Dirk Vandenhirtz, CEO and founder, left, and Darrell Bailey, North American business development lead with Crop.zone.  Photo: John Greig

Agritechnica update: Give a big shock to weeds

Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers are being pushed to find an alternative to desiccants to burn down crops, as companies are increasingly leery of herbicides approved close to harvest. People have been shocking weeds with electricity for 100 years, but the return on the electricity invested and the technology required to do so safely haven’t always worked. Crop.zone is […] Read more


File photo of palmer amaranth — the taller yellowish plants — infesting a U.S. cotton field. (Photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Palmer amaranth pops back up in Ontario

Weed infamous in U.S. for multiple herbicide resistances

Reading Time: 3 minutes A single plant that showed up this summer on the edge of a southwestern Ontario cornfield is cause for concern among Canadian farmers, weed specialists warn. Writing Monday in the ag ministry’s Field Crop News, Ontario provincial weed management specialist Mike Cowbrough said the plant in question, found in Wellington County, is confirmed as palmer […] Read more

Neale Heinrich stands in front of the Redekop Seed Control Unit at its booth at Ag in Motion on July 18, 2023. (Braedyn Wozniak photo)

At Ag in Motion: Herbicide resistance fight needs integrated seed management

'Those seedlings we don’t manage to kill (are) probably the most herbicide-resistant'

Reading Time: 4 minutes Harvest weed-seed control takes aim at reducing herbicide-resistant weeds that western Canadian farmers find more and more every year. At the Ag in Motion outdoor farm show this week, field residue management manufacturer Redekop won the Innovations Award for Environmental Sustainability for its harvest Seed Control Unit, which destroys more than 95 per cent of […] Read more


Originally a tow-behind unit that attached to the back of the combine, the newer iteration of the Harrington Seed Destructor is a mill that can be integrated with the combine. (Photo: deBruin Engineering Pty Ltd.)

At Ag in Motion: Harvest weed control still in the mix

'You’re not going to spray your way out of this'

Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s a relatively new solution to the age-old problem of trying to get rid of weeds without broadcasting the seed or using increasingly less effective herbicides — mechanical separation and pulverization of weed seed. Harvest weed seed control might not be a golden bullet to tackle glyphosate-, fluroxypyr- and dicamba-resistant weeds, but according to Agriculture […] Read more

For IP and Roundup Ready soybeans, the message on Canada fleabane is simple: control it early.

The one-two weed punch farmers are up against

Managing Canada fleabane and waterhemp is an ongoing challenge for IP and Roundup Ready soybean growers

Reading Time: 4 minutes The invasion continues. From 2010 to 2015, glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane spread from Windsor to the Quebec border — more than 800 kilometres in just six years. Along the way, it evolved resistance to Groups 2 and 9 modes of action. Waterhemp has also spread rapidly, with biotypes resistant to Groups 2, 4, 9, 14 and […] Read more


At the Carman tests, comparing the lowest N environment to the highest equated to around a 17 per cent yield loss.

When less is more in weed control

A study shows that soybean yields decline as soil nitrogen increases

Reading Time: 5 minutes We all know that canola likes a good shot of nitrogen. Unfortunately, that includes canola volunteers, and a study says you may be better off to starve them and let your soybeans compete on their own. Charles Geddes, research scientist of weed ecology and cropping systems at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research and Development […] Read more

Searching for alternative herbicides in different groups for specific weed issues is no small task.

Lack of choice in herbicide options

There may be dozens of brands, but when it comes to choosing herbicide groups to avoid resistance, your options are limited

Reading Time: 5 minutes Given the possibility of supply shortages of agricultural inputs, including herbicides, I’ve spent more time this winter than most looking into which herbicides have the best fit for my farm. I would much rather purchase now than scramble in the spring, seeking herbicides unavailable or in short supply. Early planning has also prompted me to […] Read more


A check strip on left where the Weed Zapper was not used — visible effects on weeds apparent on the right side.

Pest Patrol: Weed Zapper offers an alternative solution for killing weeds

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 2 minutes One day during the summer of 2019, our future daughter-in-law came home one day pretty pumped about a new piece of farm equipment she had heard about. Shelby’s father’s farm has been in organic crop production for about 20 years now, and “some guy” was coming to try to zap the weeds in the soybeans. […] Read more

These thriving kochia plants are probably resistant to more than one herbicide mode of action.

Using a multi-prong strategy against herbicide resistant weeds

There are more pre-seed control options available to suppress herbicide-resistance, but use cultural management as well

Reading Time: 4 minutes More than half of western Canadian fields under annual crop production contain at least one herbicide-resistant biotype, according to surveys from 2014 to 2017. In Alberta, roughly 60 per cent of fields surveyed have resistant weeds; in Saskatchewan that figure is 57 per cent and in Manitoba it’s 68 per cent. “The surveys have been […] Read more