Bruce Berry of Almost Urban Vegetables uses composted manure to power his plants.

Winter no barrier to composting

Manure composting has many benefits, including concentrated nutrients, 
reduced volume, no smell and easy transport

Like any recipe, making a good composted manure requires the right ingredients, a proper mixer and some heat. “There are a lot of misconceptions as to what composting actually is, some think that if you have a pile of manure it’s called composting, it really isn’t,” said Mario Tenuta. “So we want to talk to

VIDEO: Herbicide resistance and “old soil-applied” solutions for weeds

VIDEO: Herbicide resistance and “old soil-applied” solutions for weeds

Crop Diagnostic School: Know your target weed issues... and weeds that have caused you trouble in the past

To help keep herbicide-resistant weeds at bay, some older soil-applied products are rejoining the fight. At the 2015 Crop Diagnostic School, Jeanette Gaultier, pesticide use specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, talks about which herbicide-resistant weeds producers should watch for and what they need to consider before choosing a herbicide for their situation.


Monsanto’s new glyphosate- and dicamba-tolerant Roundup Ready Xtend soybeans offer improved weed control, including some residual control, potentially higher yields and can help slow the onset of glyphosate-resistant weeds, says Dekalb’s Bruce Murray. Seed is being multiplied now for a commercial launch in 2016 pending their acceptance in China.

Monsanto rolls out ‘Xtend’ glyphosate-dicamba-tolerant soybeans

Manitoba farmers could be planting these dual-stacked 
GM soybeans as early as next spring

Monsanto’s new glyphosate- and dicamba-tolerant “Xtend” soybeans will give farmers better weed control, higher yields and delay the onset of glyphosate-resistant weeds, company officials told agronomists and reporters here June 23. And if China approves their import, North American farmers, including in Manitoba, will be planting Xtend soybeans next spring, said Pat Comte, Monsanto’s strategic

leafy spurge weed

Manitoba overhauling Noxious Weeds Act

Noxious weeds will be listed in three tiers with control action 
based on the threat to agriculture and natural areas

The Manitoba government is overhauling one of the oldest laws on its books — the Noxious Weeds Act — to bring it into line with current weed threats in the province. If passed, Bill 32, the Noxious Weeds Amendment Act, will put into statute much of what is already common practice — controlling weeds commiserate


kochia weeds in a farmer's field

Tank mixing weed killers helps delay herbicide-resistant weeds

But don’t forget to rotate crops, including fall seeded and perennials, 
advises AAFC’s Hugh Beckie

Tank mixing two herbicides with different modes of action targeting the same weed is a good way to delay the development of herbicide-resistent weeds, a study by weed scientists at the University of Illinois and United States Department of Agriculture concludes. “We don’t say that mixing is the end-all solution,” study co-author Pat Tranel of

weeds growing in soil

Glyphosate resistance: Change now or pay later

A USDA-ERS report shows managing glyphosate resistance is more cost effective than ignoring resistance and farmers need to work together

The United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service recently published the results of a study into the economics of glyphosate-resistance management on U.S. corn and soybean farms. Through surveys and computer models it determined the relative costs of ignoring the problem versus taking action to address it. The following is an excerpt from that


kochia weed in a field

New herbicides help producers mix up modes of action to fight resistance

Farmers can fend off herbicide-resistant weeds and make money by changing up their weed control program

How can thinking about resistance help us economically in the short and long term?” This was a question posed by Brad Ewankiw, a project manager for FMC Canada, during a presentation on FMC’s new herbicides at North Star Genetics’ annual soybean grower information day in Morris March 27. Ewankiw pointed to pre-emergent residual herbicides as

harvesting an alfalfa crop

No Roundup Ready alfalfa production for 2015

Forage Genetics International will allow 20 demonstration plots in Eastern Canada

Genetically modified (GM) Roundup Ready alfalfa will not be sold commercially in Canada this year and it’s unclear when, if ever, it will be commercialized in Western Canada. “At this time FGI does not have plans to introduce biotech-enhanced alfalfa traits to growers in Western Canada,” Forage Genetics International (FGI), the company selling the GM


weed dying in a timelapse video

Fun for farmers — watching weeds die

Time-lapse videos help farmers identify signs of herbicide resistance

The weed science team at Ohio State University has come up with a set of videos that farmers might enjoy even more than binge watching “House of Cards” — weeds slowly dying after being sprayed with herbicides. For every second of movie time shown, one hour of real time passes in the time-lapse videos. The

man in corn field

Grow less maize and produce more food

Boosting yield allows seeding less maize as ‘insurance,’ and adding more profitable and nutritious crops to the rotation

Christian Thierfelder strides into a plot of maize, reaches down, and scratches through the mulch with his fingers to grab a clump of soil. Holding it up, the senior agronomist with CIMMYT’s Harare field station lets it crumble through his fingers — it is moist but not muddy, and the decaying plant material gives it