January 2024 – Welcome to Dr. Michael Gebre who is joining us for a short post-doctoral stint. Michael completed his Ph.D in 2020 with Prof. Hugh Earl. Michael will be assisting with the Late N project.
December 2023 – Congrats to Gavin, Jongwon and Seth for presenting their research at the American Society of Agronomy Conference in St. Louis this past November. They did a fantastic job.
September 2023 – Congrats to Farzana Yasmin for finishing her M.Sc (co-advised with Prof. Laura Van Eerd) entitled “Effect of bio-strip tillage and cover crop mixtures on cover crop biomass and subsequent grain corn (Zea mays L.) yield in Ontario”. Also, welcome to new M.Sc student Lance Javier, who recently finished his B.Sc in Biology from Western University. Lance will be working on germination and emergence of corn and soybean.
June 23 2023 – Rest in Peace Ken Janovicek, a wonderful colleague and friend. For over 30 years Ken was a research associate in the Department of Plant Agriculture. Ken first started working with Prof. Tony Vyn, then Greg Stewart and Bill Deen, and since 2020 was working in the Neo-Ag lab. Ken made several major contributions to Ontario’s agriculture industry in his career. For example, he helped develop publicly-available (OMAFRA-official) fertilizer rate algorithms (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassion) for Ontario’s major field crops. Ken was a humble man, and didn’t seek the spotlight. Very few understand the outsize role he played in agronomic research. My colleagues and I will make sure he will be honored in due time for his professional contributions.
Winter 2023 – Emma Dieleman successfully defended her MSC thesis, co-supervised with Dave Hooker. Emma did amazingly well in her thesis defense. Just waiting on the final year of project data to write it up. I was grateful to be able to talk at several ag conferences. I shared the stage with agronomist Deb Campbell and Prof. Claudia Wagner-Riddle at the Ontario Ag Conference to talk about work in nitrogen management. I spoke at NOFIA’s Northern Ontario Ag Conference about work being done on cover crops. I also took part in a webinar organized by the Ecological Farmer’s Association of Ontario with farmer-collaborator Jason Seed, about oat agronomy research we’ve been doing.
November 2022 – Several grad students gave presentations at the ASA Meeting in Baltimore: Emma Dieleman, Kurtis Pilkington, Jongwon Kang. JK also gave a talk. Great job!
September/October 2022 – Theo returned to France to complete his M.Sc after doing a great job getting our germination protocols down pat and completing the first run of the experiment. We also welcome Rachel Isidori as a Research Assistant. Rachel is a 3rd-year Zoology student who will be assisting grad students.
June 2022 – Welcome to Theophile Rassineux, a visiting M.Sc student from University of Purpan (in France). Theo will be evaluating hydrothermal germination requirements in a panel of corn and soybean genotypes.
May 2022 – Welcome to Gavin Brady and Seth Ritsma, both M.Sc students starting this summer. Gavin is studying the effect of drought on late N application efficiency and soil N mineralization, co-advised with Dr. John Lauzon. Seth is studying the effect of planting date and variety maturity in corn and soybean, co-advised with Dr. Dave Hooker. Also welcome to Sakena Qaiser, an NSERC undergraduate researcher.
May 2022 – Welcome to Dr. Jinwook Kim (i.e. JK) who just finished his Ph.D in wheat physiology at the University of Llieda. Dr. Kim will be a leader on the “Late Nitrogen in Corn” project, as well as the official “wheat physiologist at large” in the Department, helping on several wheat agronomy projects with his expertise.
January 2022 – Very happy to welcome Ph.D student Jongwon Kang to the group! Jongwon will be studying the effects of late nitrogen applications with field and modeling research projects.
December 2021 – Agricultural extension over the winter was socially distant again. Very happy to speak about wheat lodging research with Dr. Dave Hooker and Marijke Vanderlaan at the Ontario Agriculture Conference “Lodging Lessons”, on a cover crop panel with many illustrious persons at the Grey Bruce Farmers Week, and at the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network.
August 2021 – I was very happy to present “What’s new in oat agronomy” at the Ontario Oat Industry Day, hosted by GFO and OMAFRA. M.Sc Marion Studhalter’s research figured heavily in my presentation, which was well received.
May 2021 – Congrats to Allison Bailey for defending her M.Sc thesis entitled “Impact of Long-Term Nitrogen Fertilization for Corn on Soil Properties and Soil Productivity”. Allison’s research was severely impacted by COVID-19 shutdown, but she did an amazing job bouncing back! Allison is now a senior agronomist at Bayer.
April 2021 – Congrats to Kurtis for winning the prestigious Ontario HQP scholarship. An excellent achievement!
January 2021 – Congrats to undergrad student Daniel Colcuc for presenting his research at the annual Ontario Cereal Crops Committee (OCCC) meeting. Daniel estimated yield potential of winter wheat by combining weather and OCCC yield data. It was very well-received.
January 2021 – Welcome to Kurtis, an M.Sc student who is studying management practices that can reduce lodging in wheat.
June 2020 – Happy to have participated in a Grain Farmers of Ontario GRAINtalk webinar on considerations when side-dressing N fertilizer. Moderated by GFO agronomist Marty alongside OMAFRA corn specialist Ben.
May 2020 – Welcome to Marion, an M.Sc student focusing on oat agronomy in eastern Ontario.
May 2020 – Congrats to M.Sc student Allison for winning an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Very well deserved.
Nov 2019 – Congrats to M.Sc student Caleb Niemeyer on winning 2nd place in the graduate student competition (Nutrient Management Section) at the ASA/CSSSA/SSSA conference in San Antonia, TX. This is the second year in a row Caleb has placed in the competition.