Reading Time: 2 minutes Indian chemical manufacturer UPL has raised the financial backing for an all-cash deal to become what’s expected to be the world’s fifth biggest crop chemical firm. UPL on July 20 announced it will pay $4.2 billion to buy 100 per cent of Arysta LifeScience — the maker of Everest and Inferno herbicides, among other products […] Read more
UPL to buy crop chem firm Arysta
‘Spray Guy’ puts the nix on ‘cavalier’ fungicide application
Fungicide drift should earn the same prevention as herbicide, according to one of Western Canada’s best-known spraying experts
Reading Time: 3 minutes Most farmers are more worried about drift if they’ve got herbicide in the tank, but at least one spray expert says those same concerns should apply to fungicide and insecticide. “I can’t tell you how often I hear, ‘Oh, it’s just a fungicide, fog it in,” said Jason Deveau, the fondly nicknamed “spray guy” from […] Read more
Germany plans to toughen conditions for insecticide use
Reading Time: < 1 minute Berlin | Reuters — Germany plans to make it more difficult for farmers to use crop insecticides in a bid to preserve biodiversity, an environment ministry document showed. “Insect biomass has fallen by more than 75 per cent in the last 27 years in Germany,” according to the paper seen by Reuters on Wednesday, saying […] Read more
EU summit sought over major egg contamination scare
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters –– The European Commissioner in charge of food safety has called for a meeting of ministers and national regulatory agencies to discuss a widespread European contamination scare, which has seen shops remove millions of eggs from sale. Tensions have risen between agricultural ministers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany after traces of […] Read more
Pest Patrol: Mixing ‘crop enhancer’ with glyphosate for weed control
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 2 minutes [Question:] I recently received this query. “I have a client who wants to mix a ‘crop enhancer’ with glyphosate to control weeds in glyphosate-tolerant soybeans. According to the manufacturer’s website, this product ‘can be combined with other applications (e.g. fertilizer, herbicides, insecticide, etc.).’ However, when I read the composition of the product, it appears to […] Read more
New seed treatment in a different class
A new mode of action could help confound several pests in eastern Canadian corn
Reading Time: 3 minutes Corn growers across Eastern Canada looking for help against early-season insect pests such as wireworms, black cutworms and armyworms will likely have a new option for the 2017 growing season. The timing may be ideal, considering the frustration over new regulations governing the use of neonicotinoid-based seed treatments, which will further tighten for the coming […] Read more
U.S. EPA moves to pull crop insecticide from sale
Reading Time: 2 minutes CLARIFIED, March 7, 2016: Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it was moving to halt sale of insecticides from chemical firms Bayer and Nichino America containing an active ingredient, flubendiamide, found to pose risks to the environment. Bayer CropScience had anticipated the action after rejecting the EPA’s request to voluntarily […] Read more
All that confusion on seed treatments
Some implications of Ontario’s new neonic regulations are stunning
Reading Time: 6 minutes As the calendar has turned to a new year, the news from seed and chemical companies is that there is considerable confusion about seed-applied treatments. Growers, they’re finding, have been left with a mixed bag of information about the options available to them, much of which is flat out wrong. Some growers believed they had […] Read more
Grasshoppers, aphids top crop pests in 2015
There were some of the usual suspects, but also some welcome parasitic visitors
Reading Time: 5 minutes At what point is it too late for control? This is a question Prairie producers ask every year, and every year the answer is slightly different, depending on weather and the state of the crop. This year, many producers had to decide how firmly to respond to pest pressures hovering around the economic threshold. Scott […] Read more
Beneficial insects can reduce the economic threat if wheat midge arrives
Two natural predators can help with wheat midge problems if you foster their populations
Reading Time: 2 minutes Wheat midge, a non-native pest that feeds on developing wheat kernels, is a serious economic threat to farmers, especially in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. But the pest is now a growing problem in Alberta, including Peace River country, and starting to attack Montana’s wheat crops. However, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers know ways to reduce its […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
