In a range of crops last year, dingy and redback cutworms were a widespread problem in Manitoba and may continue to be an issue this year. In Saskatchewan, farmers should be on the lookout for redback and pale western cutworms.

Insect pests to watch for in 2021

Provincial experts discuss top pest threats for your region and offer tips for scouting

It’s easy for farmers to get “scouted out.” Between crop diseases, destructive crop insects and simply checking for yield and growth stage, scouting can be a full-time job in and of itself. Knowing what to focus on can help. Experts across the Prairies are weighing in on the most likely insect threats for the 2021 […] Read more

Drought stressed grain crops like this barley may not be worth combining, but they can be used as livestock feed. It is always important to have feed tested to determine its nutrient value.

Salvaged crops can fit into beef rations

Canola hay can make good feed, but a feed analysis is a must

With what appears to be a dry spring shaping up, it never hurts for beef producers to be prepared in case forage production is in short supply any year. In drought years it’s often hard to locate an adequate forage supply for cattle. Sometimes producers use alternative feeds, which might include drought-stressed or salvaged crops. […] Read more


(File photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Canada left with very tight canola, barley stocks

'You can't find canola anywhere in the country'

MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada’s grain stocks report leaves no question that canola stocks have been tight for some time in Canada and will continue to be unless demand is slashed, according to independent trader Jerry Klassen in Winnipeg. “You can’t find canola anywhere in the country and the stocks that are out there, a lot […] Read more



An eight-inch-wide strip of tillage in a field with heavy corn residue.

Several benefits come with an eight-inch-wide strip of tillage

Western Canadian row crop farmers Dean Toews in southern Manitoba and John Kolk in southern Alberta have different levels of experience with strip tillage, but both see the value of working up these eight-inch-wide strips of soil in their fields with a range of production and conservation benefits. Toews, who is part of the family […] Read more

ICE November 2021 canola (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (light yellow, dark yellow, dark green lines). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Challenging crop year ahead for canola

MarketsFarm — With declines in canola following Statistics Canada’s bullish-leaning projections for acres, it’s becoming more difficult to determine which way prices will trend in coming weeks and months. “Where are prices going to go? In any given year that’s challenging, especially in this year,” said David Derwin, analyst for PI Financial in Winnipeg. “That […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

StatsCan’s projected canola area on low side of expectations

Wheat acres expected lower, barley up

MarketsFarm — As the market grapples with new planting projections from Statistics Canada, one thing was abundantly clear to MarketsFarm Pro analyst Mike Jubinville: this canola forecast isn’t enough to rectify tight ending stocks. In StatsCan’s survey-based principal field crop areas report, released Tuesday, the federal agency pegged canola acres for 2021-22 at 21.53 million, […] Read more

The first confirmed clubroot cases in the Municipal District of Smoky River (Peace region) and in the Counties of Grande Prairie (Peace region) and Wheatland (east of Calgary) were found in 2020.

And the canola disease surveys say…

The 2020 numbers on blackleg, sclerotinia stem rot, clubroot, verticillium stripe and others across the Prairies

Western Canada’s crop disease specialists have spent the past few months finalizing results from canola field disease surveys executed during the 2020 growing season. Blackleg According to those surveys, 45.4 per cent of 350 canola fields and five mustard fields evaluated across Alberta in 2020 had blackleg. The average rate of infection was 6.4 plants […] Read more


Kyle Jeworski, Viterra’s CEO for North America, speaks in a December 2020 promotional video announcing the company’s worldwide rebranding. (Viterra video screengrab via YouTube)

Viterra plans major canola crusher for Regina

Expected capacity would make facility largest in world

Grain handler and processor Viterra is taking its plans to build the world’s biggest canola crusher to its Prairie home town. The North American arm of Rotterdam-based Viterra said Monday it’s in the “feasibility” stage of designing and finalizing plans for what it bills as the “world’s largest integrated canola crush facility” in the northeast […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

More canola, less wheat expected ahead of StatsCan report

'Returns per acre are just so much stronger'

MarketsFarm — Canadian farmers are seen as likely to plant more canola and barley and less wheat this spring, as market participants await the first survey-based estimates from Statistics Canada on Tuesday to confirm the extent of that shift. “Canola will gain acres and wheat will lose acres,” said MarketsFarm Pro analyst Mike Jubinville, pointing […] Read more