Reports of drift damage from dicamba-based products rose dramatically in the U.S. Midwest in 2017, covering more than 3.6 million acres.

Drift: The dreadful ‘D’ word in crop spraying

Herbicide drift can cause crop damage and have other repercussions

Scrutiny of crop spraying continues to increase and off-target movement or drift can affect yield and become an annoyance growers would rather avoid. Why it matters: Understanding how drift can occur and dealing with it if it happens can minimize crop loss and keep neighbours happy. “I’m not representing any enforcement agency, but if there […] Read more

The industry needs to talk more about weather, sprayer tips, record-keeping and communicating with neighbours.

Staying on-target: How seed tech and weed type factor into spraying

Herbicide resistance and seed technologies making spray decisions complex

Off-target movement of herbicides carries a risk to your own crops, your neighbour’s crop and your insurance premiums. Particularly with the arrival of Group 4 and Group 9 herbicide technologies, there may be a perception that weed management has become simpler. But resistant weed biotypes are confounding that notion and are challenging growers and their […] Read more

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

Being able to spray weeds like redroot pigweed early without spraying an entire field could help reduce costs for farmers.

Canadian weed sensing project could mean targeted spraying

Pesticides sprayed with more precision could reduce farmer costs and build consumer confidence in products

Glacier FarmMedia – A project that will examine the use of artificial intelligence to detect weeds and crop pests during passes over a field received a $12.8 million investment from Protein Industries Canada. Led by Precision.ai., Sure Growth Solutions Inc., Exceed Grain Marketing and the Global Institute for Food Security, the project is designed to […] Read more

The new tool in Climate FieldView can create scripts for variable application of crop protection products.

New tool allows scripting of crop protection products

The Climate FieldView tool creates special management zones in fields

Climate FieldView has released a new manual crop protection prescription that allows farmers to create variable-rate scripts for any zone in their field. The new feature works for fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and growth regulators to help growers create special management zones within each field, and assign product rates to each region while following label directions. […] 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


Sclerotinia in canola. (Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Consider canola crop’s potential yield before spraying

As July approaches and crop canopies close, sclerotinia will be on the minds of many canola growers. But will it pay to spray? Fungicide applications are more likely to be profitable when the canola hits 30-40 bushels per acre, said Colleen Redlick, senior technical development specialist at BASF. Justine Cornelsen, agronomy specialist with the Canola […] 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