Chemical costs are down — but for how long?

Chemical costs are down — but for how long?

Agricultural chemical prices are down, but rising raw material costs and market volatility from, among other things, tariffs and a potential trade war, could bring on a rise

Agricultural chemical prices are down, but rising raw material costs and market volatility from, among other things, tariffs and a potential trade war, could raise them again.



Wheat leaf rust. (James Kolmer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Digital supercluster backs precision fungicide development

Project aims at wheat leaf rust, reducing pesticide load

A West Coast ag tech company in the crop pest control business is setting its sights on wheat leaf rust, with support from one of Canada’s five research superclusters — but not the cluster you might expect. Out of the five federally-supported superclusters launched in early 2018, Protein Industries Canada has been most closely linked

Signs of blackleg in a canola seedling.

New tool on the way for canola growers safeguards against blackleg

Saltro is a new seed treatment to control blackleg at the seedling stage expected to be available for the 2021 growing season

A new fungicide to protect canola seedlings from blackleg, a major yield-robbing disease, could be available as a seed treatment for the 2021 growing season. It’s called Saltro and was developed by Syngenta. “Syngenta anticipates registration in time to make it available for use in the 2021 growing season,” Sarah Osborne, company marketing operations manager,

Producers attending this year’s Crops-A-Palooza heard that fungicide doesn’t pay on soybeans, and some surprising information in dry bean row spacing.

A crop-by-crop rundown on sclerotinia control

Variety and fungicide are key for control, but for sunflowers there’s only one option — rotation

The good news is the hot, dry summer made sclerotinia somewhat scarce in canola fields this summer, but there was a minor downside — there weren’t many examples to show farmers attending a sclerotinia control session at this year’s Crops-A-Palooza, even in the inoculated demonstration plots at the Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre (CMCDC) here. But


Pearce: Multiple modes of action an emerging reality for fungicides

As growers face more challenges from weeds, diseases and insects, many researchers, agronomists, advisers and farmers have shifted thinking from “control” of pests to “managing” them. Some of this trend is attributable to single-mode-of-action products and a reliance on one or two chemistries or technologies — but the adaptability of weed, disease and insect species

Farm management specialist Darren Bond (r) says a calculator on the MAFRI website can help calculate break-even costs.

To spray or not to spray for fungal disease

You don’t have to just pencil it in and spray anyway — there are tools to help make the decision

To spray or not to spray for fungal diseases? Will the extra yield offset the cost? In practice this decision is often made based on farmers’ comfort levels, but economics should always be considered, said Holly Derksen, field crop pathologist for Manitoba Agriculture, at this year’s Crop Diagnostic School in Carman. “You have to understand