Want to try something new to burndown weeds before you plant cereals? Nufarm just registered GlyKamba herbicide, a premix of glyphosate and dicamba (hence the clever name). GlyKamba can be used in summerfallow or before planting wheat, barley, oats, or field corn. There is a pretty impressive list of weeds on the label, but if… Read More
Category: Weed control
Editor’s note: This is Owen Roberts’ Real Talk, Real Action column. Each week, Owen will offer his insight into how farmers and the agricultural industry can participate in the rural- and ag-related discussions going on around them. Contact Owen at [email protected] or on Twitter at @TheUrbanCowboy. What’s spreading faster in Canada — herbicide-resistant weeds, or growers… Read More
Last week, Dow AgroSciences announced that the launch of its corn lines carrying the Enlist trait would not be available for planting in 2013 in the U.S., as the U.S. regulatory approvals have not been obtained for the trait in corn, nor has the herbicide Enlist Duo received approval. The company is confident approvals will… Read More
There are several ways to measure the costs and benefits of crop rotations. Weed population changes, soil organic matter building or depleting, yield bumps or total energy used are all different ways of gauging the relative advantages of different rotations. Dr. Perry Miller, professor at the University of Montana, has done extensive work into crop… Read More
If ever we needed a new curse word, let me humbly suggest kochia. If you thought it was tough to kill before, it’s quickly becoming even more difficult. As Clark Brenzil, provincial weed specialist with Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, explains, not only should kochia be taken off the label of every Group 2 herbicide, it’s… Read More
Proper tank clean-out is a key aspect of avoiding herbicide injury, but the waste water created from tank cleaning needs to be handled responsibly to avoid unwanted plant injury or water contamination. Using a biobed — essentially a clay-lined, dedicated area rich in microbes where tank water is emptied for further degradation by microbes —… Read More
It’s the nasty phytoplasma that took many Prairie farmers by surprise in 2012 — aster yellows. Carried on the aster leafhopper, aster yellows can infect over 200 species but took a particularly heavy toll on canola this year. The irony is, canola isn’t even a preferred food source, as the leafhopper tends to prefer grasses…. Read More
The vast majority of canola varieties grown on the Prairies are tolerant to some form of herbicide. Which makes sense, of course, as farmers immediately saw benefits to the technology and adopted the varieties en masse. But, like most things, there are trade-offs to the benefits of herbicide tolerance (HT). One of those is weed… Read More
Dow AgroSciences LLC announced today Canadian approval of the Enlist trait for corn and soy. This will allow for the first-ever cultivation of the traits, which provide tolerance to 2,4-D herbicide, giving Canadian farmers options when dealing with hard-to-control and resistant weeds in both crops. The Enlist corn and Enlist soybean traits have undergone evaluation… Read More
It was the bumper crop that almost was. Late in the summer, farmers watched helplessly as ripe canola ready for swathing or swaths waiting for the combine were tossed around and blown into trees, shattering on to the ground bushel after bushel of seed. Some estimate that as much as 10 bushels an acre was… Read More
I’ve spent quite a bit of time in harvested canola fields this fall. It might be because canola started coming off in late August or that there were so many acres this year that almost every second field is canola stubble, but whatever the reason, I’ve noticed most fields have a few things in common…. Read More
It’s the beginning of October and it has been dry, dry, dry for many parts of the Prairies. Winter wheat is struggling to germinate and there have been several devastating grass fires over the last month in Alberta and Manitoba. While there have been frosts, above normal daytime temps even just a week ago set… Read More