Even if you don’t think you have herbicide resistant weeds in your fields, the best management practice might be to treat your fields as if you do. That’s the advice of Linda Hall, associate professor in the Faculty of Agriculture Life and Environmental Science at University of Alberta, in this episode of the Resistance Management School. There… Read More
There are a number of reasons why herbicides sometimes fail to control weeds. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the easier things to rule out is whether the weed is herbicide resistant. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs weed specialist Mike Cowbrough says many universities across Canada conduct testing for herbicide resistance, but growers have… Read More
Can spray technology help us better manage the escalating problem of herbicide-resistant weeds? Spray guru Tom Wolf, from Saskatchewan-based Agrimetrix Research & Training, certainly thinks so. At the recent Canadian Weed Science Society meeting at Niagara Falls, Ont., Wolf highlighted two technologies he believes could help help growers manage weed resistance. In this video, Wolf and… Read More
Kochia is known for being an aggressive, adaptive weed. This year showed some farmers just how tenacious this species is. At spray timing, at harvest, and even after, kochia is a constant issue, and it’s not going away any time soon. Jason Lindgren, with NuFarm Canada, says that lighter competition this year due to dry… Read More
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted a temporary extension to the registration of dicamba, including product sold under the trade name XtendiMax, through 2020. The EPA has fielded numerous complaints about spray drift from the product, the majority of which stem from dicamba sprayed on herbicide-tolerant crops, initially released in 2017. The EPA… Read More
Herbicide resistance is nothing new to Ontario farmers. It all started in 1973 when triazine-resistant lamb’s-quarters were found on a farm near Ripley, Ontario. Group 2 herbicide-resistant weeds were first documented in 1996. Fast forward to 2018, and we find that the province is now home to a host of glyphosate-resistant weeds including Canada fleabane, giant… Read More
Resistance One of the many things to think about while managing herbicide resistance on your land is the rotation of modes of action. Many growers don’t realize how much Group 14 herbicide they are using. While there are many common add-ins used with glyphosate, more than half of them are from Group 14 — which,… Read More
If you’ve ever been frustrated by a weed’s seemingly amazing ability to survive and even thrive after being knocked back, cut down, or sprayed, this discussion is for you. You’re not imagining things — weeds really do have adaptations that make them harder to kill and allow them to spread faster and easier than desired… Read More
It’s not necessarily the happiest of discoveries, but it’s a first-of-its-kind discovery, nonetheless. Work out of the University of Guelph has confirmed Group 14 resistance in waterhemp at multiple locations in Ontario. What’s more, Dr. Peter Sikkema’s research team, including graduate student Lauren Benoit, has also confirmed waterhemp with cross-resistance to Groups 2, 5, and… Read More
In 2017, many U.S. growers struggled to manage dicamba use with increasing acres of dicamba-tolerant Xtend soybeans. The dicamba story in Ontario, however, was much different, as growers had few issues with managing the marriage of the herbicide and the new trait. In this edition of RealAgriculture Soybean School, OMAFRA weed specialist Mike Cowbrough explains… Read More
Canadian corn and soybean growers have a new tool to tackle resistant and tough-to-control weeds. Zidua SC, a new Group 15 herbicide from BASF, will be available in 2018. Deven Esqueda, BASF corn and soybeans crop manager, says the herbicide is labelled for use in herbicide-tolerant soybeans and field corn. With the active ingredient pyroxasulfone,… Read More
All farmers hate weeds. Especially weeds that are hard to kill. Weeds are yield-robbing nuisances that compete for valuable space in and out of the seed row. Some weeds are fairly easy to deal with and only create limited stress. But then there are those that seem to create havoc every year because they are so… Read More
“If it doesn’t impact me, I don’t care…” I have attended many conferences across Canada and nothing gets farmers to fall asleep faster than speeches of the threat (actually, it’s reality) of herbicide resistance. For many farmers, it seems, they either don’t see this as something that impacts them or they don’t think it’s as serious an… Read More
This year, the organizers of the Crop Diagnostic School in Carman, Manitoba, decided to do something a little old-school. “We decided to demo soil-applied herbicides here at the farm this year for the Diagnostic School, in part because we’re seeing an increased use in the products,” Jeanette Gaultier explains in the following interview. Gaultier (who may or… Read More
If you’ve noticed more than a few fleabane “escapes” in recent years, you’re not alone. Glyphosate resistant Canada fleabane has spread across more than 700 kilometers of Ontario crop land in just five years. Despite its incredible distribution, Canada fleabane wasn’t the first glyphosate resistant weed found in Ontario, says Dr. Peter Sikkema, field crop… Read More