Prior to November of this year, plenty of Western Canadian farmers would have listed flea beetles as one of the major insect pests of canola. Then, just last week, distributors of the insecticide active lambda-cyhalothrin (sold as Matador and Silencer) announced they were pulling the product out of retail and likely not returning it for... Read More
Category: Crop Production
A soil with excellent structure will allow healthy root development, have good water infiltration, and support equipment; but compaction and tillage can destroy structure and create root-zone challenges. Controlled traffic farming — where tire tracks of all implements are focused on the same route — is one way to decrease tillage and overall compaction. What... Read More
The way we farm is continuously changing, through knowledge-transfer, new technology, and innovation. How farmers take care of farms and the land required to raise livestock and produce grain is changing too — for the better. Soil health may have become a bit of a buzzword in recent years, but that's not to diminish its... Read More
We're in the middle of peak seed selling season, as producers get crop plans in place for 2023. When selecting a variety, many producers wonder where to focus when looking at different options. Derwyn Hammond, western Manitoba agronomist with Pioneer Seeds Canada, says this year in Manitoba, especially on the canola side, there was a... Read More
Canola is another step closer to seeing major new demand from producers of advanced biofuels, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has published its final rule approving the use of canola oil for renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and other advanced biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (or RFS). “We thank the EPA for completing... Read More
Syngenta Canada says it will not have its lambda-cyhalothrin-containing insectide, Matador, available to western Canadian farmers for 2023, but is working to have it back on shelves for 2024. Matador is approved for use on a variety of crops, including potatoes and canola, however a label revision from 2021 comes into force in 2023, removing... Read More
Corteva is making a major move to expand its biological crop input business, announcing an agreement to purchase Stoller Group — one of the largest biological companies in the agriculture industry. The US$1.2 billion deal "reinforces Corteva’s commitment to providing farmers with biological tools that complement evolving farming practices and help them meet changing market... Read More
If you're in love with wheat, and really, who isn't, is it worth skipping a fungicide in soybeans to get wheat in sooner? That's a big question and one that requires a few more perspectives than just fungicide use, so host of Wheat Pete's Word, Peter Johnson, tackles that in this week's episode. Plus, we'll... Read More
Soil sensing is a precision agriculture method used to improve agronomy by identifying opportunities to manage variability. Dr. Athyna Cambouris is a soil scientist and researcher with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) at the Quebec Research and Development Centre, focused on precision agriculture and using soil sensing to improve agronomy. Cambouris says that grid soil... Read More