Canada fleabane.

New in herbicides for 2019

The latest products on the market reflect a changing mindset in weed control

Reading Time: 3 minutes As winter gives way to spring, growers prepare for another season of weed management challenges. To help, here are new products for 2019, plus some released too late last spring for full distribution. Bayer Infinity FX Newly registered for 2019, Infinity FX is a combination of Infinity (bromoxynil + pyrasulfotole) and fluroxypyr, providing three active […] Read more

Plants on a coca plantation in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada. (James Wagstaff/iStock/Getty Images)

Colombian president defends use of glyphosate on coca crops

Reading Time: 2 minutes Bogota | Reuters — A judicial ban on aerial spraying of glyphosate herbicide to eliminate coca crops should be modified, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque said on Thursday, because expansion of the crop since the ban threatens peace efforts. The Andean country suspended aerial fumigation of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, with the Monsanto herbicide […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

Brazil health officials find glyphosate non-cancerous

Reading Time: 2 minutes Brasilia | Reuters — Analysts at Brazilian health agency Anvisa have determined that glyphosate herbicide does not cause cancer while recommending exposure limits as international pressure to reduce use of the chemical grows. Companies such as Bayer and its unit Monsanto, which produces glyphosate-based weedkillers, have faced legal challenges over allegations that glyphosate causes cancer. […] Read more

(Merschman Seeds video screengrab via YouTube)

Corteva wins final OK for global launch of Enlist E3 soy

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — DowDuPont has won the final international regulatory approval needed, from the Philippines, for a global launch of a new line of genetically engineered soybeans, the company said on Thursday. The approval means seed companies can sell the soybeans, named Enlist E3, to farmers for planting as early as this spring without […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

U.S. judge to allow controversial evidence in Roundup cancer trials

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — A federal judge overseeing lawsuits alleging Bayer’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide causes cancer on Monday tentatively allowed pieces of controversial evidence that the company had hoped to exclude from upcoming trials. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria during a hearing in San Francisco federal court called his decision “probably most disappointing for Monsanto,” the Bayer […] Read more

File photo of a sprayer at work on a field in France. (Debove Sophie/iStock/Getty Images)

France’s glyphosate exit seen 80 per cent complete by 2021

Reading Time: < 1 minute Paris | Reuters — France expects to have cut the use of glyphosate herbicide by 80 per cent by early 2021, its agriculture minister said on Friday, less than previously anticipated due to the number of farmers who will qualify for an exemption. In November 2017, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to ban glyphosate in France […] Read more


Grain Millers’ Saskatchewan milling plant at Yorkton. (GrainMillers.com)

Glyphosate raises milling questions

Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s more to the controversy surrounding glyphosate than whether the herbicide is safe to use or not: one miller has said it found oats and other grains treated with pre-harvest glyphosate don’t mill as well as untreated grains. Since 2015, Grain Millers Inc. has had a glyphosate-free policy on oats, said Eric Deblieck, a crop […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Health Canada dismisses glyphosate objections

Reading Time: 3 minutes Health Canada’s 2017 decision requiring no major changes to product labels for glyphosate herbicide will stand, despite the objections filed in its wake. The federal health department said Friday it has reviewed eight notices of objection received after it released its final re-evaluation decision on glyphosate in April 2017. The objections were filed with Health […] Read more


Tom Button

Editor’s Note: Our greatest risk

The defining events of 2018 may have been the things that didn’t happen, like ripping up NAFTA or pulling the plug on ethanol supports. That’s not how it’s going to be in 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes Our January 2019 issue of Country Guide, like our issues all through 2018, is full of good news. Has there ever been a time when farmers have felt so capable of withstanding weather and marketplace shocks that would have had them spinning in other decades? And has there ever been a time when farmers have […] Read more

Growers in the U.S. are dealing with the spread of Palmer amaranth, which overcame glyphosate as far back as 2010.

Better herbicide tolerance technologies are on the way

Better technologies are coming, but we’ll need patience and shrewd management until they arrive

Reading Time: 4 minutes Count off the many challenges facing a farmer in any growing season and outside of weather conditions, the biggest impediment has to be weed management, particularly as it relates to herbicide tolerance. In spite of the importance of varietal or hybrid selection and fertility, and the potential for yield losses from insect pests and diseases, […] Read more