave it there. Thank you so much for joining me here on this agronomic Monday. Really appreciate everybody. Cheque out the Agronomist tonight, 8pm Eastern. You can find us on YouTube or head to realagriculture.com agronomists while you're there, you can sign up for the newsletter and it'll remind you on what topics are coming up. All right. I will be back later in the week as well, but your regular host, Shaun Haney will be back tomorrow. Cheers, everybody. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for downloading this RE Lake Radio podcast brought to you by pounds 384 EC insecticide from FMC. With proven performance across multiple crops, pounds 384 EC helps you stay ahead of pest pressure and protect your crop investment. Talk to your local retailer to learn more. Hey everybody, Shaun Haney here for the RealAg Radio podcast bonus. We're doing a bonus here today on a Monday. You're like, what is going on here? We only do bonuses usually on Fridays. Well, there is times where we do do a bonus throughout the week and we're going to try to do this here this week. I'm endeavouring to do so. Okay. Because there's so much happening in the world of agriculture right now, some of the geopolitical events that are working its way into the industry as impacts like diesel prices, fertiliser prices and the like. And so, you know, Lindsey did a great job today on Agronomic Monday and now I'm going to do the news. Okay. So I'm looking forward to doing the news today. And hey, if you do have any feedback on anything we chat about here, you can send me an email. Shaneeyealagriculture.com and oh boy, Lindsey hosted on Friday. I was on a plane. And I'll tell you what, you provided a lot of great feedback from Friday shows. So keep up the momentum. Love the feedback from the audience. No doubt about it. Love it. Okay, so February's inflation numbers offered a brief reprieve from the Canadian for the Canadian economy cooling to 1.8% year over year, but economists warn the relief is likely the calm. Before the storm, much of this dip was driven by the expiration of the federal sales tax holiday on household staples and dining out a mechanical easing. The analysts say mass and more volatile trend ahead with the conflict in the Middle east leading to a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Surging energy costs are expected to push headline inflation back towards 3% in the coming months, while food inflation moderated to 5.4% and beef prices saw a slight cooldown. The lag effect of the higher transportation and fuel costs compounded by a weak Canadian dollar is expected to keep pressure on grocery margins well into 2026, despite a soft jobs report showing a jump in unemployment to 6.7%. The bank of Canada is widely expected to hold interest rates steady at 2.25% this week as it gauges how deeply the current oil price shock will squeeze the broader economy. Also, I think on Wednesday with the Federal Reserve meeting, they're also expected to hold. It was kind of interesting when I was listening to Bloomberg Radio this morning, there was an analyst on there talking about how with some of the rises in oil and some of the pressure from an affordability standpoint point, he felt it would maybe lead the Fed to start to think about more inclined to cut rates going forward than increasing rates like some of the G7 countries are talking about here. Just if you're if you are a geek like me that is interest interested in central bank decision making at a time like this I'll tell you there is lots of stuff to read and talk about and ponder. So happy happy economic geeking out there there everybody. Now, after an eight year hiatus, Richardson International has officially rejoined the Canola Council of Canada, marking a major shift in the industry's unified front. Richardson, one of the country's dominant Canola processors and exporters, originally withdrew in 2017 over concerns regarding the value of its million dollar annual investment. I you know when Kelvin Heppner was on this storey all over it and posted a storey@real agriculture.com and I would have bet that it was not 2017. That is really interesting that it has actually been that long already. The Richardson's been out of the Council while the specific terms of their return remain private, the move was solidified at the Canola Council's annual meeting on March 12, with Richardson's VP of Grain Merchandising Aaron Anderson taking a seat on the Board of Directors. This reunion comes at a critical time for the second sector, following a year defined by steep Chinese tariffs, the massive bungee Viterra merger and a restructuring of the Council itself. Canola Council President Chris Davison noted that despite these hurdles, the industry's ability to collaborate across the value chain remains its greatest strength as they transition into their new Canola forward together strategic framework. So it makes sense to have Richardson as a part of the Canola Council based on some of the mandate and who the members are and the stakeholders and things like that. So good to see them back making that decision. The path to renewing the Canada United States Mexico Agreement, better known as KUZMA or USMCA depending on which country you're in, is hitting significant turbulence as the July deadline approaches, according to U.S. ambassador Pete Huckstra. Speaking at the Canadian Crops Convention in Toronto last week, Huckster warned that while the business community remains supportive, a total disconnect exists with the Canadian with the Canadian public that appears increasingly neutral or opposed to the deal. Now what he's referring to here is there was a study from ABACUS Data basically saying half of Canadians could take or leave the the Kuzma agreement saying we really don't need a free trade agreement. What do I say? Personally that that's bonkers. That is like showing our financial or economic naivety when it comes to the realities, no matter what you think about the current US Administration and whatever. However you feel about that person. The reality is that does not change the fact that Canada needs needs this trade agreement with the U.S. the ambassador made it clear that the Trump administration shift towards targeted tariffs is non negotiable advising Canada to focus its strategy on landing in the lowest tariff bucket by proving why doing business north the border is an awesome deal rather than a necessity. With substantive, substantive discussion stalled since October and political friction rising, including critiques of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's aggressive tactics, Huckster signalled that the US remains sceptical of multilateral trade bodies and prefers direct smaller scale arrangements more like the side letter approach. The bilateral negotiations. Despite these headwinds and looming questions over sensitive files like dairy, Huckster maintained an optimistic tone suggesting the bilateral relationship will eventually emerge stronger once the review process concludes. Okay, lots to, there's, there's lots of thoughts there to break down. I, I've been saying to people and I know everybody doesn't agree with me but I think his comments about Premier Ford are well made in the sense that the, the industry that's under the greatest attack here in these, in this review is the Canadian auto sector. You that even the conservatives have now positioned themselves on, on this file to be, you know we need a not a zero tariff auto pact with the United States. That should tell you something. It is a focal point now who has the most to lose politically if Canada gives in on the Canadian auto sector and hurts that part of the industry? Well, it's Premier Doug Ford. So one could argue that maybe one of the greatest threats to whether or not Canada has an agreement going forward is the premier himself. That's something really to watch in terms of how he reacts to this review coming up this summer. And it was great to see Canadian crops convention have the ambassador there. I think it's always great no matter whether you agree with him, you dislike him, you have counter arguments or maybe you love what he says. I think it's important to hear those perspectives with our largest trading partner. A labour strike involving roughly 3,800 workers at the GBS plant in Greeley, Colorado is threatening to disrupt the cattle industry as contract negotiations over wages and health care stalls. As one of the largest facilities in the U.S. processing up to 6,000 head daily, the Waco removes nearly 5% of the national slaughter capacity, creating an immediate bottleneck for feed yards in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. Analysts warn this disruption could trigger a price squeeze seen in previous plant shutdowns. Downward pressure on cash cattle prices as demand for live animals drops paired with rising wholesale boxed beef costs due to tighter supply. This will improve packer margins. If you want more on this, you can cheque out last week's beef market update with an Wasco, the Gateway Livestock Exchange. And finally, major US allies and trading partners are responding with extreme caution to President Trump's demand for multinational naval coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz following the US Israeli strikes on Iran and Tyran subsequent blockade. Trump has warned that the future of NATO could be very bad if member states help to secure the waterway, which currently sees oil prices hovering around $105 per barrel. While the UK has offered mine hunting drones, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has firmly stated Britain will not be drawn into a wider war, a sentiment echoed by Germany and Australia who have rejected the call for warships outright. Japan and South Korea cite significant legal hurdles and the high threshold for entering an active war zone, while France has signalled it only will consider escort missions once the hottest phase of the conflict subsides. The standoff highlights a deepening diplomatic rift here. While the Trump administration demands allies protect their own energy, security partners are prioritising de escalation to avoid a catastrophic regional expansion of the conflict. And I think one of the things that's difficult here for allies of the US to wrap their head around is wait a minute, you didn't feel the need at all to inform us that you were going into Iran, they're going to start this war and now not going. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused significant issues. It's a bit of a political nightmare domestically in the US for the White House. And now it's become everybody's problem. But the reality is it is everybody's problem. So I'm really curious how long countries, allies hold onto this. We're not going to have help. Somebody like UK's Prime Minister Starmer, he's in his own political challenge domestically in the uk trying to hold on to being the prime minister. And so just jumping into this may fix his wagon and not in a positive way. It may put him out to pasture as prime minister if he does so, if it's that if it's going to be that politically of a challenge domestically in the United Kingdom. So no easy answers on this I get. And also there's that, there's that Trump XI meeting in April that may be put off. China is another country that's really impacted by the Strait of Hormuz closure. So more to follow there. Hey, if you have any feedback on today's show, Lindsey did a great job with Agronomic Monday. It was great to bring you the news and of course we'll see you again tomorrow. Send me that feedback. Shaneyealagriculture.com Cheers everybody.