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We're now at the end of spraying with crop stages progressing quickly, but not for good reason. With roughly one inch of accumulated rainfall across the territory in the last two months, even the crops that had a great start are showing signs of drought stress. Bottom leaves have started to senesce and canopies are no longer closing in. As crops enter a period of peak water demand, significant rains needs to happen within the next week or two or yield potential will drop dramatically. On a positive note, harvest efficiencies will increase dramatically this fall and we won't have to deal with residue issues next spring.
There has been talk of fertilizer prices softening over the summer with some companies quoting $360 a tonne for urea, $600 a tonne for NH3 and $450 a tonne for phosphate for immediate delivery. Some producers have chosen to purchase next year's needs and store it in the off chance that prices go higher. With today's interest rates and these prices, purchasing fertilizer four months sooner than you normally would is good business. A standard 80-30-0-0 blend today would cost you $37.93 an acre, which is 56% less than what many paid this year!
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In this week's issue we'll look at drought stress and possible fungicide trials that improve water use efficiency in cereals. I'll briefly discuss our current yield potential to help with grain marketing and future crop input decisions. Also, I'll give you an example of how post herbicide spray checks pay dividends. Next, we'll look at factors promoting leaf diseases, how to decide when to spray a fungicide, which leaves to protect and how to predict flag leaf emergence to better time the application. Next, we'll discuss bloom staging in canola, cabbage seedpod weevils and canola insect thresholds. Bruce Love of Preferred Carbon has an update on the carbon market and we'll finish with Market News. |
