Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — The Trump administration has persuaded a U.S. appeals court to reconsider its recent decision ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the widely-used pesticide chlorpyrifos, which critics say can harm children and farmers. In an order on Wednesday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it will again review former EPA administrator […] Read more

U.S. EPA wins new chance to argue against pesticide ban

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

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
U.S. appeals court orders EPA to ban pesticide said to harm children
Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters – A divided federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban a widely-used pesticide that critics say can endanger children and farmers. The 2-1 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle overturned former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s March 2017 denial of a petition by […] Read more

Canada to impose tariffs on U.S., challenge at WTO
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs on $16.6 billion worth of U.S. exports and challenge U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization (WTO), Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday. The Canadian tariffs are set to go into effect on July 1 and […] Read more

Pest Patrol: New herbicide names may not mean new chemistry
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 3 minutes Q: Do I have new opportunities in weed control in 2018? A: This is the question I’ve been asked a lot this past winter meeting season, and one I always struggle to answer. There are some legitimately promising concepts being tested such as robotic weeders (Figure 1 at top) and weed seed destruction tools, but […] Read more

Rotation refresher
More than crops, more than herbicides, it comes down to planning for success — with everything
Reading Time: 7 minutes The past two to three years have seen some encouraging signs of change for the better across Eastern Canada. Commodity prices are cyclically low yet corn, soybean and wheat yields have been trending upwards. There’s renewed interest in cover crops, and more growers have a renewed appreciation for soil health too, including a keener sense […] Read more

Troubling gaps within PMRA
An interview with crop protection expert Craig Hunter on the avalanche of change that may be heading toward Canadian farmers
Reading Time: 5 minutes Last year, calls rang out for growers and their organizations to voice their concerns about an ongoing review of hundreds of crop protection formulations. The lobbying effort carried added urgency over and above similar efforts from the previous two years. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) began conducting these reviews similar to those required in […] Read more

Agrimetrix takes aim at exploding sprayer myths
Farmers today need to spray several times a year, and two former AAFC researchers have formed a company to help them get the product to the right place at the right time
Reading Time: 7 minutes If Tom Wolf is the face of agricultural spraying in Western Canada, then Brian Caldwell is the hands. The two co-owners of Agrimetrix, an agricultural spray research and training company based in Saskatoon, share an overlapping skillset, but they have carved distinctive individual niches. Wolf spends much of his time talking about spraying in a […] Read more

The challenge of early weeds in soybeans
A two-pass weed control strategy makes a lot of economic sense
Reading Time: 5 minutes In an ideal world, it might not matter when a field of soybeans is sprayed, or whether it’s a soil-applied or post-emergence herbicide that’s used. But this isn’t an ideal world and application timing can be very important. So is the crop. In Country Guide’s spring Corn Guide, Dr. Peter Sikkema discussed the impacts of […] Read more