Canadian producers must navigate conflicting global pesticide and residue rules that can clash with domestic approvals, risking market access and requiring careful management and industry support, according to industry experts. Photo: Greg Berg

Keep it clean on pre-harvest chemical use

Farmers urged to toe the line on pre-harvest pesticide application and market product restrictions to avoid grain marketing headaches

Canadian farmers urged to toe the line on pre-harvest pesticide application and market product restrictions to avoid grain marketing headaches.



File photo of a dicamba-damaged soybean plant. (Reuters)

U.S. EPA reviewing dicamba over crop damage claims

Chicago | Reuters –– The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is assessing whether dicamba herbicide can be sprayed safely on soybean and cotton plants genetically engineered to resist the chemical, without the procedure posing “unreasonable risks” to other crops, an agency official said Tuesday. Farmers and scientists for years have reported problems with dicamba drifting away […] Read more

(TopconPositioning.com)

Brandt closes GeoShack deal, locks up Topcon sales in Canada

Tractor company revives Ontario deal

A deal to make Brandt Tractor the exclusive dealer for Topcon geopositioning equipment clear across Canada has been resuscitated. Regina-based Brandt announced Tuesday it has closed its previously-announced deal to buy the assets of GeoShack Canada — two weeks after Dallas-based GeoShack declared that “a mutually beneficial deal… has not been attained.” GeoShack has been […] Read more


Flea beetle. (Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Flea beetle damage ‘moderate’ across Prairies so far

Levels in Manitoba hit thresholds for spraying, reseeding canola

MarketsFarm — Flea beetles, cutworms and diamondback moths are only a few of the pests Prairie farmers have to deal with — and this year, so far, damage from flea beetles and cutworms has varied, as have moth counts. “Flea beetles are common throughout the Prairies, everywhere we grow canola. We haven’t been able to […] Read more

A spray plane flies over a swarm of desert locusts at Lemasulani village in Kenya’s Samburu County on Jan. 17, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Njeri Mwangi)

Drones to be tested against Africa’s locust swarms

U.N.'s FAO testing drones to detect, spray pests

Nairobi | Thomson Reuters Foundation — The United Nations is to test drones equipped with mapping sensors and atomizers to spray pesticides in parts of east Africa battling an invasion of desert locusts that are ravaging crops and exacerbating a hunger crisis. Hundreds of millions of the voracious insects have swept across Ethiopia, Somalia and […] Read more



Soybean aphids in a field near Portage la Prairie photographed July 26, 2017. Photo: Taralea Simpson, Munro Farm Supplies

Some soybean aphids showing up so scout your fields

Soybean aphids are being found in some soybean fields near Portage la Prairie and some fields have been sprayed, while others are being monitored, Red Beard Farms aerial applicator Chris McCallister said in an interview July 27. The threshold for applying an insecticide to control soybean aphids is 250 and rising. The “rising” part is […] Read more


5 tips for fungicide application

5 tips for fungicide application

If you've decided to spray, make sure you get the most out of your investment

If you’ve decided to invest in added fungicide protection this season, do everything you can to get your spray spot-on. And to help you get the most out of your investment, I’ve put together my top five fungicide spray tips.