Reading Time: 3 minutes “If you want to have the upper hand on weeds, you need to know every little detail about their existence.” The above quote is straight from the great Jack Alex, retired botany professor and herbarium curator at the Ontario Agriculture College, who used to repeat it to me at every opportunity. Fortunately, most of us […] Read more
Pest Patrol: Use your phone to capture and document pest activity
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Pest Patrol: Sanitation of weed seed
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 3 minutes Q: Can we stop the spread of weed seeds? A: “I’ve been thinking a lot about sterility lately.” I knew as soon as the words came out of my mouth that I had slipped up. I was responding to a question in the audience at a local crop conference about ways to stop the movement […] Read more
Better herbicide tolerance technologies are on the way
Better technologies are coming, but we’ll need patience and shrewd management until they arrive
Reading Time: 4 minutes Count off the many challenges facing a farmer in any growing season and outside of weather conditions, the biggest impediment has to be weed management, particularly as it relates to herbicide tolerance. In spite of the importance of varietal or hybrid selection and fertility, and the potential for yield losses from insect pests and diseases, […] Read more
PHOTOS: How to identify Palmer amaranth
Reading Time: < 1 minute The amaranth species look fairly similar as seedlings. Nobody wants to wait until they’re in seed to figure that out. When in doubt, ask an agronomist.” — Tammy Jones, Manitoba Agriculture. For the latest information, visit the North Dakota State University website.
Pest Patrol: Try the stale seedbed approach for weeds in alternative crops
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 2 minutes Q: I’m looking to grow a new crop where there are few herbicides available to control weeds. Are there any non-chemical methods to reduce the number of weeds that could emerge in the crop? A: Since I began with OMAFRA in 2002, I’ve been involved in projects that investigated methods to control weeds in “new” […] Read more
Weeds in edible beans
Growers know about weeds in corn and soybeans, but dry beans demand a strategy of their own
Reading Time: 5 minutes In farming circles, where commodity prices and net returns dictate much of the crop plans in a growing season, the rationale for choosing alternative crops can hinge on a number of factors. The need for different equipment, different diseases that might have an impact on the crop, shipping costs and the so-called “convenience” of some […] Read more
Better herbicide tolerance
Better technologies are coming, but we’ll need patience and shrewd management until they arrive
Reading Time: 4 minutes Count off the many challenges facing a farmer in any growing season and outside of weather conditions, the biggest impediment has to be weed management, particularly as it relates to herbicide tolerance. In spite of the importance of varietal or hybrid selection and fertility, and the potential for yield losses from insect pests and diseases, […] Read more
North Dakota still on lookout for Palmer amaranth
Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada –– Officials in North Dakota continue to hunt down suspicious plants in a bid to keep the aggressive weed Palmer amaranth from establishing there. Palmer amaranth, a pigweed species, made its first confirmed appearance in North Dakota last month, in a soybean field in McIntosh County, in the south-central area of the state. […] Read more
PHOTOS: Pest Patrol: Reining in dog strangling vine
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 2 minutes Q: I’m seeing a weed called dog strangling vine along roadsides, in woodlots and creeping into agricultural fields. It seems quite invasive. How do I get rid of it? A: Your suspicions are correct. Dog strangling vine is invasive and is listed as a noxious weed under the Ontario Weed Control Act, and regulated as […] Read more
If you can’t beat ’em, clip ’em
New methods of mechanical weed control show promise, but don’t expect a yield increase the first year
Reading Time: 8 minutes With the high and growing percentage of Prairie cropland infested with herbicide-resistant weeds, researchers are turning their attention back to mechanical control, but that doesn’t necessarily mean tillage. The Alberta Wheat Commission and Saskatchewan Pulse Growers are partnering on a three-year research project at the University of Saskatchewan which is evaluating in-crop weed clipping as […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
