Sunflower, corn crops starting to take shape

Manitoba's corn crop continues to grow taller.

Morgan Cott is an agronomy extension specialist with the Manitoba Crop Alliance.

"Some of the corn that I'm seeing now is still in the blister stage," she said. "It's late for blister stage. It should be that maybe in late July, very, very early August at the latest. We're still obviously behind, nothing's changed there. Some fields are still just trying to complete tasseling but the silks have emerged, so it's hard to tell from the road exactly what stage they're at. So it's good to get in there and of course there's going to be some further ahead than blister too, it just depends on where you are and when you planted. Generally the crop looks really great, I just wish it was earlier."

Cott says there hasn't been any insect or disease concerns so far this year with the corn. She reminds farmers to look out for the normal Goss's wilt, corn borer, and armyworms.

Meanwhile, Manitoba's picturesque sunflower fields are starting to turn yellow.

"Majority is just starting to bloom. I was in some fields this morning that were blooming beautifully and they were probably at R5.5, some might have been a little bit further, but that's an early planted set of fields. Generally, I think in the next week, you should start seeing more blooms on the road, which is good," said Cott. "I'm a little worried about maybe smaller heads. I think we might just not be seeing the big heads that we've been seeing the last few years."

She reminds farmers to keep an eye out for insects and diseases in sunflowers because now is the time that you really want to be protecting the blooms and the plants from disease.

Cott notes with flax, much of the blooming is complete.