The bud stage, when Canada thistle is most palatable to livestock, occurs when purple flowers start opening.

The time to attack Canada thistle is now (or soon)

A herbicide application after a hard frost can hit the noxious weed where it lives

Reading Time: 3 minutes Of all the weeds beef producers should focus on, Canada thistle is high on the list. Livestock avoid the prickly plant and it’s said to cost Canadian ag and forestry $7.5 billion in lost revenue annually. Fall control on pasture might be one of the most effective tools in stopping growth of the noxious weed, […] Read more

Before applying any crop protection product, read the label to find the application rate, timing and pre-harvest interval.

Do you know your trade MRLs?

Pre-harvest is the time to protect the crop’s marketability for international markets

Reading Time: 4 minutes Maximum residue limits can affect the marketability of a crop, so farmers need to heed them, say crop market experts. “Because we produce so much beyond what we need for our domestic demand for food, we really do need to keep in mind market access and those requirements that we see with our export partners,” […] 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'

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'

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


“When you’re looking at the sprayer, how it’s physically put together in terms of the structure and how it’s operated, we want to understand how that impacts the potential for spray drift.” – Lorne Grieger, PAMI.

The role of aerodynamics when crop spraying

Air disturbance from the sprayer itself may be affecting your drift risk

Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – We’ve come a long way with sprayers. We’ve made them bigger, we’ve made them faster and with new visual technology and artificial intelligence, we’ve even made them smarter. Now, research by the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) along with the College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan and Agrimetrix in Saskatoon […] Read more

(FMC Corp. video screengrab via YouTube)

Ag input firm FMC’s shares tumble after lowering financial targets

Partners 'rapidly reduced inventory levels'

Reuters — Shares of FMC Corp. fell more than eight per cent on Monday after the agricultural products supplier cut its outlook for the year on volume declines in most of its major markets. “Towards the end of May, we experienced unforeseen and unprecedented volume declines in three out of our four operating regions, as […] Read more


Market sensitivities require farmers to carefully manage certain crop protection products to protect trade.

Complex patchwork of global rules on crop residues makes vigilance important

Keeping track isn’t easy, which is why Keep It Clean puts out an annual list of potential trade risks

Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Growers are again being reminded about proper use of crop protection products and their potential impact on trade. Keep It Clean, an initiative of several commodity organizations, recently released its annual list of products that may cause trouble with export sales. “We are export dependant,” Greg Bartley, director of crop protection and […] Read more

(CaseIH.com)

French court bans sale of two Touchdown glyphosates

Court cites lack of analysis of effects on wildlife

Paris | Reuters — A French court has banned the sale of two glyphosate-based herbicides produced by Swiss chemical group Syngenta because of a lack of analysis on the chemical’s potential harm to some wildlife. “The decision on Sept. 30, 2020 by French health security agency ANSES to renew the marketing authorization for the chemical […] Read more


Kochia is becoming an increasing problem across the southern part of Alberta.

Controlling herbicide-resistant kochia requires some different strategies

While tillage in general can harm soil health, a strategic targeted approach can help bury the seed

Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s time for a new mode of action for kochia control, but not one found in a jug of chemical. “We’ve had several years in a row of favourable conditions for kochia growth. That also can contribute to selection pressure for resistance, when herbicides are some of the primary measures that we’re using to manage […] Read more

“The potential loss of [these products] as effective herbicides for kochia control is staggering because affected farmers will have limited control options remaining.” – Brian Jenks.

Kochia control suffers another blow, North Dakota study finds

Two popular products widely used on the Prairies seem less effective

Reading Time: < 1 minute Some kochia populations in western North Dakota likely have developed resistance to commonly used pre-plant burndown herbicides, a North Dakota State University study has found. For many years, no-till farmers have used Aim (carfentrazone) and Sharpen (saflufenacil) either just before or just after planting to control emerged kochia and other annual weeds. On the Prairies, […] Read more