“If we were running laps around the track, some of our other weeds are maybe half a lap ahead, these guys have lapped us.” – Kim Brown-Livingston

Weeds in fields quickly outpacing crops

Late seeding and weather challenges make a big challenge even bigger

This will be a tough year for weed control. Late seeding into warm, wet soil is going to give rise to relatively fast crop emergence and leave little time to do any kind of pre-seed herbicide application. Complicating matters further, is the ongoing global herbicide shortage. In a ‘normal’ year, depending on the crop, that

Residual herbicides can damage subsequent crops, as seen here in this trial plot.

Pre-emergent products require care

These older formulations are effective but come with some risks too

Hitting weeds with a pre-emergence residual herbicide can be an effective way to keep them in check while they’re germinating and highly vulnerable. This gives your crop a head start by removing early competition but you have to consider carry-over if you’re going to manage a persistent herbicide in your soil, according to Kansas State


It’s assumed almost all kochia in Manitoba is already resistant to Group 2 herbicides.

Herbicide resistance keeps on rising

Mother Nature keeps outsmarting the available crop protection products

Every year weed scientists with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada continue their herbicide-resistant weed surveys — and every year they find new places with weeds poking through the crop canopies in direct defiance of the spraying. This is because Mother Nature is better at genetics than we are at chemistry so our herbicides just can’t keep

A young soybean plant with leaf blistering and cupped leaves due to dicamba drift. Dicamba is one of the most volatile herbicides on the market.

Comment: Doubling down won’t solve weed woes

Dicamba was supposed to solve weed problems – instead, it’s making farming harder

Farmers are stuck in a chemical war against weeds, which have developed resistance to many widely used herbicides. Seed companies’ answer – using more varied herbicides – is causing new problems. In October 2021 I was a guest on a popular podcast to discuss my recently published book, Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food


“It’s a frightening scenario when these weeds get here and they start infesting our cropland.” – Kim Brown-Livingston.

KAP to lobby CFIA to add Palmer amaranth to noxious weeds list

The yield-devastating weed is ubiquitous just across the U.S. border and resists most herbicides

Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) members voted to ask the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to get Palmer amaranth added to its list of noxious weeds during the organization’s AGM on January 25. The weed made its first confirmed appearance in Manitoba this summer. It is widespread in North Dakota and much of the United States. Palmer

Kochia.

Drought conditions raise stakes on fall weed control

Weeds threaten to reduce already low moisture reserves

The province’s top weed expert is expecting to see lots of sprayers this fall, with many producers hoping to preserve every drop of water left in their soils. Late-summer rains broke Manitoba’s months-long dry spell for many regions, “but it’s still not nearly enough, so we’re going to have to be really careful,” said Kim


A palmer amaranth plant towers over the stubble in a Manitoba field.

Palmer amaranth found in Manitoba

Experts have been watching as the infamous yield eater has been creeping through fields in Manitoba’s neighbour to the south

Manitoba has its first cases of palmer amaranth, a weed well known for production hits in the U.S. Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development has confirmed two plants of the noxious weed in the RM of Dufferin as of the second-last week of September. Plants were found in a black bean field in the region.  “They

Waterhemp emerges through the canopy of a soybean field.

Waterhemp found in Stuartburn, La Broquerie

The invasive species can cause tremendous yield losses, particularly among row crops

Infestations of waterhemp have been found in the RMs of Stuartburn and La Broquerie in southeastern Manitoba, bringing the known infestations to 10. MARD reported the new infestations earlier this month and urged farmers to keep an eye out for the noxious plant. “If it’s not under control, this could be our No. 1 weed in a


Manitoba farmers are finding the spray window an elusive target this season.

It’s a hard crop protection season on multiple fronts

How to manage a dry and windy spray season that has gone from below freezing to extreme heat in a matter of days

Producers are told to spray when weeds are growing, but with both weeds and crop both reeling from a string of stresses and Mother Nature not co-operating, that spray window has been hard to pin down. Why it matters: Hardened weeds and poor spray conditions may leave producers with less effective weed control than they

Palmer Amaranth.

These non-native weeds are big problems in Manitoba

Keep an eye out for these noxious weeds in the coming growing season

The Province of Manitoba has declared the last full week of April as Invasive Species Awareness Week. The Manitoba Weed Supervisors Association (MWSA) recognizes this week by highlighting just a few of the invasive plants considered to be a significant threat to the landscape of our province. Many of these invasive species are mistaken for