If your idea of a beneficial insect is one that sits back and waits for dinner to crawl on by, you’ve likely never heard about the secret lives of lacewings. Green lacewings are nothing short of ferocious, and, as Dr. Tyler Wist of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada explains, they’re more like aphid-hunting lions than laid-back… Read More
When you think insects and drought…it can be a tricky combination. After the drought across the Prairies in 2021, there are many farmers asking the question: what are grasshopper populations going to look like in 2022? Parts of Manitoba have fortunately experienced large amounts of snowfall this winter, enough that the ditches could be underwater… Read More
Protecting your corn crop from disease throughout the growing season can be a challenge. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Corn School, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plant pathologist Albert Tenuta and University of Guelph associate professor Dave Hooker team up to offer tips on how to select a fungicide and stage the… Read More
The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN) has launched a new website to help farmers and agronomists predict insect risks, monitor insect populations, and find information to help scout for pests, time their scouting activities, and to make decisions about using chemical controls. The site, Prairiepest.ca, expands the functionality of the previous PPMN blog, says Jennifer… Read More
For this special Canada Day edition of Wheat Pete’s Word, host Peter Johnson has got answers to your timely agronomic questions. The good news is there are no alerts this week, but that doesn’t mean you can let the throttle off scouting — there are insect pests creeping in and populations can grow very quickly!… Read More
One of the questions that come up this time of the year, when it comes to the growing season, is — what do the pest forecasts look like for 2020? Boyd Mori, assistant professor in agricultural entomology, at the University of Alberta, was at FarmTech in Edmonton, Alta, and broke down the top 5 insects in… Read More
What’s the gap between your soybean seeding rate and final stand count? It’s a key management consideration if growers want to get a handle on what’s happening in their fields and increase yields, says Syngenta agronomic sales rep Marijke Van Andel. When growers discover there’s a 20 percent gap between seeds planted and the final… Read More
Some pests like it dry, some like it warm, and some need it windy to get where they want to go. And sometimes insect pests can surprise you and not nearly be as bad as anticipated. That’s the story of the summer of 2018 — so far — according to Alberta Agriculture insect specialist, Scott Meers…. Read More
A scratchy-voiced Peter Johnson needs you to get out there and scout, scout, scout for aphids on soybean. While you’re out in the fields, you also need to check for all sorts of other insects because hot, dry weather is helping creepy-crawlies multiply. It’s also time to get that first white mould suppression pass on,… Read More
A late-maturing crop, difficult environmental conditions, significant insect pressure and potential for late-season leaf disease…although too early to tell – this growing list of factors could lead to another year of high vomitoxin levels in the Ontario corn crop. In this episode of RealAgriculture Corn School, OMAFRA plant pathologist Albert Tenuta takes a look at the… Read More
The rain came, but was it in time? For those crops that escaped frost damage, this last week’s weather has been well worth the wait. For those anticipating new corn and soybean growth, however, the last week has led to more disappointments than expected. What’s going on? Peter Johnson kicks off this week’s Word with… Read More
Genetically engineering insects is no longer a vision for the future. In fact, one group of GE mosquitoes, Oxitec Ltd’s OX513A, have moved from proof of principle to deployment, and have been used in open field trials in Malaysia, Grand Cayman, and now in Brazil. The mosquitoes are hoped to control their non-modified counterpart, Aedes aegypti, the… Read More
If soybean yield is made in August, what, if anything can farmers do to achieve those big yields? It starts with scouting, and leads to planning ahead, says Shawn Brenneman, with Syngenta. In this Soybean School episode, Bernard Tobin joins Brenneman in the field to talk weed escapes, the possibility of a pre-harvest application to… Read More
Since being found in Ontario in 2000, swede midge has had a rather hasty spread, with adults being found as early as 2007 in some areas in Saskatchewan. Until the past couple of years, however, western Canadian farmers reported finding few symptoms of swede midge damage, which can include anything from fused flower petals to… Read More
The pea leaf weevil can cause devastating economic losses to both peas and faba beans. Though the adult beetles feed on these crops after overwintering in perennial legumes, it is actually the larvae that cause the greatest damage. Larval feeding occurs on Rhizobium nodules for roughly six weeks. This may limit or completely inhibit nitrogen-fixation… Read More
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