A tough fall, winterkill, and a cool, wet spring are adding up to a condensed and busy herbicide application window for growers across Ontario.One of the first challenges is how to manage best all the abandoned winter wheat acres that are likely to be planted as corn or soybeans. On this episode of the RealAgriculture… Read More
Every week should be soil week, but this week especially as we mark National Soil Conservation week. Wheat Pete’s Word host Peter Johnson challenges listeners to think differently about soil in this week’s edition — at a minimum, stay off the darn fields while they’re wet, and feed that soil some residue! Also this week,… Read More
If you could move a chunk of acres to fall planting, diversify the crop mix, and get a jump on herbicide-resistant weeds, would you? All of that is an option with winter canola, but the crop isn’t without its challenges. Currently, there’s only one registered winter canola variety for Ontario growers, says Eric Page, research… Read More
Herbicide resistance will sneak up on you if you don’t change up your management practices from time to time. Steve Shirtliffe works to help farmers develop strategies to keep resistance issues at bay. He is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, and I caught up to him at the recent CropConnect conference at Winnipeg,… Read More
Quite often, growers discover herbicide resistant weeds on their farm after an effective herbicide fails to take out a targeted weed. After some testing and reviewing past herbicide application records, growers might realize that the resistance problem is the result of repeated use of a particular herbicide or a history of not following best management… Read More
The advent of herbicide tolerant crops has simplified herbicide selection and timing for those crops types, but that convenience doesn’t apply to all. Plus, the reliance on a few chemistries has left farmers with herbicide resistance issues of several weed types. While the spectre of multi-resistant kochia or even worse weeds might seem insurmountable, Manitoba… Read More
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