Reading Time: 8 minutes A number of next-generation herbicide-tolerant crops are in the pipeline for soybean and canola growers, but the offerings won’t include any magic bullets. Instead, what we’re likely to see first are more stacked tolerance traits. It’s because life science companies have their own kind of stacking to deal with. Their new traits are lined up, […] Read more
Stacked tolerance traits taking on herbicide-resistant weeds
Next-generation herbicide stacks are on their way to help fight not only weed resistance, but more weed species too
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
Pest Patrol: Weed control update on vetch
Can I do anything to get rid of vetch before seeding soybeans?
Reading Time: < 1 minute In my last column, I discussed my optimism for vetch control in soybeans using a few different pre-plant burn-down herbicides. Specifically, I had been impressed by some preliminary results when either flumioxazin (found in Valtera, Step-Up, Fierce and Guardian Plus) or saflufenacil (found in Eragon, Integrity and Optill) was mixed with glyphosate and the adjuvant Merge. […] Read more
Unsilent spring
The funny thing about farm chemicals is they’re a lot less scary when you learn a bit about them — and some of the cautionary tales from the past have actually shown us how to use them more safely and effectively
Reading Time: 5 minutes Back in the early ’80s, when I was a science student, I took a pollution geography course and wrote a term paper on pesticides. I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the book credited with birthing the modern environmental movement, and dug through the library for all available references. I wound up getting a pretty good […] Read more
We’ve come a long way
Weed control evolution has occurred incrementally over the years, but looking back at the sweep of history shows some very impressive gains
Reading Time: 5 minutes Some might remember the 1970s cigarette commercial featuring the slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Well, as I think back to how we controlled pests in the early days of my career, no slogan could be more appropriate for our pesticide industry. I was recently reminiscing with my brother Bill, who has been in […] Read more
Harvesting on turf
Quebec farmers have solved the corn cover crop puzzle. They grow grass under the canopy
Reading Time: 4 minutes When Raymond Durivage drives his Lexion 585R combine into a cornfield, he knows he’s in for a smooth, worry-free ride. The two front tracks ensure excellent flotation. But that’s not all. The combine is also rolling on turf, with a thick green mattress of ryegrass between each corn row that provides for less compaction and […] Read more
Game plan
How to tackle glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane
Reading Time: 2 minutes What’s the best strategy for defeating one of your toughest competitors, glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane? I will dedicate three columns to this important question, since it requires a different strategy for each crop. Let’s start out by digging more deeply into one of the more common statements being made about the management of Canada fleabane, namely, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
