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Pea leaf weevil. (Alberta Agriculture photo)
Crops, Weather

Insects posing problems in Saskatchewan crops

Grasshopper, flea beetle damage already reported

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Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm – Although it’s still early in the growing season, some insect pests have already posed a threat to crops in Saskatchewan or could do so in the near future, according to James Tansey, provincial specialist for insects/invertebrate pest management. Among the pests he cited were grasshoppers, flea beetles and pea leaf weevils.  Tansey said […] Read more
Above ground, buckwheat is insect-friendly, especially for honey bees, but below ground it’s another story.
Crops

Cereal crop characteristics seen as another biofumigation prospect

Buckwheat has been shown to suppress wireworm, and might also be a marketable crop

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Chemical controls have reached a point where “more of the same” may not work, so the search is on for new or alternative methods. If you want to control wireworms, one of those methods might be buckwheat. It’s an approach discovered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers on Prince Edward Island, where Christine Noronha and […] Read more
Insects preying on other species is an option for biocontrol, as are biological fungicides. But bio-herbicides are a challenge.
Crops

More biologicals for pest control on the way

Herbicides are a challenge, but non-chemical insecticides and fungicides may be a cheaper and quicker solution

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Whether the problem was weeds, insects or diseases, for the past several decades the solution has usually been a chemical one. But with growing problems of resistance and customer opposition to chemicals, researchers and manufacturers are turning their attention to biological solutions. It’s not as though biologicals are new. For decades, growers have been using […] Read more
Bean leaf beetle is another pest increasing in numbers in soybean and edible bean fields.
Crops

What’s going to ‘bug’ you in 2020?

Western bean cutworm is quickly climbing the ranks as our biggest threat

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Insect pests never seem to get the respect they deserve. If they present a threat during a growing season, they move front and centre, but more often they’re a much lower concern than fertility, weeds and diseases. Some of that is thanks to today’s improved genetics and commercial varieties and hybrids that produce their hardier, […] Read more
Giving wheat midge a few susceptible wheat plants to feed on ensures that the resistant population doesn’t eventually take over.
Cereals, Crops

A decade of midge-tolerant wheat

New varieties are in the pipeline for CWRS and SWS classes

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Over the past 10 years, western Canadian farmers have deliberately seeded 27 million acres of wheat susceptible to orange blossom wheat midge — and saved themselves an estimated $1 billion in lost yield and quality. To be clear, only 10 per cent of the seed on those acres was susceptible to midge, and that’s been […] Read more
Farmers’ friends: bugs, birds and worms can eat weed seeds before they get a chance to germinate.
Crops

Weed control with small critters

Insects, birds and worms are a free – and resistance-free – method of controlling weeds before they get a chance to germinate

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Reading Time: 4 minutes The dominance of zero- or minimum-tillage practices on the Prairies means lots of weed seeds are left on the soil after harvest, but it turns out that there’s help available to stop them from germinating next spring, and you don’t have to buy it at your local chemical dealer. “Lowering the deposits into the weed […] Read more
The nature of the crop makes it harder to scout for Western bean cutworm in edible beans than in corn, yet easier to find feeding damage after leaf-drop.
Crops

The economics of Western bean cutworm

For bean growers, it turns out this is a very different — and difficult — pest

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Reading Time: 5 minutes From year to year, edible bean growers face a variety of challenges, including some that are unique to their particular sector. In the past, they have had to deal with bean leaf beetles and potato leaf hoppers, as well as wireworms and seedcorn maggot. As with other field crops, each new growing season seems to […] Read more
Pea leaf weevil has been spreading in Saskatchewan and Alberta in recent years. Seed treatment rather than foliar sprays is recommended for control.
Crops

Prairie insect outlook for 2018

Provincial websites offer a wealth of identification and monitoring information which is continually updated through the season

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Reading Time: 8 minutes With snow still on the ground as this article is written, it’s difficult to predict how conditions may change over the next few weeks as farmers approach seeding. That said, lower-than-average precipitation across the Prairies over the winter indicates it will take some excessive spring moisture to significantly change the dry conditions that seem likely […] Read more
SeCan says wheat midge tolerance saves producers $40 to $60 million per year.
Crops, Spring Wheat, Winter Wheat

Protect your midge-tolerant wheat

The midge-tolerance gene was found in the majority of SWS wheats in 2017. Refuge seed is required to keep this trait in play

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Producers should add refuge seed to most Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and Soft White Spring (SWS) wheat varieties in 2018 to prolong the longevity of the midge-tolerance Sm1 gene, says Todd Hyra, western business manager for seed marketing agency SeCan. Last spring, Canadian researchers discovered Sm1 in most SWS varieties, including AAC Indus, AC […] Read more
Seed dealers, agronomists and advisers are very vocal in 2017 about scouting for Western bean cutworm egg masses.
Corn, Crops

More than cutworms “bugged” corn crops in 2017

Pests in 2017 have been a more complicated picture, based largely on a mixed bag of weather-related challenges

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Coming out of winter and looking ahead to any growing season, it’s impossible to predict which insect pests will be the biggest challenge for growers. In 2001, for instance, soybean aphids first became a widespread issue for Ontario farmers, and the fear took such firm root that we’d have to deal with them in 2002 […] Read more

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