Reading Time: 4 minutes Farmer survey shares on farm insights into weed seed mills on combines.
Real talk from real farmers on weed seed destructors
US court cancels approvals for widely used dicamba weedkillers
EPA violated procedures mandating public input, judge rules
A U.S. court has nullified the government's latest approvals of certain agricultural weedkillers sold by Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, fueling uncertainty among farmers who spray the products on soybeans and cotton genetically engineered to resist them.
Agritechnica update: Give a big shock to weeds
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
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
Palmer amaranth pops back up in Ontario
Weed infamous in U.S. for multiple herbicide resistances
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
Soil health main topic of Farming Smarter field school
Novel crops like prairie rice sparked discussion among attendees
Reading Time: 3 minutes Soil health was the main focus of this year’s Farming Smarter field school but novel new crops like rice also got some of the spotlight. Despite a cool and wet day in late June, a full house of farmers made their way through the damp fields. While a lot can be learned in a classroom […] Read more
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
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
A world without Roundup is a ‘real threat’
But reduced use is an option and can thwart both proposed bans and resistance
Reading Time: 6 minutes Glyphosate changed farming across the globe — but if farmers don’t want to lose the ‘chemical of the century’ entirely, they’d better use it less often. That’s the view of a seed grower from New Zealand who made farming without glyphosate the focus of his Nuffield research. It’s hard to overstate the impact of this […] Read more
Weed-free forage program relaunched
Some counties are now offering inspections to ensure invasive weeds are not present in hay
Reading Time: 2 minutes A program aimed at preventing the spread of invasive and noxious weeds via hay is getting a second shot. Alberta’s first go-round with a Certified Weed Free Forage program a decade ago never fully took off but the Alberta Invasive Species Council has revived the initiative. “Use of certified weed-free forage is a best management […] Read more
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