The seven-plex folding air drill, part of the company’s eight-year-old Quantum line, is scheduled for full commercial release in 2027.

Garth Massie, director of sales for Morris’s parent company, Superior Farms Equipment (SFE), says the new seeder is aimed at enhancing productivity for crop producers working around 9,000 acres.

“Canadian farmers probably have the shortest seeding window of anyone in the world,” he said.

“They’re trying to get a lot of work done in a very short amount of time. So there’s been this continuous push on the machinery development side to help farmers get more acres planted every day.”

Wider spacing for better residue flow

Beyond the jump from 80 to 100 feet, the machine adds six inches of spacing per rank — 48 inches compared to 42 on smaller Quantum models.

That wider spacing improves residue handling relative to the seeder’s overall width, said SFE director of marketing Melissa MacLean.

“That’s going to maintain the flow without bunching up or plugging so you don’t have to sacrifice any of that by going to a larger machine.”

Mechanical fold designed around grower feedback

The decision to go with a fully mechanical seven-plex fold with a single pivot design was based on grower feedback favouring a “traditional” folding machine, said Massie.

Transport profile built for safety

The machine’s travel profile — at 28-feet, three-inches wide and 18-feet, four-inches tall — was designed to be low and narrow in the interest of operator safety.

“Transport underneath power lines … is your key consideration there,” said Massie.

High-capacity air system boosts fertilizer delivery

Fertilizer delivery was another major focus. The machine uses a high-capacity air system with a smooth, three-inch primary hose to reduce airflow restriction.

“It doesn’t have that rough interior that can restrict airflow,” said MacLean, adding the smooth primary — based on testing — delivers 18 per cent better air flow compared to a rough interior hose.

The gains extend to delivery volume, said Massie.

“In our testing, we’re able to deliver up to 500 pounds of fertilizer per acre at five mph (eight km/h). So that’s a really impressive number to hit.”

MacLean also highlights the seeder’s independent opener system with consistent depth control and proven seed/fertilizer separation across the full working width.

Other specs are largely unchanged from previous Quantums. One exception is frame depth — 96 inches centre to centre compared to 84 inches.

Launch at Ag in Motion 2026

The official launch of the Quantum 100-foot will take place at Ag in Motion July 21-23 near Langham, Sask. It will be paired with the Morris 10 Series 1440-bushel air cart.

The post Morris unveils 100-foot Quantum seeder aimed at large-acre Prairie operations appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The NL710 is a single-bin fertilizer spreader the Iowa company says is comparable in productivity and profitability to its dual-bin NL720.

“It’s a high-precision, high-output, wide fertilizer spreader that is user-friendly and low-maintenance,” says Benjamin Boelter, director of product development with New Leader.

WHY IT MATTERS: Given the slow-release fertilizer products available today, the new and higher-tech broadcast spreaders are again finding favour among some Prairie farmers.

The machine’s 120-foot spreading capacity is a rarity in the U.S. market, he says, with most manufacturers opting for 90 feet.

“We also increased the throughput … so you don’t have to slow down to get a wider pattern, so we have more material that can go through the machine.”

The applicator features a spread pattern “wizard” that makes automatic output adjustments.

“You don’t have to make manual adjustments on the machine to change the spread pattern. That’s all taken care of internally for you,” says Boelter.

The machine’s variable rate spreading capability includes four options: 120, 90, 80 and 70 feet.

Boelter uses turn compensation as an example of its variable-rate capabilities — say, when “spreading on the left hand side of the spreader needs more material than the right hand side. Our machine can adjust for that,” he says.

“As you spread with VRT, as you’re going through the field and your rates are changing and your speed is changing, the amount of product dropping on your spinner is changing. So we have built into our software (the ability to) make the adjustments as you’re going through those rates to keep your spread pattern at a very good precision.”

According to the company, the NL710 also features:

• A 33 per cent more efficient high-output design.
• Uniform spread pattern with advanced swath width control.
• Tool-free maintenance and zero grease points for reduced downtime.
• Ability to pattern test and set the machine using only three pans.

The applicator was designed for productivity, efficiency and low maintenance, says Boelter, but the fundamental goal was simplicity.

“We tried to make it very simple for the operator to use. So one of the, I would say, most unexpected things from an operator standpoint is we added a lot of capability, but it’s actually easier to use from a control standpoint than what’s in the field today.”

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Seventy-two per cent of fields surveyed in the federal-provincial project — one of three surveys measuring herbicide resistance in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta — were found to have at least one type of resistance. Those fields comprised 3.7 million acres of cropland throughout Manitoba.

The percentage grew slightly compared to a similar survey in 2016, when 68 per cent of fields were discovered with herbicide-resistant species. Previous surveys in 2008 and 2002 saw herbicide resistance in 48 and 32 per cent of fields, respectively.

The survey reported that the final bill to the province’s farmers — when factoring reduced crop yields, quality and higher weed management expenditures — was $77 million per year.

Resistance marches on

Unsurprisingly, Group 1 and Group 2 herbicide resistance marched on since the last survey in 2016, says participant Charles Geddes with the Agriculture Canada Lethbridge Research and Development Centre in Alberta.

The survey report called the further adoption of integrated weed management practices among growers “critical” to reducing resistance.

Geddes has mixed feelings on this point because he recognizes the extent Prairie farmers are already using practices such as crop rotations and increased seeding.

“What these surveys suggest is that herbicide resistant weeds continue to increase in their impact, regardless of the practices that are being currently used to manage them.”

Charles Geddes
Agriculture Canada Lethbridge Research and Development Centre

Geddes is finding pockets of producers fighting herbicide resistance with herbicide diversity practices such as mixing modes of action.

A 2017 paper by now-retired Agriculture Canada researchers Hugh Beckie and Neil Harker warned farmers about relying too much on herbicide diversity at the expense of integrated weed management. The paper argued that crop diversity — including a mix of dicots and monocots, winter and spring planted, and annual and perennial crops — exerts different selection pressures on weed communities that herbicide diversity alone cannot replicate.

Some resistance up, some down

The pre-harvest survey occurred in 2022 and included 155 annual cropped fields. Five hundred and eighty-four mature weed seed samples were collected from all visible uncontrolled weed patches and tested for resistance to Group 1 ACCase, Group 2 ALS and Group 9 glyphosate. The samples represented 44 weed species.

“Compared to the previous 2016 survey, a trend toward increasing ALS inhibitor resistant broadleaf weeds and decreasing herbicide-resistant grasses was observed, with some exceptions,” read the report.

Thirty per cent of all fields surveyed featured wild oats with resistance to the Group 1 and Group 2 herbicides. Among other grassy weeds, 27 per cent of all fields surveyed had Group 1-resistant green foxtail, while 12 per cent included Group 1-resistant yellow foxtail.

Notable among broadleaf weed resistance were kochia (19 per cent Group 2 resistance in all fields surveyed), pale smartweed (10 per cent Group 2 resistance) and redwood pigweed (nine per cent under the same metrics).

Eleven herbicide-resistance weed species were logged, including four not found in the 2016 survey: ALS inhibitor-resistant common chickweed, pale smartweed, Powell amaranth and spiny sowthistle.

Fewer patches, more fields

An interesting factor in the survey, says Geddes, was a decrease in uncontrolled herbicide resistant weed patches compared to the 2016 Manitoba study — even as the number of fields with resistance increased slightly.

“Patch area is representative of site-specific weed management scenarios, whereas the field area is more representative of a broadcast style weed management program where they would be applying a herbicide across, say, an entire field to manage this issue,” Geddes says.

In short: patches and the area they occupied were lower in 2022 than in 2016, but more fields had herbicide-resistant weeds in them overall.

Geddes thinks this is a call to farmers to manage weeds more at the patch level rather than the entire field.

“One big thing that kochia has taught us is that it’s highly patchy and it tends to infest those low lying and saline patch areas first and then move out into the rest of the field,” he said.

“So there’s a lot of opportunity for things like patch management and maybe reducing the cost of integrated weed management by targeting the areas where it makes sense.”

Alberta next

This series of resistance surveys occurs every few years in all three Prairie provinces. They were pioneered by Beckie, who worked at the Agriculture Canada Saskatoon Research and Development Centre in Saskatchewan.

The Alberta survey report is tentatively scheduled for publication later this year, says Geddes.

“The manuscript is almost ready to be submitted. We’re just kind of doing some of the final touches on it, and then it’s up to the review process, which can take several months, but it should be sometime this year.”

Three other Agriculture Canada Lethbridge researchers also participated in the Manitoba survey: Mattea M. Pittman, Kim Brown and Julia Y. Leeson. Other contributors included Manitoba Agriculture in Carman and Agriculture Canada Saskatoon.

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Protein Industries Canada (PIC) announced the project on March 31. PIC will provide $1.4 million toward the projects’ $3.9 million price tag.

AGT Foods and Sweet Nutrition will develop pulse ingredients derived from peas, lentils and faba beans for use in food products like cereals, baking mixes and high-protein snacks, PIC said in a news release.

The project will also advance new processing and post-fractionation techniques, including heat-moisture treatment and blending and extrusion. Other goals include increased efficiency and throughput at AGT’s Regina extrusion facility and the expansion and automation of Sweet Nutrition’s Saskatoon, Sask. baking and packaging operations.

“This project is a strong example of how food production and value-added agriculture can unlock new markets for Canadian crops and create new economic value for Canada,” said PIC CEO Tyler Groeneveld in the news release,

PIC is one of Canada’s five, federally-established Global Innovation Clusters, which fund and advance research and development in different industries.

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On March 6, Texas-based Mahindra Ag North America (MAGNA) announced a transition away from Mitsubishi Mahindra Agriculture (MMA), its ag equipment joint venture with Japanese-based conglomerate Mitsubishi.

A MAGNA news release called the move “a well-planned and strategic decision” that “reaffirmed Mahindra’s commitment to delivering high-quality products tailored to the North American market.”

The company plans to introduce several new products over the coming months, including utility tractor models ranging from 26 to 70 horsepower. The new products are intended to replace current models produced through the joint venture.

However, dealers and customers will continue to have access to MMA products throughout the transition. Mahindra also says it will provide ongoing support for existing products — including parts, warranty and service — for years to come.

“Throughout the course of the joint venture, the two companies collaborated extensively in research, product development and engineering,” read the release.

“Mahindra will continue to leverage the shared experience, data and knowledge to design, build and produce tractors that meet and exceed the expectations of its dealers and customers.”

MMA was set up in 2015, two-thirds held by Mitsubishi and one-third by Mahindra. The two companies said at the time they aimed to “jointly develop products to address global opportunities in the tractor and agri-machinery space (and) improve cost competitiveness though joint procurement and optimize the supply chain.”

According to a Reuters report March 2, the joint venture has incurred losses “despite multiple structural measures aimed at restoring profitability.”

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“This significant investment strengthens our ability to bring forward the next generation of high-performing hybrids, supporting yield gains, agronomic resilience and long-term success for Canadian farmers,” Leta LaRush, vice-president of BASF Agricultural Solutions Canada, said today in a news release.

BASF announced the expansion of the Canola Breeding Centre of Innovation in Saskatoon. Construction will begin this spring with completion expected by the end of 2027.

WHY IT MATTERS: With climate change driving weather unpredictability, canola producers need varieties that survive better and yield more.

The expansion will add advanced infrastructure, including precision-controlled growth systems and a research-grade glasshouse, the company said in the news release. These will increase breeding capacity and shorten innovation cycles, it added.

“These enhancements are critical to implementing genomic selection at scale, enabling faster, more precise breeding decisions and accelerating genetic gain across all InVigor programs,” BASF said.

The new glasshouse – a facility that enables researchers to develop experimental climates — is designed to support future hybrid breeding programs.

The centre will focus on the development of new InVigor hybrid canola varieties to better withstand changing environmental pressures and accommodate growing global demand.

Saskatchewan agriculture minister David Marit said the announcement was great news.

“It just shows the research that’s happening here and the confidence of a company like BASF to invest here. They see opportunities around the research and looking at genetics,” Marit told Glacier FarmMedia.

“You look at where the canola industry is going just in the least 15 years with new varieties, new higher oil contents, straight cut varieties, higher drought tolerant varieties — it just adds to what’s going on here in the province.”

-With files from Karen Briere

The post BASF announces $27M Saskatoon canola breeding facility expansion appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

• Lifetime coverage against manufacturer defects.
• Streamlined warranty processing through Dynamic Tire’s B2B customer portal.
• Enhanced dealer support and confidence in the field.
• A clear demonstration of long-term brand commitment.
• Strengthening competitive positioning.

“The Tianli AG Lifetime Warranty reflects the trust we have in the product and our commitment to supporting our partners, not just at the point of sale, but for the life of the tire,” David Pulla, president of Dynamic Tire, said in a news release.

“Our business has always been built on long-term relationships, and this warranty is a reflection of that commitment to our partners.”

Tianli tires are distributed through Dynamic Tire’s network of dealerships throughout Canada.

Oleh Buriak, Dynamic Tire’s national product specialist for ag tires, says lifetime warranties aren’t common in the ag tire industry, where many warranties are based on the time of manufacturing.

“Every manufacturer limits the length of the warranty. Tianli decided to break those rules and give lifetime to show end users … that their tires are extremely reliable. There is no sense to shorten that warranty down to five or six or 10 years.”

Tianli is extending the warranty to include radial tires manufactured over the past few years, says Buriak.

“So even a tire which was manufactured in 2023, (if it) enters service today, it’s covered with the same warranty.

“It means the manufacturer is confident in their tires, not only for this year’s production but the year before and the year before.”

Tianli tires are available at dealerships throughout Canada. However, they are subject to varying availability, particularly in Western Canada, due to the long distance from Dynamic Tire’s warehouse in Toronto. Buriak doesn’t think this will present a major challenge for customers.

“From my experience, when the end user, the farmer, is going to change their full set of big tires for a 500-horsepower articulated tractor and they need eight of these tires, they know about it in advance.”

Tianli bills itself as one of the world’s biggest application-specific tire brands in the world. Aside from agriculture, its portfolio includes tires for the forestry, construction and mining, earth moving, port and sand service industries.

The post Tianli introduces lifetime warranty on radial ag tires in Canada appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The company recently announced the launch of Newgold, a multi-crop seed brand designed specifically for low-carbon intensity biofuel feedstock crops earmarked for renewable diesel and SAFs.

The lineup includes both spring and winter camelina and is making its Canadian pilot debut in southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, concurrent with its U.S. launch.

It’s also being launched as a winter canola product in Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas.

WHY IT MATTERS: The U.S. is driving a potentially lucrative market for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), aiming for a projected 132.5 billion litres by 2050.

Seed sold under the Newgold label is designed to act as a “profit multiplier” that can be leveraged three ways, depending on grower need:

• As a double crop that adds value between seasons. Double cropping – not to be confused with intercropping — means growing two or more crops in the same field during a single growing season, generally after the harvest of one crop and the seeding of another.
• Use within rotations for good agronomic management and diversifying income. Newgold products are designed to be compatible with rotations common to its pilot regions, says Shaun Corneillie, the canola, cereals and biofuels business lead with Bayer.
• Turning marginal or underused acres into more productive assets.

“Newgold seed is built for farmers focused on ROI (return on investment), performance backed by science and clear market demand,” wrote Corneillie in an email.

So why is the company focusing initially on camelina and winter canola?

“Both of these crops are considered low-carbon intense based upon their crop product placement, yield potential and overall inputs, making them great candidates for the growing renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel markets,” Corneillie says.

Camelina is also a drought‑tolerant oilseed crop that fits easily into dryland rotations, he says.

“Winter camelina can be double‑cropped with soybeans or other summer crops, letting farmers grow two crops in one season.

“It may require less inputs than other core crops in rotations and performs well in low-rainfall areas, making southwest Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta a nice fit agronomically.”

If double-cropping sounds a lot like using cover crops, you’re not far off, but there’s a difference. Although the practice performs the same kinds of agronomic functions as cover crops, the difference is it’s also harvested for profit.

“So as opposed to just having the purpose of covering ground over winter, taking it out of production and then sowing in the spring, in this case — prior to sowing in the spring if it was a winter crop — we want to see that grain harvested and be used for biofuel streams.”

Complements both food and fuel production

There’s a noted need for solutions to meet the current high demand for SAFs.

Maddhu Khanna, an environmental economics professor with the University of Illinois, outlined to Glacier FarmMedia last year the challenges of meeting the United States’ SAF goals.

The U.S. hopes to increase production of SAFs, gradually reducing dependence on petroleum until 2050, when it expects the entire aviation industry to go 100 per cent SAF — a projected 35 billion gallons (132.5 billion litres) by that year.

That’s ignited a debate as to how crop producers are going to meet that goal while sacrificing food-producing land as little as possible.

Corneillie believes Newgold can act as a middle ground solution, allowing fuel crops to complement food production by building the soil and performing other integrated land management functions.

“It’s not seeking to displace crop at scale, but as a complement to existing rotations,” he says.

Several herbicide options are available for Newgold, but Corneillie recommends growers reach out to a Bayer representative to find the best program for their operations.

The brand name “Newgold” was among the assets that came to Bayer last year when it bought the camelina germplasm and intellectual property assets of Saskatoon-based Smart Earth Camelina Corp.

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Today’s calving operations have some key differences to how the season was approached decades ago. Industry and veterinary knowledge of best practices have changed. That includes a greater focus on things like pain control during calving.

WHY IT MATTERS: From calving to operations like branding and castration, pain management has become a greater conversation in a beef sector industry looking to improve animal outcomes while also preserving public good will.

Most producers are already somewhat familiar with managing their herd mothers’ pain, but a refresh prior to calving is always a good idea, according Dr. Marc Philippot, a vet with Rolling Plains Veterinary Corporation in St. Claude, Man.

“These things have been taught for decades. It’s just not everyone gets to learn them the way veterinarians do,” he said.

“It’s just more reiterating it to people.”

Dr. Marc Philippot, a veterinarian with Rolling Plains Veterinary Corporation in St. Claude, Man., says the decision to use an oral or injectable NSAID on a cow primarily comes down to the timeline: injectables work faster while oral treatments take a while longer.

A more comfortable delivery generally jumpstarts the odds of a healthy cow and calf that will pair well and start nursing without issue, added Dr. Neil Versavel with Equi-Tech Veterinary in Stonewall, Manitoba.

“There’s definitely options for producers and veterinarians to help with pain control in cattle who are in the birthing process. And I think we do see a benefit from doing it.

“Hopefully we’re seeing cows who experience less pain, who are maybe quicker to get back up, quicker to start nursing their calf to start stimulating their calf and forming that cow-calf bond a lot quicker.”

Injectable or oral meds? It depends

The advent of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has marked a significant change in cattle pain management, lessening pain, inflammation and swelling during calving process, as well as other health issues. The top three NSAIDs Philippot uses include meloxicam (Metacam is a popular generic name), flunixin (Banamine) and ketoprofen (Anafen).

Many NSAIDs are available in both injectable and oral varieties.

Which should the farmer use? Versavel says it’s mostly a matter of syncing up the medication with the producer’s time window and the animal’s condition. As a general rule, oral meds manage pain more slowly than injectables.

“I think, overall, the oral meloxicam works well,” he said. “It’s just you need to allow it more time to work than you would with an injection.”

When to reach for the meds

Probably the easiest way to know you don’t need a painkiller, said Versavel, is if the cow is calving normally and naturally with no signs of distress or discomfort.

If it’s a difficult birth and the farmer or veterinarian has to pull, however, medication may be necessary . Those requiring c-sections or experiencing pre-calving vaginal prolapse or post-calving uterine prolapse should also receive pain control, he said. The same goes for cows that go down giving birth or after the calf is out.

The decision to give the mama cow a post-calving painkiller is often based on the cow’s disposition.

“If these cows are still up on their feet and looking pretty mobile and go to their calf right away, you’re not likely going to need to get pain control to those cows,” said Versavel.

If the calf and cow are having a hard time birthing without intervention, one way to minimize stress and pain to both cow and calf is to — if at all possible — get the calf out quick, he added.

“If you wanted to break it down to brass tacks, the best way to go is you probably give the painkiller first and then attempt to pull the calf. But sometimes in those frantic situations you just want to get down to getting the calf out.”

For c-sections, Versavel usually starts with a pre-surgery dose of anti-inflammatory painkiller prior to clipping and prepping.

“That gives that painkiller time to work its way into the system and have an effect.

“And then, for standing c-sections, it involves some sort of local block with lidocaine, usually a para-lumbar block to block the nerves as they come out of the vertebral column next to the spine, to desensitize the area where we’re going to do the surgery.”

Be cautious with calf pain

For Versavel, pain management for calves is reserved for scouring, pneumonia-stricken or otherwise sick calves.

Because NSAIDs can be hard on a newborn calf’s internal organs, he generally recommends instead opting for corticosteroids such as dexamethasone to reduce inflammation. “We do have to be kind of conscious of using NSAIDs in newborn animals; you can have some negative side effects of NSAIDs such as effects on the kidneys, effects on the digestive tract,” he noted.

But there are cases where it may be necessary to give a calf an NSAID.

Versavel gave an example of a calf that experienced a hard pull. Then, 24 hours after being born, it had difficulty getting up and moving, possibly from trauma to the legs from the birthing process.

“At that point I would advise a client to try something like an NSAID. A lot of the NSAIDs have claims on them down to a very young age, but not always below one week of age and that’s just because we haven’t got the research on how those medications affect those very young calves in their systems,” he said.

If the producer is giving an NSAID to a young calf, he cautioned, that calf should be well-hydrated.

Tips for handling equipment

Medication also isn’t the the be-all and end-all of pain management, vets noted. There’s also the matter of preventing pain in the first place.

It’s crucial to use birthing equipment correctly to minimize the pressure placed on both cow and calf. Good technique can also cut back the need for pain medication, said Philippot.

“We want to be able to put the equipment on properly and also learn how to do the pulling process properly, making sure that everything’s coming the correct way, that we have two legs or that we have two legs and a head — things like that.”

For the calf, it’s important to distribute the pressure from equipment such as calving chains. Citing Don Connor of the University of Missouri, Philippot pointed to the common chain placement advice to place one loop above the fetlock joint and the other around the pastern of the other leg. Traction is applied to the dorsal aspect of the limb.

Using a calf jack can be very handy if a producer or vet is experiencing resistance when pulling the calf, said Versavel. However, be sure to use it in a way that minimizes pain in the animal. That means working with the cow and not forcing the jack.

“The proper way to use it is to use the jack to create tension and then you lever the jack down as you’re going in concert with the cow pushing, to just provide additional force.

“The goal isn’t to just rip the calf out with the jack, for lack of a better word. The goal is to use the jack to provide the cow with assistance in a progressive manner.”

The rule of 10s

When injecting lots of a drug, it’s recommended that producers split doses so the animal is not being given all that volume in the same place. Injecting large doses of meds into a single spot can lead to painful lumps, abscesses or necrotic tissue, said Philippot. They also tend to lower the cow’s meat quality.

The vet uses what he calls the “10 and 10” rule to prevent these possibilities.

“We try to usually [inject] say, 10 millilitres or 10 cc’s of a drug in one site. So if they require 20 [cc], then you’d split it in half: 10 in one [spot], 10 in another.

“If she needs 30, then you’d split it in three: you go 10, 10 and 10. That’s kind of a rule of thumb that we’ve been using with producers. That way we’re decreasing the risk of muscle damage to the area so that we’re keeping meat quality high.”

This method is usually unnecessary for calves, due to the lower dose rate.

The post THROWBACK: A refresh on pain management practices during calving appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ermanno De Chino, CEO of Melita Bees, a firm based on the Mediterranean island of Malta, said Italian and Maltese bee biosecurity and quality are the subject of unwarranted “smears” coming from a Canadian beekeeping contingent. He said they’re “pushing for the opening of the border with the United States,” a country he said is extremely vulnerable to the tropilaelaps (tropi) mite threat.

“There’s little science and a lot of politics in all of this,” he wrote in a Feb. 10 email.

In a separate email, De Chino described the risk of tropilaelaps entering the U.S. as “very high” due to the “enormous” number of cargo ships from Asia arriving at the ports of California, Texas, and Florida: three states with tropi mite-friendly weather conditions.

“Swarms of Asian bees arriving in containers would have an easy time establishing themselves in these areas. The enormous concentration of hives in California’s Green Valley, dedicated to almond pollination, would make their spread almost immediate.”

De Chino said Italy and Malta’s biosecurity efforts are being “undermined” by the “political games” of a handful of Canadian beekeeping industry players — including the Canadian Beekeepers Federation (CBF) — wishing to re-open the border to U.S. bee “packages” (two or three pounds of bees with a mated queen).

“This comes after the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), the only body with the authority to establish biosecurity criteria, reiterated that bees from Italy and Malta meet Canadian requirements,” he said.

“The CFIA is in constant contact with European authorities, who are gradually increasing their level of surveillance.”

An example is the ongoing development of a molecular testing protocol De Chino said will allow countries to certify bees sourced from tropilaelaps-free apiaries.

The initiative is a collaboration with United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Reference Center for Beekeeping, Bee Health, and Biosecurity.

Mite adapting

CBF director Peter Awram said De Chino’s argument underestimates growing knowledge about tropi mite, which is proving itself hardier in cold weather and out-of-brood survival than previously thought.

“It’s in South Korea, which is much, much colder than all the tropical places that were thought to be a problem. And we’ve seen it in Ukraine. We’re seeing it in Georgia.”

“The idea that it can’t survive in Canada has been proven to be totally false and the idea that it can’t survive in packages has also been shown to be false.”

Awram said Italy and Malta could be a tropi vector for a couple of reasons:

1. they’re part of a trade route starting in tropi-present India and,
2. a host of the mite called Apis florea — the Asian red dwarf honeybee — has been found in Malta.

“So the idea that all these ships that are coming from India through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean don’t pose a threat is totally false.”

Its discovery in the transcontinental, Eastern Europe-bordering country of Georgia is also problematic, he said.

“If you look on a map, (Georgia is) not that far, on a land basis, from Italy.

“And there’s no doubt if it can survive in Georgia, it can survive in those countries that are further south that are between it and Italy.”

U.S. safer bet

The CBF also questioned whether the CFIA’s list of approved bee package sources (Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Ukraine and Chile) are worth the risk to commercial apiarists. Honeybee queen trade is limited by the CFIA to those countries — except for Ukraine — plus the U.S., Denmark and Malta.

“From Italy we were getting 4,000 packages out of a total of around 50,000 to 60,000.

“And the reality is most of those replacements go to hobbyists.”

Awram also said the packages from some of the source countries, particularly New Zealand, are subpar and sometimes carry varroa mite (currently Canada’s most destructive insect parasite of bees) populations far above the maximum threshold.

“I’ve tested some myself and we see like six per cent mites in some of the highest ones. What is supposed to come in is less than one per cent,” he said

Many beekeepers consider these packages enough of a threat to call on government to consider the complete discontinuation of trade of all bee packages imported from offshore.

Last year, the Alberta Beekeepers Commission passed a resolution to work with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Health Canada and CFIA to close the Canadian border to all packaged honeybee imports, including queens from outside North America except for Hawaii.

The CBF considers the U.S. to have better biosecurity. In a Jan. 8 Co-operator story, Ian Steppler, chair of the Manitoba Beekeepers Association, recounted an incident in which the quick thinking of a New Jersey-bound, India-originating container ship crew prevented a hive of tropi mites from landing onshore.

Awram does not think the U.S. is impenetrable to the mite, but the incident — along with its highly-regulated stance on foreign bee entry — makes it a path of relatively high resistance.

“We are trying to do our best to minimize the easy routes,” noted Awram.

“To me and the CBF and to a lot of the beekeepers … this is an easy thing that costs a minimal amount that we can do to try and slow down the chance that we get (tropi mite). Certainly we can get infected. We don’t know how long these mites can survive, right?”

Certainty needed

Not all Canadian beekeepers are completely onboard with the CBF approach.

Another faction, led by the Canadian Honey Council (CHC), is working with CFIA and other government agencies on what executive director Rod Scarlett describes as a “comprehensive, integrated” tropi mite risk management plan.

In addition to CFIA, the council has also teamed with a who’s-who of agencies and individuals to keep tropilaelaps off North American shores. These include Canada Border Services, provincial apiarists, chief veterinary officers throughout the country and Transport Canada.

Although Scarlett also has some concerns about the CFIA-approved countries adjacent to tropi-present regions, he’s putting his faith in the agency’s judgment.

“We’ve been assured by CFIA that they have the complete faith in the inspections and the work done by individual countries to ensure that tropilaelaps is not in their country,” he explained.

The industry needs to find out for certain if CFIA-approved bee packages are the most likely vectors of the tropi mite, said Scarlett. That may mean a careful look at queen bees imported from California and Hawaii. This idea was floated at Bee Tech 2026 in Calgary held by CHC and the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists Feb. 12-14.

“We know … that queens from California and Hawaii are absolutely essential for the beekeeping sector in Canada. But we heard at Bee Tech that queens could be a bigger risk of tropilaelaps than packages.”

“We have to really be careful about how we are going to address the issue as a whole, not just piecemeal.”

Lead with research, says honey industry rep

Research on the tropilaelaps (tropi) mite needs to be a front and center priority for the Canadian beekeeping industry, says Rod Scarlett, executive director of the Canadian Honey Council.

The body of scientific knowledge on tropi mite is still in its infancy compared to varroa mite, currently Canada’s largest insect threat to honeybees, said Scarlett.

“There’s thousands and thousands and thousands of published works on varroa. There might be 100 on tropilaelaps,” he said.

And it’s not the only area where beekeeper organizations need to step up the research game. “Beekeepers have been saying we have amitraz resistance, but we’ve never had a scientific paper put out that says we have it.”

Science has been a bone of contention recently between some Canadian beekeepers and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

In 2025, a series of apiarist recommendations — including the rezoning of approved honeybee trade regions — met with Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) dismissal based on what it called a lack of robust science.

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