Applicators need relevant and timely information regarding chemical applications for the best performance.

Better labels

This new initiative aims to create crop protection labels producers will actually want to use to make spraying decisions

Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s a familiar spot to find yourself in. You want to spray a new product. Or maybe you want to tank mix two chemistries that you’ve never sprayed together before. The crop is ready, the sprayer is set, but now you see there are label questions about specific rates, ground speeds, buffer zones, clean-out procedures […] Read more

A seedling adzuki bean plant.

Pest Patrol: Managing volunteer adzuki beans

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 2 minutes Q: Has any work been done with controlling adzuki beans in IP, non-GMO soybeans? A: Chris Kramer and colleagues at the University of Guelph evaluated management of volunteer adzuki beans (photo at top) during a period of four seasons. The main challenge with adzuki beans is that their pods shatter easily and their seed coat […] Read more


(Video screengrab from Enlist.com)

Assure herbicide’s active ingredient under new ownership

Reading Time: 2 minutes Now being put to work in Enlist corn, the active ingredient in Assure II herbicide has a new owner. California-based American Vanguard Corp., the owner of ag chemical producer Amvac Chemical, announced Thursday it has bought the quizalofop-p-ethyl (QPE) product line of herbicides from DowDuPont’s ag division, Corteva Agriscience, for an undisclosed sum. A Group […] Read more

Figure 1: This unsprayed control treatment consists mainly of common ragweed but with green foxtail, common lamb’s-quarters, witchgrass, crabgrass and red-root and green pigweed.

Pest Patrol: Weed control in identity-preserved, non-GMO soybeans

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 2 minutes A decade of public research trials evaluating weed control in non-GMO soybeans at the University of Guelph has demonstrated that the key to success is to start with a soil-applied herbicide program that has three or more different modes of action. In Ontario, there are a number of common weeds (e.g. common ragweed, lamb’s-quarters, foxtail […] 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

The U.S. ‘No. 1 weed problem’ heads north

The U.S. ‘No. 1 weed problem’ heads north

Other weeds are higher priority for now, but be on the lookout for Palmer amaranth

Reading Time: 4 minutes It can grow two to three inches per day and reach eight feet tall. Each plant can produce more than a million seeds that can emerge right through the growing season. It has reduced yield up to 91 per cent in corn and 79 per cent in soybeans. It’s resistant to glyphosate and multiple other […] Read more


Quinoa planted into a stale seedbed and with the use of an experimental herbicide (left) compared to the same herbicide applied but without the use of a stale seedbed (right).

Pest Patrol: Try the stale seedbed approach for weeds in alternative crops

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 2 minutes Q: I’m looking to grow a new crop where there are few herbicides available to control weeds. Are there any non-chemical methods to reduce the number of weeds that could emerge in the crop? A: Since I began with OMAFRA in 2002, I’ve been involved in projects that investigated methods to control weeds in “new” […] Read more

All of the gains farmers have made in no-till are likely in jeopardy if their access to glyphosate is eliminated.

A new attack on glyphosate

Earlier this fall, some food companies were calling for a ban on glyphosate

Reading Time: 8 minutes Already by October 1, 2018, over 200 products sold under 17 different brand names were displaying the Glyphosate Residue Free symbol on their packaging. And another 50 brands representing hundreds more products are in the process of securing Glyphosate Residue Free certification. Farmers can expect increasing backlash over their use of glyphosate because of this […] Read more


Cupping of soybean leaves is a clearly visible symptom of off-target movement of dicamba that resulted from inversion.

Soybeans, dicamba and you

New challenges are arising with new herbicide-resistant technologies and product blends

Reading Time: 4 minutes When new transgenic and herbicide-tolerant technologies arrive, they come with learning curves, some steeper than others. For Bt corn hybrids, for example, the curve was relatively flat, even if there had to be some serious thinking that about refuge planting. And in glyphosate- and glufosinate-tolerant soybean varieties, there may have been initial concerns about having […] Read more

Canada fleabane seedlings that will be treated with glycine and glyphosate combinations in a growth chamber environment.

Pest Patrol: The continuing fight against glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 2 minutes Glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane is found in 30 counties across Ontario and can cause yield losses exceeding 50 per cent in both corn and soybeans. Since there are only a few other herbicides that are effective at controlling it, this glyphosate-resistant weed has been one of the most troublesome weeds in Ontario. So, what if you […] Read more