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
The economics of Western bean cutworm
For bean growers, it turns out this is a very different — and difficult — pest
Prairie insect outlook for 2018
Provincial websites offer a wealth of identification and monitoring information which is continually updated through the season
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
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
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
Six tips for managing wheat stem sawfly
As with most pests, wheat stem sawfly populations rise and fall, depending on weather and the presence of natural predators. Economic losses arise when wheat stem sawfly larvae feed inside the stem. While some of those losses are due to decreased seed weight, much of it occurs when the stems are cut and the plant[...]
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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
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[...]
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Some soybean aphids showing up so scout your fields
Reading Time: 2 minutes Soybean aphids are being found in some soybean fields near Portage la Prairie and some fields have been sprayed, while others are being monitored, Red Beard Farms aerial applicator Chris McCallister said in an interview July 27. The threshold for applying an insecticide to control soybean aphids is 250 and rising. The “rising” part is[...]
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Preparing for western bean cutworm in 2017
#PestPatrol with Tracey Baute, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 3 minutes Western bean cutworm (WBC) has earned the designation of primary pest of corn in Ontario, and it is starting to become important for dry bean growers too. Quality concerns outweigh yield loss with this pest, and when conditions are conducive to mycotoxins, as in 2016, WBC’s impact is very evident. The flurry of tweets under[...]
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The swede midge threat
Swede midge continues to confound Near North canola growers, and it could migrate farther south
Reading Time: 5 minutes By 2015, Terry Phillips, then chair of the Ontario Canola Growers Association, was advising growers in Ontario’s Near North to stop planting canola on farms that had been hit by the recent arrival of the swede midge. By then, yields were already getting cut by as much as 50 per cent by the pest, with[...]
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Crop pest scouts may gain from ‘app’lied knowledge
Insect ID is a challenge — but Prairie entomologists say there will soon be an app for that, and a whole lot more
Reading Time: 7 minutes One of the most challenging aspects of crop protection will always be the flying, crawling and chomping critters that show up every season, hoping to take a bite out of your profits. There are a lot of them, they can be hard to tell apart, and wind and weather can determine if insects arrive in[...]
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Watch out for bollworms
Old World bollworm may be a severe threat to agriculture in North America
Reading Time: 4 minutes Asian soybean rust, aflatoxin in corn and Palmer amaranth are but three examples of disease and weed species that have made huge news in the U.S. but haven’t yet crossed the border into Canada in a big way. It makes it difficult to issue a credible alert about a new pest threat called Helicoverpa armigera[...]
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A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
