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Cutworms. (Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)
Crops, Weather

Prairie growers on lookout as insects seize opportunity

Dry conditions, delayed seeding lift pest counts

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Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — With most Prairie growers’ newly seeded crops already up against dry conditions, growers remain on the lookout for insects which further threaten the health of those seedlings. Considering the high prices of many crops this season, the potential damage would be more costly. John Gavloski, entomologist for Manitoba Agriculture, said there is a […] Read more
Continuous corn and reliance on weaker resistance to corn rootworm has led to yield losses in silage corn.
Corn, Crops

Getting to the root of corn rootworm

How alarmed should you be about the threat of corn rootworm due to the expansion of continuous corn acres?

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Reading Time: 6 minutes For a large percentage of growers in Eastern Canada, corn production isn’t just one crop in the rotation, it’s the main crop in that rotation. For others — mostly livestock producers — it’s the only crop. That dominance is creating concerns as the incidence of resistance of corn rootworm becomes a more-pressing issue. Even so, […] Read more
(Innovafeed.com)
Livestock, Reuters

ADM, InnovaFeed to build world’s biggest insect protein plant in Illinois

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. grain trader and processor Archer Daniels Midland and French biotech company InnovaFeed announced plans on Thursday to build the world’s largest insect protein plant at Decatur, Illinois. The announcement comes amid rising global feed grain prices and tightening supplies, and as more companies work toward reducing the carbon footprint of […] Read more
Bean leaf beetle is another pest increasing in numbers in soybean and edible bean fields.
Crops

What’s going to ‘bug’ you in 2020?

Western bean cutworm is quickly climbing the ranks as our biggest threat

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Insect pests never seem to get the respect they deserve. If they present a threat during a growing season, they move front and centre, but more often they’re a much lower concern than fertility, weeds and diseases. Some of that is thanks to today’s improved genetics and commercial varieties and hybrids that produce their hardier, […] Read more
Farmers’ friends: bugs, birds and worms can eat weed seeds before they get a chance to germinate.
Crops

Weed control with small critters

Insects, birds and worms are a free – and resistance-free – method of controlling weeds before they get a chance to germinate

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Reading Time: 4 minutes The dominance of zero- or minimum-tillage practices on the Prairies means lots of weed seeds are left on the soil after harvest, but it turns out that there’s help available to stop them from germinating next spring, and you don’t have to buy it at your local chemical dealer. “Lowering the deposits into the weed […] Read more
real bed bug on wool knitwear, good details on enlarge view
Guide Life, Health

Guide Health: Bed bugs – yuck!

Bed bugs are very resilient and can go without feeding for up to 11 months

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Bed bugs of the species Cimex lectularius are certainly unpleasant. However, they are not harmful. Bed bugs are parasites, and different types of bed bugs are specific to different species of animals. They feed on blood, and when they do, they inject some of their saliva into the bite. It is this saliva that causes […] Read more
A customer eats an ‘insect tsukemen’ ramen noodle topped with fried worms and crickets at Ramen Nagi restaurant in Tokyo on April 9, 2017. (Photo: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
Livestock, Reuters

Farming insects may solve one problem, create others

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Insects have great potential as an alternative source of protein, but further research is urgently needed before mass production begins in order to avoid environmental disaster, Swedish researchers warned Monday. There is currently an “overwhelming lack of knowledge” on basic questions such as suitable species, their housing and feed […] Read more
It doesn’t always work. It has to be based on science. Not every little flying creature is beneficial. For comparison, this is the newly identified canola flower midge, which is similar in size to the two beneficial wasps shown on page 30. But as a fly, it only has two wings compared to the wasps’ four. AAFC canola flower midge specialist Boyd Mori says counting wings would be difficult without a hand lens or microscope. Mori describes the midge as “delicate looking and light in colour (usually beige to light brown). Female’s wings are covered in tiny hairs, which gives them a mottled appearance.”
Crops

Protect the mighty Microgastrinae

More and more, we’re learning that farmers can save a lot of money in both the short and long term by taking advantage of opportunities to help the insect world police itself

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Hector Carcamo was in a southern Alberta canola field in 2018 sweep-netting for cabbage seedpod weevils when what did he find? Little black wasps. Lots of them. Same thing in the next sample site. And then the next. Field to field. “We were consistently finding them. With every set of sweeps we found three, five, […] Read more
Crops, Weather

World crop briefs: North Carolina losing crops, livestock to Florence

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Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Record-setting rain and floods in North Carolina caused by Hurricane Florence have destroyed the state’s poultry sector with 3.4 million chickens and turkeys reported killed. Pig losses are estimated at 5,500. Widespread power outages and flooded roads are making it difficult to get help to abandoned livestock operations. The state is home […] Read more
High angle view pile of roasted Oaxacan grasshoppers on traditional homemade corn tortilla
Guide Business

Meat-less meat takes a big step closer to becoming mainstream

Terms like “cultured proteins” may not make anyone salivate the way a sizzling steak can, but that’s not stopping Canada’s grocery sector from getting ready for meat-case revolution

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Another new President’s Choice product made headlines recently. But who would have guessed what it was this time? Are you ready? It’s cricket powder, now part of Loblaw’s popular private label brand. Last year’s breakthrough seems so much more pedestrian by comparison. It was a vegetarian burger that bleeds like a real meat patty on […] Read more

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