(Dave Bedard photo)

Extended-tolerance canola now on deck for 2019

Giving growers a wider window to spray in-crop weeds with glyphosate, the new platform for Monsanto’s future canola trait stacks is now booked to make its way into the Canadian market next year. The U.S. seed and chemical company’s Canadian arm announced last week it plans to commercialize TruFlex canola in 2019, following plot trials

Editorial: In the weeds

Canada has a brewing weed problem, and we’re not talking about the looming legalization of cannabis. This is an older problem, but with a modern twist, in the form of constant selection pressure from chemical control products and the resulting herbicide-resistant weeds. Manitoba farmers have the dubious distinction of being among the first in the


Glyphosate-resistant kochia is still rare in Manitoba, but the time to prevent it from spreading is now.

ON THE GROW: Herbicide resistance is spreading quickly

Manitoba Agriculture is warning about new and looming threats when it comes to resistant weeds

Manitoba’s provincial weed specialist is urging a harder line on herbicide resistance. “Zero tolerance is really where you need to be,” Tammy Jones of Manitoba Agriculture said. “Controlling your escapes. Control them with mowing; control them with tillage. If you really want to, control them with hand weeding, but if you have resistant wild oats

The Elbe River at Oberrathen, southeast of Dresden. (CIA.gov)

Germany moving ahead with plans to restrict glyphosate

Berlin | Reuters — German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner on Tuesday said she was finalizing a draft regulation to end use of glyphosate herbicide in household gardens, parks and sports facilities, and to set “massive” limits for its use in agriculture. The chemical, made by Monsanto, is at the centre of a heated debate in


AAFC’s Bob Blackshaw talks herbicide-resistance problems and solutions at Brandon’s BASF Knowledge Harvest Feb. 13.

Manage herbicide resistance in the tank and out

Industry is pushing both chemical and non-chemical solutions to growing herbicide-resistance problems in Manitoba

It’s time to expand the tool box when it comes to managing weeds. That was the message to attendees at this year’s BASF Knowledge Harvest in Brandon Feb. 13. As of 2015, there were 65 unique weed-resistance cases in Canada, AAFC’s Bob Blackshaw said, a number that rose from near negligible in 1975 and sat

(Dave Bedard photo)

U.S. judge halts California plan for warnings on glyphosate

Chicago | Reuters — A federal judge has temporarily blocked California’s plans to require cancer warnings on products containing glyphosate, in a win for manufacturer Monsanto. U.S. District Judge William Shubb said the warnings would be misleading because glyphosate is not known to cause cancer, according to court documents filed on Monday in California. He


(Dave Bedard photo)

German coalition deal sets no timetable to end glyphosate use

Hamburg | Reuters –– Germany’s draft coalition government deal includes a goal of ending use of glyphosate herbicide within the country, but gives no time frame, after Berlin swung a vote in November extending its use across the European Union. The timing of an end to glyphosate use has been highly controversial in Europe amid

(Dave Bedard photo)

France says will not ban glyphosate when no alternative

Saint-Genes-Champanelle, France | Reuters — France will not force farmers to stop using glyphosate after a ban planned within three years, in cases where an alternative has not been found, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday. He added that this would likely concern 10 per cent of farms while solutions could be found for the


Triple-stacked soybeans will hit fields sooner than dicamba-tolerant canola, says Monsanto's Robb Fraley.

Monsanto highlights research pipeline for canola, soybeans

Xtend soybeans with added glufosinate tolerance isn’t far off, but glyphosate- and dicamba-tolerant canola is still five or six years out

Dicamba-tolerant canola is coming and so is a triple-threat soybean, resistant to glyphosate, dicamba and glufosinate. That’s just some of what’s in Monsanto’s crop and weed-control pipeline, Robb Fraley, the seed and pesticide giant’s executive vice-president and chief technology officer told reporters during a conference call Jan. 4. Fraley sees great things coming from new

The Canada 150 emblem in a durum field. (Agr.gc.ca)

Steady to lower durum market expected

CNS Canada — Larger-than-expected production, a seasonal slowdown in demand and looming Italian country-of-origin-labeling regulations all loom over the Canadian durum market, with steady to lower prices anticipated over the next few months. Italian COOL regulations are set to come into effect in mid-February and require pasta makers in the country to segregate foreign durum,