13th annual Great Lakes Grain crop assessment tour dates set

Jun 16, 2022

Great Lakes Grain’s 13th annual crop assessment tour for corn and soybean farmers set for August 29-September 9, 2022.

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Great Lakes Grain Inc. based in Chatham, Ontario, has announced that it has scheduled its 13th annual Great Lakes Grain Crop Assessment Tour for August 29 to September 9, 2022.

It is during this tour that Great Lakes Grain staff and partners from AGRIS Co-operative Ltd., FS PARTNERS (a division of GROWMARK, Inc.), and Coop Embrun will scout corn and soybean fields with farmers who sign up for the tour.

The team will conduct yield estimates, gauge crop progress and evaluate the overall health of Ontario corn and soybean crops.

The assessment of the fields helps the team work with crop producers to determine if there are additional opportunities to market their grain.

Interested producers can have their fields assessed by registering through the Great Lakes Grain website using this link: www.greatlakesgrain.com/2022-Crop-assessment-request-form

Great Lakes Grain stated that by having a better understanding of the overall corn and soybean crop health and yield for farmer participants, exporters, and end-users, all parties will be able to make better agronomic, economic, and handling decisions for the 2022-2023 crop.

Great Lakes Grain also said that it encourages the participation of industry end-users to accompany the tour.

“County yield results will be released at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show at Woodstock, Ontario, on September 13, 2022,” explained Don Kabbes, General Manager with Great Lake Grain. “We are truly looking forward to visiting with our producers and their families to share the results of the tour.

“We’re excited with our continued support of COFS this fall, under the FS Ontario System.”

Supporting the tour are sponsors Bayer Crop Science and DEKALB.

Great Lakes Grain is one of the largest operators of Ontario country elevators and represents over 20 million bushels of storage capacity with total marketing of over 50 million bushels. It serves farmers out of 27 AGRIS Co-operative, FS PARTNERS, and Coop Embrun branded locations spanning Windsor through to Ottawa and north to Georgian Bay.

For more information visit www.greatlakesgrain.com.

Video: Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Understanding how a plant responds to stress is one thing.

Using that knowledge to make better management decisions is another.

Systemic acquired resistance, or SAR, is the plant's more direct defense response. When stress or infection occurs, the plant begins signaling throughout its system and preparing defensive compounds.

But if we know that response exists, can we help prepare the plant before the stress arrives?

The answer starts with understanding what triggers the response and what the plant needs to carry it out.

The Trigger and the Fuel

Salicylic acid plays an important role in triggering the SAR pathway.

Think of it as turning the truck on.

The engine may be running, but it still needs fuel to do the work.

In this case, manganese plays an important role in supporting the enzyme systems involved in the plant's defensive response.

This makes manganese status an important part of the conversation. Whether a producer is using tissue testing, sap analysis, or simply scouting for visible deficiency symptoms, the goal is to make sure the plant has adequate manganese available.

Manganese is required in relatively small amounts, but that does not make its role small.

If the plant receives a signal to defend itself but lacks the nutrition needed to support that response, it may struggle to carry out the process efficiently.

The trigger matters.

The fuel matters too.

Prepare Before the Stress Arrives

The best time to think about stress management is before the plant is overwhelmed.

Once a crop is already struggling, management can quickly turn into a game of catch-up.

This is similar to nitrogen management. Once a plant becomes severely deficient, correcting the problem does not necessarily erase the time and yield potential already lost.

Plant defense can work the same way.

Low-rate, targeted approaches designed to support the SAR pathway may fit best ahead of an expected stress event rather than after significant damage has already occurred.

That requires producers to think about predictable stress.

We may not know exactly what the weather will do tomorrow, but we generally know summer heat is coming. We know certain field conditions increase disease pressure. We know a herbicide application can temporarily stress a crop as the plant processes the chemistry.

Even a properly timed and labeled herbicide application can create a temporary response in the plant.

That does not mean the herbicide is bad.

Weeds can create significantly more yield loss than the temporary stress caused by controlling them.

The question is not whether we should eliminate every stressor.

The question is whether we can better prepare the plant to manage necessary and predictable stress.

Not All Stress Is Bad

Stress is a normal part of plant growth.

A perfectly stress-free environment does not exist in the field.

In fact, some stress is necessary for normal plant development. A plant responds to wind, temperature, moisture, sunlight, and countless other environmental signals throughout the season.

The environment is stress.

The plant's job is to manage it.

Problems begin when the stress load becomes greater than the plant's ability to respond.

Extreme heat, drought, high salt concentrations, disease pressure, and even certain management practices can add to that load.

This is where understanding SAR becomes useful.

Instead of waiting until the plant is visibly struggling, producers can begin identifying periods when stress is likely and make management decisions around those windows.

ISR Starts With the Soil

While SAR is a more direct defense response, induced systemic resistance, or ISR, brings the conversation back to soil health.

The longevity of a farm is closely connected to the health of its soil.

Carbon plays a major role because it supports biological life within the soil. Bacteria, fungi, and other organisms interact with plant roots and influence how the plant grows, accesses nutrients, and prepares for stress.

This is why soil health cannot be reduced to one product or one application.

It is a system.

Keeping living plants in the field longer can support biological activity. Cover crops may fit some operations. Better water management can improve soil conditions.