Not having a refuge for wheat midge in a midge-tolerant crop could quickly cost growers resistance that saves them $60 million annually.

Safeguard wheat midge tolerance or lose it, growers warned

A single gene that protects wheat from this costly pest could quickly be lost if there’s no refuge in fields

Reading Time: 2 minutes Planting saved soft white spring wheat that’s tolerant to wheat midge comes with a multimillion-dollar risk. If tolerance is lost, it could cost growers $60 million annually and up to $36 per acre, said Mike Espeseth, co-chair of the communications committee of the Midge Tolerant Wheat Stewardship Team. A single gene, called Sm1, provides midge […] Read more


Matt Stanford (left) of Magrath hit 113 bushels per acre on irrigated land in the inaugural Wheat Yield Challenge while Alfred Vandelight from Eaglesham achieved 100 bushels per acre on dryland.

More than bragging rights at stake in Alberta Wheat’s yield contest

The goal isn’t just getting growers to go big on a few acres, 
but to share their agronomic practices

Reading Time: 2 minutes Interested in growing a nice big crop of bragging rights? Alberta Wheat is making it easier for the second edition of its Wheat Yield Challenge. “We have tweaked the rules a bit this year, said Brian Kennedy, the crop commission’s grower relations and extension manager. “This year, we are going to compare what the grower […] Read more



Seeding makes good progress, surface soil moisture levels declining

Alberta crop conditions as of May 22, 2018

Reading Time: < 1 minute Warm and dry weather over the past week provided favourable conditions for seeding operations in most of the province. Provincially, seeding progress has increased 30 per cent from a week ago, to 67 per cent complete, compared to the 5-year average (2013-2017) of 83 per cent. Regionally, seeding progress is most advanced in the Southern […] Read more

Hard white winter wheat growing in North Carolina in 2010. (Dave Marshall photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. grains: Wheat rallies on dry weather fears

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures jumped more than two per cent on Friday and ended the week up nearly five per cent as worries about dry weather in key global production regions fueled short-covering and speculative buying. Soybeans advanced for the fifth time in six sessions on renewed Chinese buying of U.S. export […] Read more