Reading Time: 6 minutes Insects are like the commodity markets. It’s really easy to know what they’re going to do, once they’ve already done it. One of agriculture’s big challenges is dealing with different insects in different geographies, and doing the best you can to hedge your bets. Like the markets, however, insects are subject to a fair bit […] Read more
Insect post mortem
Top Prairie pest specialists reflect on 2014’s major insect trends… and what they could mean for the coming year
USDA report says no risk from pesticide residues
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — More than half of food tested by the U.S. government for pesticide residues last year showed detectable levels of pesticides, though most were within levels the government considers to be safe, according to a report issued Dec. 19 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA looked at fresh and processed fruits and […] Read more
Neonicotinoids for pest management
Evidence in support of neonics is impressive, if you take the time to understand it
Reading Time: 6 minutes Another summer is over, another harvest is done and now the key decisions are starting to loom for next year’s crop. The canola page in the seed catalogue is open, but whether the varieties on display are OPs or hybrids, herbicide tolerant, Argentine or Polish, most of them will come with a seed coating containing an […] 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
Crossing the threshold
Nobody likes to see hungry insects in their field — but spraying in the absence of an economic rationale is bad economics and agronomics
Reading Time: 5 minutes Farmers and insects have always had a complex relationship and it hasn’t become any simpler with modern chemistry. There’s no doubt that a lethal application of an insecticide can do wonders for crop production if it’s needed and timely. But it’s a waste of good money if it isn’t. Every year farmers have to make […] Read more
Keeping bees
Neonicotinoid pesticides are under the spotlight following bee kills — but it’s not all doom and gloom
Reading Time: 5 minutes The southern Ontario spring of 2012 was an early one, and corn growers got busy as soon as they could get their planters out into the fields. Beekeepers got their troops mobilized early too, but high hopes for a good season quickly evaporated as the body count started piling up around the hives. It turned […] Read more
The pesticide jungle
Keeping it all straight isn't easy in the modern era of pest control
Reading Time: 3 minutes Weeds, diseases and insects. Every year these stand between you and a bumper crop. Controlling them was once a straightforward exercise, but that era has long passed. The proliferation of pesticide brands, genetically modified crops, residue management and pest resistance has thrown a monkey wrench into the picture. With over 1,500 pesticide brands registered to control over 1,200 pests that attack the over 800 […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
