Reading Time: 5 minutes If you want to know how bad weed resistance can get, ask the cotton farmers of Georgia about Palmer amaranth. From a single field in Macon County in 2005, glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth has exploded across the southern U.S. Cotton Belt. A member of the pigweed family, Palmer amaranth has seriously affected weed management in cotton […] Read more
Weed management. It’s time to get ahead before it’s too late
With herbicide resistance on the rise, is integrated weed management an idea whose time has finally arrived?
Plant breeding basics
Plant breeding is a key driver of crop agriculture — but it’s even more complex than might first appear
Reading Time: 5 minutes The Italian pasta industry sent a ripple through Canadian agriculture a few years back when they changed the way they dry their noodles. Traditionally, pasta makers had hung the noodle for 15 hours or more at temperatures between 60 C to 70 C. Although this produced world-class spaghetti, it also took a fair amount of […] Read more
The ultimate N rate for canola
If we could predict the weather perfectly, it might be different, but in the real world, the best tool to determine nitrogen rates is the soil test. It’s a great starting point for 2015
Reading Time: 5 minutes One lesson from the Ultimate Canola Challenge is that it’s a wise economic decision to follow your soil test recommendations for nitrogen. “We have always recommended soil tests to get an idea of the nutrient situation in a field, and what really pleased us about the Ultimate Canola Challenge results is how strongly they confirmed […] Read more
Building a better bridge between farmers and consumers
The gap between producers and consumers is still way too deep, but new programs are proving they can make a difference
Reading Time: 5 minutes Although public and private marketing campaigns aimed at bridging the gap between farmers and consumers are making real strides, two studies conducted in 2014 point out just how far apart the two groups are in their attitudes to modern agriculture and food production. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) commissioned a $100,000 qualitative research study from […] Read more
Developing new seed varieties for better crops
Reducing risk for the entire grain industry is key to variety development
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s not easy growing grain for a living. Between bad weather, plant disease, insects, rising input costs and fluctuating markets, it can be tough to make a buck. That’s why new seed varieties are so important to Canadian wheat growers, says Ron DePauw, a senior wheat breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s, Semi-Arid Prairie Agricultural […] Read more
Prairie crop acres forecast to rise across the board
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– Just about every major crop grown in the Canadian Prairies is forecast to come out a winner in the annual fight for acres this year, with unseeded area the only place where reductions are forecast, according to early estimates. “Most crops are likely to increase this year, just because we’ll get the […] Read more
Herbicide-resistant weeds are our biggest threat
There’s no reason why the West must become an Arkansas-style nightmare because of weed resistance, but we may be heading there anyway
Reading Time: 7 minutes Neil Harker calls herbicide-resistant weeds the biggest threat to sustainable crop production in Western Canada. “We’ve been the grim reaper talking about this for ages, but this is a watershed moment,” says the research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lacombe, Alta. “There are places in North America going back to the plow and […] Read more
Field notes
Protect the emerging head for yield potential, insect-ravaged corn, and cereal plant diseases
Reading Time: 3 minutes Stretching flag-leaf timing It’s one of the baselines of cereal crop agronomy — protect the flag leaf, because protecting the flag leaf equals protecting yield potential. Bayer CropScience’s Troy Basaraba told a recent Agronomy Summit meeting of crop advisers that another variable frequently enters this equation — whether or not the application could also be […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
