The best time to manage weeds post-harvest

The best time to manage weeds post-harvest

Reading Time: < 1 minute Fall is a good time to spray perennials and winter annual weed species because pre-winter management can help preserve critical soil moisture for the following spring. Controlling winter annuals when they are small also offers better control. That said, spraying immediately after harvest will not offer the best results. Perennials that are chopped to stubble […] Read more

Dandelions are among the bitter plants that horses are drawn to.

The benefit of bitters for horses

Bitter plants can provide a natural booster for horses’ gut health

Reading Time: 2 minutes Domestic horses are known for their preference for lush green pastures and sweet hay, yet their natural foraging behaviour intrigues equine professionals, scientists and horse owners: their attraction to a specific group of plants known as bitters. Horses, with their remarkable sense of taste and intuition, display a strong and deliberate inclination toward certain plants […] Read more


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

File photo of palmer amaranth — the taller yellowish plants — infesting a U.S. cotton field. (Photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

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


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


Cutting the herbicide bill with a green-on-green system, whether from the Agrifac AiC Plus or one of its competitors, is just part of the equation. Even bigger might be using the cameras on the boom for super high-resolution field mapping, which sprayer expert Tom Wolf (inset) calls “incredibly exciting.

Could the next green revolution already be underway here?

Green-on-green spraying isn’t officially available here yet but it’s close

Reading Time: 5 minutes It wasn’t long ago that sprayers able to distinguish weeds in a growing crop were in the ‘maybe someday’ file. But that has changed, and a new green revolution may already be underway. Some Prairie farmers have bought and are using green-on-green sprayers, even though the company involved is still adapting the software to Canadian […] Read more

Agronomy update recap available

Agronomy update recap available

Reading Time: < 1 minute If you missed this year’s Agronomy Update (or can’t read your notes), PowerPoint slides from the January event are now available at agronomyupdate.ca. Slides from two dozen presentations can be downloaded for free. Among the topics are nitrification and urease inhibitors, micronutrients, fusarium graminearum, bacterial leaf streak, aphanomyces, verticillium wilt, herbicide mixing, flea beetles, managing […] 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

Closeup of the stems and leaves of Canada Thistle

Biological control for Canada thistle on deck

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Chinook Applied Research Association is bringing in Canada thistle stem mining weevils this fall. Each patch of Canada thistle needs a tray of weevils and there are 100 weevils in a tray. The insects overwinter in soil and leaf litter, emerge in spring to feed on thistles, and then lay eggs. After hatching, the […] Read more