#ABbugchat will make its debut on Twitter tomorrow, Tuesday, April 16 at 10 am (11 am central). Many of us may be unfamiliar with this communication venue so perhaps it is best to do some preparation ahead. #ABbugchat will run weekly from mid-May to Mid-August. This year that means May 14 to August 13. It… Read More
Category: Pests
DuPont announced today that Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has granted approval for the registration of Lumiderm insecticide seed treatment. DuPont Lumiderm insecticide is a new seed treatment product for canola growers containing the active ingredient cyantraniliprole, a Group 28, anthranilic diamide insecticide that provides early season control of flea beetles, both striped and… Read More
Sclerotinia gets so much attention, you’d think it was the only disease canola succumbed to. While there are many reasons to brush up on sclerotinia management, doing so at the expense of watching and managing for blackleg is a recipe for a slow-building disaster. While canola varieties do have resistance to several strains of the… Read More
The number one way to manage herbicide resistant weeds is to avoid them in the first place, says Mike Saxton with Syngenta US. That said, we’d be completely remiss to say that Canada or the U.S. was in a position to avoid herbicide resistant weeds. Several species are already resistant, some of those to more… Read More
If you cannot see the above embedded audio player, Click Here Sometimes the challenges are right in front of you. Since no company has invented the “no-shell wind resistant canola trait” yet, the massive amount of wind in the fall across the west has planted a major challenge of canola volunteers for this spring. Volunteer… Read More
What, indeed. If you just read the title and aren’t sure, the short answer is nothing. The longer answer, however, is that tram lines may make scouting for insects easier and more thorough, and thus beneficial. Not convinced? Read on. Some insects are predictably found on the edge of the field — like flea beetles,… Read More
Wireworms have been on the rise in many areas of the prairies, due in part to the banning effective insecticides, such as Lindane, years ago. Unlike several other pests, wireworms have a very long lifecycle —spending three to five years as seed-eating worms. There are about 30 species of the pest that are of economic… Read More
If there’s two things I learned from the GIJOE cartoons in the eighties it’s that 1) GIJOE must have a strict catch and release policy because I don’t recall any members of COBRA being killed and they come back every week. 2) Knowing is half the battle!(they said it at the end of every episode)… Read More
Canola is big business in Alberta, so the spread of canola diseases like blackleg, clubroot and most recently, aster yellows is taken very seriously by both industry and producers. How those diseases are transmitted and spread becomes a source of discussion and speculation as well. At this point it becomes incredibly important to separate fact… Read More
BASF Canada and Monsanto Canada believe in the power of tank-mixing so much, the companies are willing to reward farmers to do it. The two companies, in conjunction with retailers in Eastern Canada, are offering farmers a $1-per-acre rebate when RoundupWeatherMax is purchased with matching acres of Integrity, Eragon, Marksman or Armezon herbicides. These tank-mix… Read More
The Edmonton area of Alberta has the unwanted title of “clubroot hotspot,” as this is where the disease first took hold. The incidence map has grown each year since clubroot was confirmed in canola in 2003. Then, not long ago, viable spores were detected in Saskatchewan soils. Last week, the Manitoba government confirmed viable spores… Read More
It was only a matter of time before clubroot infection or viable clubroot spores were found in Manitoba soil, still it’s not welcome news. Manitoba’s provincial ag department released this press release today, underscoring the importance of spread prevention (Click here for a Canola School on the topic): Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives… Read More
It’s one thing to know that you should be scouting for blackleg, sclerotinia, sulphur deficiency and cutworms, for example. It’s another thing entirely to actually scout every field for every pest at the optimal timing during the hectic growing season. What if there was a way to practice insect, disease and nutrient deficiency identification when… Read More
There is a proverb that says “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Never is this more true than at the field level, nestled deep in the crop canopy, where beneficial insects are hard at work killing and eating crop pests. The tricky part, however, is that these beneficial insects can look a whole… Read More
Farmers growing glyphosate-tolerant soybeans now have a new herbicide option in BASF Canada’s Optill product. Optill is a pre-plant soybean herbicide that offers a fast burn-down and residual weed control of grassy and broadleaf weeds. Pre-registration trial results for Optill showed a yield increase of two to three bushels per acre compared to using glyphosate… Read More