At the 2025 Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance (CHTA) annual conference in Winnipeg in November, one of the clearest messages came from agronomist and biologist Trevor Kloeck, who warned that hemp evangelism has done real damage to the crop’s credibility.

Why it matters: Realistic expectations help farmers match hemp to the fields and management it needs to perform.

Kloeck, president and co-founder of Plantae Environmental, spoke during the conference’s Hemp Resiliency Workshop. He said the industry has long struggled to temper the optimistic zeal of some of its supporters.

“I think it was all very innocent,” he told Grainews. “As real opportunities emerged, that optimistic voice got very loud and drowned out the sober, business-minded voice.”

Early messaging often leaned heavily on broad claims that the crop required little management, could be grown anywhere or would naturally outperform other rotations. It’s easy to see why early adopters were drawn in by the promises, but the moment boots hit the dirt, farmers learned some hard lessons about the crop.

“Hemp isn’t a crop you can plant and forget about,” said Kloeck. “It responds to good agronomy better than most crops, but it will also punish bad agronomy more severely.”

That gap between expectation and reality shaped farmer perceptions early on. Many growers who tried hemp in the 1990s and early 2000s found the crop rarely lived up to the hype. Harvest challenges, fibre wrapping, fertility needs and inconsistent markets all contributed to a Prairie-wide sense of disappointment that the industry still contends with today.

A legacy of boosterism

Part of the challenge for the hemp sector is that enthusiasm around the crop often outpaced the industry’s ability to deliver. For instance, initial claims that hemp would rapidly replace plastics, concrete and a long list of industrial materials weren’t grounded in reality, said Kloeck. Hemp does have wide potential, but the promises came faster than processor demand, market development and regulatory progress.

“Making products from hemp and making a business out of hemp are different things,” he said. “We forgot that we were also building the bones of a new industry.”

That pattern resurfaced during the 2018 CBD bubble. After the U.S. legalized hemp, thousands of U.S. growers rushed into CBD production, many encouraged by promotional campaigns promising quick profits.

But extracting CBD turned out to be difficult, the market wasn’t ready, and the hype collapsed as quickly as it began. Many growers were left with unsold biomass, financial losses and a lingering bad taste in their mouths.

Kloeck said evangelism hasn’t only misled farmers, it’s affected high-level business relationships too. He described working with a major multinational company, one large enough to “write a $5-billion cheque without going to the bank,” that was interested in hemp fibre.

When the company asked for carbon-offset data, Kloeck’s team provided measured, defensible figures. But the company came back comparing those numbers to claims made by another supplier — claims Kloeck said were “mathematically impossible.”

For Kloeck, it was a clear example of how overstatements can hinder opportunities rather than accelerate them. That unrealistic pitch skewed expectations and made it harder for legitimate suppliers to compete.

A shift toward realism

Kloeck believes a reset is underway. Processors, researchers and growers have made steady gains in agronomy, harvesting methods and product development. But rebuilding trust means being open about the crop’s limitations as well as its potential.

The way forward, he said, is to treat hemp as a premium, management-intensive crop, something closer to malt barley than a low-effort rotation filler.

“You don’t grow malt barley everywhere,” he said. “You grow it on selected fields, and you manage it carefully. That’s how we have to think about hemp.”

Hemp’s long-term potential is still significant. Kloeck noted it can fit well in Prairie rotations when matched to the right soils, management and markets.

The CHTA is reporting that fibre demand is slowly increasing, feed registrations continue to move through regulatory channels and food-grade seed production remains steady. But continued growth depends on avoiding the overstatements that once clouded public messaging.

“The potential is so good we don’t have to embellish,” he said. “We have an opportunity to build a multi-billion-dollar sector without getting into those nebulous areas. It’s part of the solution, not the whole solution.”

Back to basics

For Prairie farmers, Kloeck said the message is straightforward: hemp can be a profitable crop, but only under the right conditions and with realistic expectations. Matching fields, selecting the right genetics, planning for harvest and securing reliable contracts remain essential steps.

“Hemp has a legitimate opportunity to offer farmers better returns than canola, given time,” he said. “But we have to be sequential. We have to get there in steps.”

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That’s the commitment of long-time hybrid seed producers, HyTech Production Ltd., based at Lethbridge in southern Alberta, as over the past 26 years the company has refined a system to produce much of the hybrid seed used by Prairie farmers to grow more than 25 million acres of canola and other crop types each year.

HyTech is a contract seed grower or “toller” that works with virtually all seed companies in Canada and Australia, in one capacity or another, specializing in production of up to 10,000 tonnes of hybrid canola, hybrid rye, hybrid hemp and hybrid mustard seed annually.

HyTech isn’t involved in the actual breeding work, but once plant breeders do have parent material available, HyTech is often contracted to bring those new varieties through different stages leading to commercial production.

“Most of our work is involved in the production of hybrid seed that eventually gets delivered to farms,” says Scott Horner, chief commercial officer.

That said, Horner who was the second hire made by company founder Brian McNaughton about 24 years ago – adds that, depending on the seed company, “we also often work with plant breeders to produce seed for the parent lines as well.”

The hybrid seed that goes out to farmers can be produced in a couple of different ways. Some seed companies will produce their own; others will hire a contract producer such as HyTech; still others do a bit of both.

Hemisphere to hemisphere

Tollers have been used to produce seed since hybrid seed production technology was developed.

“Brian McNaughton, who has been around the seed industry his whole life, saw in Europe and other parts of the world that as hybrid crops were developed, the seed companies began using contract growers to produce the seed,” Horner says.

“So in the late 1990s, as seed companies were introducing hybrid canola varieties in Western Canada, he created HyTech to offer those production services here.”

HyTech started out producing hybrid canola seed, and in later years has expanded to include production of hybrid seed for rye, hemp and mustard seed companies. And in 2022 it took business a step further, building a high-capacity plant north of Lethbridge, providing seed treating and packaging services to their customers as well.

HyTech has contracts with dozens of commercial farmers in southern Alberta, Montana and Washington state to produce hybrid canola seed during the Northern Hemisphere growing season. Then, in the winter, it works with commercial farmers in the Southern Hemisphere to produce a second crop of hybrid seed in Chile.

Producing hybrid seed in Chile is partly about timing as well as risk management, Horner says.

“As plant breeders for different companies are introducing new varieties, the first seed of that new variety is being harvested in the fall,” he says. “The company wants to ramp up production so they can get seed out to farmers as quickly as possible, so we can take those new lines to Chile that winter and begin production there.

“Also, if there have been any production-related problems with seed during the growing season in Canada, we can make up any shortages by growing it in Chile.”

Back in Western Canada and the northwestern U.S., HyTech has developed a trusted network of commercial farmers to produce hybrid seed. All hybrid seed crops are produced under irrigation to reduce risk and optimize yield.

With canola production, for example, each contract grower must assure a required specification for isolation. That means the farm itself can’t be growing any other type of canola and there can’t be any other canola production on neighbouring farms within 800 metres or half a mile of the field producing hybrid canola seed.

Most of the contract growers use their own field-scale equipment, such as precision planters to seed the hybrid crop, in alternating strips or bays of male canola plants along with bays of female canola plants in the field.

Once those male and female crop lines are up and growing, then pollinating contractors bring in hives with honeybees and hutches with leafcutter bees to optimize the spread of male plant pollen to the female plants.

Both types of bees are important, Horner says. They both do the same job, although honeybees are a bit more robust for travelling under windy conditions, whereas leaf cutter bees are more active as temperatures rise on hotter days, when honeybees are inclined to stay home to help cool the hive. So the two types of bees serve as a risk management strategy for crop pollination.

Once plants have flowered and pollination is complete, the bays of male canola plants are sprayed out with a herbicide. The contract growers will harvest the female hybrid canola seed in the fall for delivery to HyTech’s processing plant north of Coaldale.

While hybrid seed crops are produced in Alberta, Montana and Washington state, a further degree of isolation is needed when producing parent material. All production of seeds for hybrid parent material is done in British Columbia — specifically, the Kootenay region in the southeast, as well as the Okanagan — two areas where no canola is grown.

“It is important to keep the parent lines pure, so the lines are grown in areas where there is no canola production at all,” says Horner. Because HyTech is usually working with ranchers rather than farmers, the company just rents the land and does all its own farming to produce the parent seed crops.

Once all crops are harvested, the seed is cleaned by three contract cleaning plants: K3 Seeds at Picture Butte and Mared Seeds at Lomond, both in Alberta, and Nadeau Seeds in Manitoba. It’s all then trucked back to the HyTech plant in Alberta for seed treatment and bagging.

‘Attention to detail’

Production and handling of hybrid seed is not a job for the disorganized. HyTech deals with multiple seed companies, producing multiple varieties, and at every step of the operation those varieties need to be kept identified and separate. At the processing plant, each variety is treated with a seed treatment formula specified by each company. Equipment has been designed so it can be easily yet thoroughly cleaned between each batch of seed. After seed treatment, most varieties are bagged in mini-bulk storage bags, although some seed companies want cleaned seed sorted and packaged and labelled in 22.7-kg bags. Seed companies arrange to pick up their seed batches from HyTech and handle their own distribution.

“There are a lot of logistics involved, so let’s just say we take attention to detail to the next level,” says Horner.

While HyTech has established a solid network of contract producers, Horner says they are interested in hearing from other irrigation farmers who can provide a four-year rotation between canola crops, along with that 800-metre isolation distance.

While canola hybrid varieties are well established, Horner says he expects developers of other crop types to be producing more hybrid varieties as well. They are working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada breeders as well as a Saskatoon-based grower organization, Mustard 21, producing new hybrid mustard seed varieties: AAC Brown 18, AAC Brown Elite and a composite variety, AAC Yellow 80.

They also work with KWS Cereals, a European company, to produce seed for hybrid rye varieties, which appear to do well in Western Canada. A fairly new Saskatoon company, Verve Seeds, is also developing hybrid varieties of industrial hemp seed. And Horner notes work has been ongoing for 10 years or more to develop hybrid wheat varieties.

“We have a solid track record in producing hybrid seed and we are always interested in working with new companies and new crops,” Horner says. “And certainly our grower base is keen to try new crops as well. It is sort of that pioneer spirit to try something new that is part of our company values. Hopefully we can be part of the process in bringing improved high-yielding crops to western Canadian farmers.”

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That didn’t happen.

Instead, the committee of experts reviewing the Cannabis Act barely mentioned hemp in its 91 page report published March 21.

The Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance said the report fails to provide “meaningful guidance” on how Canada should manage and oversee hemp production and processing in the future.

“The expert committee … were focused virtually 100 per cent on public health and safety, protection of youth. And they had no expertise and no mandate to consider hemp,” said Ted Haney, president and chief executive officer of the CHTA.

“But they pretty much just kicked the ball down the court.”

CHTA chair Clarence Shwaluk made a similar comment.

He said the committee could have recommended changes to the Cannabis Act that would separate hemp from “drug regulations and removed obstacles to our industry’s growth and development.”

Health Canada has regulated the cultivation of hemp since hemp was first grown in Canada in the late 1990s, requiring farmers to get a license to grow the crop.

Initially, farmers accepted those constraints. But over the last 10 to 15 years, growers and hemp advocates have lobbied the federal government to de-regulate the crop and free it from Health Canada regulations.

In 2018, the federal government legalized the production and recreational use of cannabis. Folks in the hemp industry assumed that legalization of cannabis would help liberate hemp from the Health Canada regulations.

However, the federal focus on cannabis has created more problems, Haney said.

“Being regulated under Health Canada became more difficult after the legalization of cannabis,” he said.

“The focus of the structures … became all cannabis, all the time.”

One major obstacle for hemp is that some bureaucrats and policy makers in Ottawa did understand hemp and the opportunity for Canada’s agriculture and agri-food industry.

However, in the last five years or so, many of those bureaucrats retired or moved on to other opportunities, Haney said.

“We ended up with new officials … (with) very little expertise (and) very little knowledge of agriculture,” he said. “The mandates of Health Canada aren’t related to agronomy … variety approval, licensing, food safety.”

Hemp has been grown in Canada for about 25 years, but the industry has never lived up to its promise. In the 2010s, hemp leaders were predicting that acreage would hit 250,000 by 2018. That target was never reached as the industry went through several boom and bust cycles.

In the last few years, farmers have seeded 35,000 to 50,000 acres of hemp across Canada for the food industry or for fibre.

The expert committee report and the lack of recommendations to de-regulate hemp are a disappointment for Canada’s hemp sector, but Haney believes opportunities remain.

The report and the minimal mention of hemp in 91 pages illustrates that hemp has nothing to do with cannabis.

“They (Health Canada) convened a legislative review, the expert panel has been clear that hemp really isn’t related to their mandate. It doesn’t represent the kind of risks that Health Canada is adept at dealing with” Haney said.

The panel did make one recommendation regarding hemp, saying Health Canada and Agriculture Canada should create an expert advisory body to look at hemp regulations.

For Shwaluk, it’s obvious how that regulatory framework should be structured.

“The government of Canada must fully recognize that hemp is not adult use cannabis or medical cannabis and start treating hemp as a normal agricultural crop.”

—Robert Arnason writes for the Western Producer.

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Yes, there are cattle and crops, but they’re just part of a diversified farming operation that includes a wide range of practices aimed at reducing the farm’s environmental footprint, improving animal welfare, increasing biological biodiversity, improving soil health and increasing public awareness of sustainable farming practices.

His efforts to develop Ferme Guayclair Inc. with a holistic farming approach earned him recognition in 2022 as the Quebec Cattle Producer’s Environmental Stewardship Award recipient. Ferme Guayclair is located at Brownsburg-Chatham, about 100 km northwest of Montreal.

“As I began farming, I wanted to do things differently than everyone else,” says Stéphane, who started out with a dairy farm and cash crops in 2004 before transitioning to the beef/cash crop operation in 2019. His approach is to apply a wide range of livestock and crop management practices that complement each other and benefit the environment.

From dairy production to beef

Stéphane runs an 85-head crossbred cow-calf operation, with all calves finished on the farm, processed at a local federally inspected abattoir, and the beef marketed through an on-farm retail outlet and farmers markets.

The cattle spend most of their year in an intensively managed rotational grazing system that begins with calving on pasture in late May and June and continues with grazing a wide range of perennial and annual forages and crop residue right through to mid- to late December “maybe someday, even into January,” before being moved indoors for the remainder of the winter feeding program.

That beef management program is a departure from a more common practice of feeding beef animals indoors and/or in a feedyard. “Again, I wanted to do something different,” Stéphane says. “I believe it is better for the animals if they can be out on pasture. I like seeing them out on pasture and so many people who come by the farm like to see them out as well.” Also, running cattle on pasture for about seven months of the year is a much more efficient way of returning nutrients to the soil.

Stéphane produces about 217 acres of annual cash crops, including corn, soybeans and wheat. There are about 52 acres of perennial pasture, another 37 acres of annual pasture and 96 acres of hayland. He’s adopted a regenerative agriculture approach. Key elements involve zero-till cropping practices, increasing plant biodiversity and working to keep some type of crop or vegetative material green and growing on the soil at all times right up until freeze-up.

Hay and pastureland are seeded to perennial forages. He uses several different crop species for annual pasture as well as for intercropping and cover cropping.

The 37 acres of annual pasture are seeded to two different blends. About half the area is seeded to a cover crop blend that includes, oats, peas, sun hemp, sunflower, crimson clover, lablab (a forage legume that grows similar to sweet pea) and radish.

“Everything in the blend has a purpose,” says Stéphane . “There are several different rooting structures, there are legumes to feed the soil, and flowering species that benefit pollinators and they all produce feed for cattle.”

The other half of the annual pasture is seeded to a blend, often just the leftovers from the spring seeding operations. That could include a combination of soybeans, corn, oats, and wheat.

“I am just learning as I go and there isn’t a lot of research, so I try different combinations, run my own trials to see what might work,” he says.

Keep the ground covered

Cover crops fit into the program as wheat and soybeans are harvested. As the wheat is combined in August, Stéphane seeds a similar seven-species forage blend as he used in the first annual pasture mix, but also adds some pearl millet. Since soybeans are harvested a bit later, he is looking for cover crops that are faster growing and can also fix nitrogen (those soybean acres will be seeded to corn and wheat the following season). The cover crop following soybeans can include peas, clover, hairy vetch and oats.

On the corn acres, he uses an intercrop blend. After the corn is seeded on 30-inch rows and established, he comes back when the corn is at the four- to five-leaf stage and seeds a blend of crimson clover, annual ryegrass and tillage radish between the corn rows.

“The idea is to keep something green and growing on these acres right through to the end of the growing season,” Stéphane says. “Above ground, these crops are producing feed for cattle and below ground they are feeding the soil microbes, helping to build the soil.” While his earlier farming practices included tillage, soil organic matter declined. Since he switched to zero till soil, organic matter is beginning to rebuild.

The cows calve on pasture in late May and June, with the rotational grazing season usually starting on permanent pasture around June 1. Depending on the growing season, the cow herd is moved into new grazing, usually every day. Stéphane actually manages two grazing herds. The cow-calf pairs move through pastures first, while the herd of yearlings follow behind about 30 days later.

“The actual move interval depends on the animals and the growing conditions,” says Stéphane.”I want to make sure forages have a chance to recover before they are grazed again.” Depending on the growing season cattle may move through the rotation three or four times during the year.

The basic grazing plan is to start on the perennial pastures, move into the annual pastures later in the summer, and then the cover crop and intercrop seedings in the fall. Hopefully, the forage supply will allow cattle to remain on pasture until at least late December.

While the business of Ferme Guayclair is to be a profitable operation to produce crops and beef, Stéphane says the broader, long-term plan is to improve soil health and to benefit the environment. “It is a whole systems approach,” he says. “It is a circle — each aspect of the farming operation works with and benefits another.”

With several conservation measures being applied, Stéphane wants the farm to become carbon neutral within the next three years, thereby making a difference in the drive towards more sustainable agriculture.

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Tasmania, an island state of Australia, is the world’s largest producer of narcotic raw material (NRM). This NRM or drug extract is used in morphine and codeine as a pain relief formulation and thebaine and oripavine for pain relief and addiction treatment products.

I initially had visions of Australians, men and women, cutting poppy heads and scraping off the brown residues, but not so. In fact, the poppy crop is harvested before maturity just after flowering and while the seed heads are still developing. The poppy straw is cut, dried and harvested, and the two tons of straw per acre is processed, yielding 2.5 to three per cent alkaloid (opiate) assay.

Tasmanians have been growing such poppies for more than 50 years on many thousands of acres. In recent years, poppy drug production has moved to mainland Australia in the states of Victoria and New South Wales.

Poppy seed is an oilseed produced by the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). The tiny seeds, true of all poppies, have been cultivated for thousands of years as a significant food crop in central Europe and Asia.

The poppy seeds themselves are 40 to 50 per cent oil. The opium poppy, P. somniferum (French for sleeping pill), is unlike wild and other poppies in that the seed capsule stays closed. In other words, the sealed capsule remains shut and retains all of its seeds. An excellent way of harvesting all of the seeds prior to crushing the actual pods to extract the seeds.

Some trials in Canada

With controlled poppy growing permits given by the government of Canada under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, there have been many small-plot trials in Alberta and Manitoba over the last 30 or so years. In other words, “no licensed dealer shall cultivate, propagate or harvest opium poppy other than for scientific purposes.”

At the present time, world production of poppy seeds consists of around 80,000 tons grown for international trade. Turkey produces 35 per cent of the total but significant amounts are grown in Spain, France, Hungary, the UK and other countries.

In poppy seed trials conducted on the Prairies many years ago, yields at Morden, Man. ranged from 15 to 50 bushels an acre.

Poppy seed itself has a nutrient value of approximately 525 calories per 100 grams and is made up of primarily around 40 per cent oil and 20 per cent protein. Sprouted wheat has only 200 calories per 100 grams, pea has 81 calories and canola seed has 124 calories per 100 grams. The seed itself, unlike the pods and stems, contain little or no opiate.

In recent times, plant breeders have developed strains of the opium poppy that are high yielding and the whole plant contains very low levels of opiates. This kind of research is similar to that of hemp. Hemp has been bred so that it contains very low levels of cannabinoids. The hemp plant’s first cousin is the beer hop, which provides flavour and various soporific drugs for beer-drinking pleasure.

Although it is now legal to grow marijuana, few people bother to grow this plant. A similar situation exists with tobacco. It’s legal to grow tobacco plants in this country but I do not know of any tobacco growers despite the fact that a packet of 20 cigarettes is around $20.

As far as the legal or licit growing of opium poppies, I would think it could be a crop that can be grown well in the Prairies. Illegal drugs, such as fentanyl and heroin, result in thousands of deaths in Canada annually. Considering the newer low-opium poppies for seed and the harvest of immature poppy stems for opiates, growing poppies in Canada could be a win-win situation. In other words, poppy seed or licit drug production could become another small but significant crop for Prairie Canada.

For further information on the potential for growing licit poppies for seed or opiates look up “Regulations Amending the Narcotic Control Regulations (Opium Poppy),” June 3, 2016. It is 11 pages of reasoning why Canada should not need to grow its own poppy seed or opiate supply. This document should now be revised in view of our present climate and understanding of illegal and legal drug use.

If Canada needs help in this poppy-growing endeavour all we must do is to emulate the planting, harvesting and processing systems available in Australia. At $100 million or more annually Canada pays for poppy alkaloid, we should get growing with this opportunity for our farmers to provide an additional profitable crop as well as diversifying our crop growing rotations.

Canada presently imports around 1,200 tons of poppy seed annually, but what are the needs of the United States and other countries? Potentially, Canada could become a major grower and exporter of poppy seed as we do with mustard crops or, perhaps, we could explore its oilseed and feed or food potential for the Prairies.

The world remembers November 11 as “Poppy Day,” immortalized during the First World War in Flanders Fields (Belgium) by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of Guelph, Ont. We could grow fields of red poppies alongside the blue flax and yellow canola fields in Western Canada. Those red Flanders poppies were P. rhoeas, which like the opium poppy contained alkaloids.

Remember, do not trust everything that you see or hear, since even salt looks like sugar.

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The sale, the fifth such deal since April 1, is part of Canopy’s ongoing efforts to improve liquidity by reining in costs through layoffs, exits from some international markets and store closures.

The company has generated proceeds of $81 million through these transactions and expects $150 million in total proceeds from facility divestitures by the end of September this year.

“The proceeds from this transaction further the achievement of our target of $150 million… enabling us to efficiently reduce our overall footprint and strengthen our financial position,” said CEO David Klein.

Canopy’s shares, which have slumped more than 80 per cent this year, have been under added pressure since last week after the company raised ‘going concern’ doubts citing recurring losses from operations and certain debt obligations due in the short term.

The company had said it requires additional funding to continue operations but analysts have questioned the cannabis producer’s ability to reduce cash-burn and turnaround operations. Brokerage Benchmark slashed its price target on Canopy to zero earlier this week.

The company had $783 million in cash and short-term investments as of March 31, about 43 per cent lower than a year earlier.

Canopy also faces an investigation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the reporting of revenue in its BioSteel segment.

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It will be a similar story in 2023. The difference this time around is that battle could be shaped largely by the location where it is being fought.

While Manitoba received significant moisture last season, many parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta remained dry and continue to deal with the effects of moisture deficits from the previous couple of seasons.

Grainews recently spoke with experts in the three Prairie provinces about the weed outlook for this year and what growers should know as they prepare for the coming season.

Manitoba

Kim Brown-Livingston, a provincial weeds specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says a decent amount of rainfall last summer means fields in Manitoba are in pretty good shape heading into 2023. As far as weeds are concerned, it will be a relatively “normal” year, she explains.

“I think we’re getting closer to normal, like what we would expect to be seeing with normal conditions and needing those burnoffs and pre-emergent herbicides for residual weed control, and getting back into the habit of using those,” she says.

“A lot of that had dropped off the table because it was just so dry (previously) that we weren’t seeing enough weed growth to justify using those (herbicides).”

Brown-Livingston says two weeds that should be on everyone’s radar in Manitoba are waterhemp and Palmer amaranth. Both are relatively new threats in the province and are members of the pigweed family.

Waterhemp is like redroot pigweed “on steroids,” she says.

It’s much taller (up to eight feet tall), produces a lot more seeds and is a much more aggressive plant than most pigweeds. Brown-Livingston says it poses a great risk to row crops, in part because there is ample space for it to grow between rows before a canopy cover develops. There are also limited herbicide options for many row crops.

Further complicating things is the fact that waterhemp is believed to have come to the province from Eastern Canada or the northern United States pre-loaded with resistance to several herbicide groups including Groups 2 and 9.

“If this weed shows up and you were trying to spray it, you could have little or no success,” she says.

There haven’t been many reported cases of Palmer amaranth in Manitoba to date, but Brown-Livingston says growers must remain vigilant. It can grow to be even bigger than waterhemp, can be more aggressive and can develop resistance very quickly.

One of the problems with waterhemp and Palmer amaranth, Brown-Livingston notes, is by the time farmers notice it in their fields it’s often too late to spray, even if some herbicides could still control it.

The good news is that a strong, competitive crop can quickly cover the ground and prevent waterhemp and Palmer amaranth from getting a head start.

Any discussion about weeds would be incomplete without a mention of kochia. Brown-Livingston says the dry, salty soil in most of the province during the previous two years created ideal conditions for kochia.

Now that the province seems to be emerging from its latest dry cycle, she expects to see those saline areas shrink and more competitive crops grown. This could slow the spread of kochia in fields where it’s already present and prevent it from spreading into new areas.

Canada fleabane, also known as horseweed, has been around in Manitoba for some time, but it has never posed much of a problem — until recent reports of potential glyphosate resistance.

The threat it poses to crops such as soybeans and corn could now be much higher, Brown-Livingston explains.

“We haven’t seen it resistant like it is in Ontario and the United States. It has always been something we could control, so that (resistance) is something that’s brand new and needs to be on everybody’s radar,” she says.

Brown-Livingston also notes that farmers should be prepared for a return of perennial and winter annual weeds as the province appears to be entering a more normal or possibly wetter moisture cycle.

Saskatchewan

Clark Brenzil, a provincial weed control specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, says soil moisture shortages will likely continue in many parts of the province that went into last fall without soil moisture reserves, particularly on the western side of the province.

Despite the dry conditions, the weed threat will remain significant, Brenzil suggests. He says that could be particularly true with kochia, Russian thistle, green foxtail, lamb’s quarters, wild oats and pigweeds, which tend to be better adapted to hotter, drier conditions and “get up out of the ground quickly.”

“Generally, whatever weeds have been growing in your fields the last couple of years, they are likely the ones growing there this year,” he says.

Although waterhemp and Palmer amaranth aren’t a major concern in Saskatchewan yet, Brenzil says provincial officials are “keeping an eye out for them,” since they have been detected near the province’s borders to the east from Manitoba and to the south from North Dakota.

Brenzil says growers should take note of any pigweeds that pop up above crop canopies such as lentils and soybeans and appear to be significantly larger than normal after an in-crop weed control pass.

If farmers are concerned waterhemp or Palmer amaranth may be present in their fields, he suggests contacting an agronomist or one of the province’s regional specialists to investigate the site and collect weed samples for proper identification.

Alberta

Although the soil moisture situation in Alberta was better heading into 2023 than it was last year, there remains what has been called an “island of dryness” in areas around the city of Calgary including Airdrie and Red Deer.

Charles Geddes, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) based in Lethbridge, says while it’s difficult to predict which weeds will be the most problematic during the upcoming growing season, kochia and Russian thistle are likely to remain a concern in southeastern areas of the province with drier soil.

Wild oats have been an issue in Alberta for some time and Geddes says it’s likely to be an issue again this year.

One of the newer weed threats in Alberta is glyphosate-resistant downy brome, which was first confirmed in southern Alberta in 2021.

Geddes says the province doesn’t yet know the extent of the problem and hasn’t been contacted by many farmers or agronomists who suspect they may be dealing with the weed.

“We’re hoping it’s a localized case and it won’t spread from there, but we haven’t done a survey yet to know how widespread the issue is,” he says, adding that downy brome is a problem mostly associated with winter crops such as winter wheat.

Although pigweeds, such as redroot, green and smooth pigweeds, have been present in Alberta for a while, newer species such as waterhemp and Palmer amaranth have yet to show up in the province. However, Geddes says there are concerns they could potentially arrive in Alberta as growing seasons become longer.

“It’s likely they’ll eventually make their way to Alberta, but it would be surprising if it did happen that quickly,” he says. “But we do know they’re on the Prairies and they’re likely spreading.”

Herbicide carry-over risk

While the weed threat will vary from region to region in 2023 in part because of soil moisture levels, the same holds true when it comes to herbicide carry-over, since herbicide breakdown is largely governed by a combination of moisture and warm temperatures.

Based on soil moisture maps for the 2022 growing season, while the majority of herbicide residue degradation would occur prior to spring 2023, Geddes says the southeast corner is the area of greatest concern for herbicide carry-over in Alberta.

However, he said precipitation can be highly variable from field to field and farmers should consider how much precipitation they received last year in comparison with an average year to determine their levels of risk.

Farmers should also review the re-cropping restrictions of any residual herbicides they used in 2022 and to check with manufacturers to determine if there have been any updates issued for the coming growing season.

Brown-Livingston says Manitoba is in “better shape than we have been in years” when it comes to the risk of herbicide carry-over, thanks to a return to more normal precipitation levels.

Still, she recommends farmers not take the situation for granted, especially if their fields are located in an area that received less-than-normal rainfall. She also suggests growers check label recommendations for any herbicides they used last year, which are also available in the province’s annual crop protection guide.

In Saskatchewan, the risk of herbicide carry-over is still relatively acute on the western side of the province, although not quite as severe as it was last year, Brenzil says.

The eastern side of the province is in good shape, he adds, since it received a significant amount of rainfall early last season.

His advice to growers who may be concerned about herbicide carry-over this season is to be conservative about their crop choices and go with longer rotation periods.

Brenzil also recommends growers be conscious of the quality of the water they mix with their herbicides this coming season. One of the results of last year’s glyphosate shortage was many farmers resorted to using reduced rates, which in combination with antagonism from water quality resulted in the product not working as expected.

He suggests farmers get their water sources tested early in the season to make sure they know the level of water hardness they are dealing with.

“You want to make sure you’re getting the most out of a product you (use),” he says.

Herbicide resistance

Herbicide resistance is on the minds of farmers, agronomists and researchers across the Prairies this season.

Herbicide-resistant weeds are estimated to cost western Canadian farmers as much as $530 million annually in lost yields and alternative weed management practices.

Numbers from Manitoba’s latest herbicide-resistant weed survey conducted in 2022 are expected to be released this fall. It will likely show that kochia remains one of the worst herbicide-resistant weed issues in the province.

Brown-Livingston says herbicide-resistant kochia is a widespread problem in Manitoba and the number of acres where it has been detected continues to grow.

“The resistance is increasing, and we need to be watching,” she says, adding herbicide resistance in wild oats continues to be an area of concern.

Another issue in Manitoba, according to Brown-Livingston, is weed resistance to the Group 9 herbicide glyphosate.

To tackle this problem, growers can tank mix other products with glyphosate whenever possible. Adding more complexity to herbicide mixtures can help slow the development of resistance. She also points out the most effective tool in slowing herbicide resistance is growing competitive crops.

In Alberta, there is concern about possible resistance to protoporphyrinogen oxidate (PPO) inhibitors, or Group 14 herbicides, in kochia.

Geddes says growers should watch for activity in their pre-plant burndowns if they’re using Group 14 products.

Indication of a problem is when kochia plants that have been hit with herbicide remain alive next to others that are dead. Geddes recommends farmers contact him about herbicide-resistant weeds because his lab is working to characterize the issue in the Prairies.

Another herbicide-resistant weed concern in Alberta, according to Geddes, is wild oat resistance to Group 1 and 2 herbicide products, which is a widespread and continuing issue for many farmers.

Brenzil says herbicide resistance has been on an upward trajectory in Western Canada since the 1990s and isn’t likely to change anytime soon unless producers make significant changes in how they manage their crops and their weeds.

In Saskatchewan, the most recent herbicide-resistant weed survey showed 87 per cent of kochia plants sampled appeared to be glyphosate resistant. High levels of dicamba and fluroxypyr resistance have also shown up in recent Alberta surveys, he adds.

“We’re closing doors one at a time to be able to control that weed,” he says.

A shift in thinking is needed about how kochia and other herbicide-resistant weeds are managed.

“Even though we have all of these new technologies that are making things easier for us, it’s also making things easier for some of these weeds to be more problematic in the system,” he explains.

“One of the things that we’ve done that has made life a little easier for kochia is that we’re always entertaining reducing our seeding rates (and) we’re always pushing our row spacing out rather than bringing it back in to the standard that has been around since time immemorial, which is six to eight inches for row spacing.”

The post Your provincial weed outlook for 2023 appeared first on Grainews.

Charles Geddes, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), who specializes in weed ecology and cropping systems, addressed the issue of herbicide resistance at Saskatchewan Agronomy Research Update 2022, held Dec. 13-14 in person and online in Saskatoon. Geddes is currently leading a series of herbicide-resistant (HR) weed surveys on the Prairies to increase awareness of HR weeds and to help growers mitigate and manage them on their farms.

Geddes said it’s important to note the difference between herbicide resistance and herbicide tolerance. Tolerance is the inherent ability of a weed species to survive and reproduce after a herbicide has been applied, while resistance is an evolutionary adaptation of the weed that confers resistance in a plant species that was initially susceptible to a herbicide.

While herbicide resistance is a global issue, Geddes said it’s a particular challenge in this country. Canada ranks third in the world in terms of having the greatest number of unique herbicide-resistant weed biotypes, behind the United States and Australia.

A big part of the challenge when it comes to herbicide-resistant weeds is the limited number of new tools that are available to fight them, he said. When herbicides were first introduced, new modes of action were released every two or three years. Geddes pointed out that flow has slowed to a trickle, with most new herbicides that are introduced being reformulations of old modes of action.

As part of a series of weed abundance surveys Julia Leeson, an AAFC weed monitoring biologist, and her team are conducting, 2,277 fields across Saskatchewan were surveyed in 2019 and 2021. That data was then used to provide metrics such as the frequency and density with which weed species can occur in a region after post-emergence herbicide application.

The survey results showed that green foxtail, volunteer canola, wild oat, wild buckwheat, and, of course, kochia pose the biggest threats when it comes to HR weeds in Saskatchewan. One of the more surprising results in that province, according to Geddes, is that volunteer canola appears to have surpassed both wild oat and wild buckwheat for the No. 2 spot for the most abundant weed in Saskatchewan.

The herbicide resistance survey that took place in 2019-20 covered a subset of 419 fields that were included in the larger weed abundance survey. Based on the survey results, Group 1 resistance in wild oat is the biggest herbicide resistance issue Saskatchewan is facing, Geddes said.

HR wild oat was found in 77 per cent of 250 fields where wild oat was collected and tested, or 47 per cent of all fields that were surveyed. Geddes said that means roughly 47 per cent of all fields in the province (about 20.6 million acres) likely have Group 1-resistant wild oat present and that number is likely to rise by the time the next survey is conducted.

Some potential good news to come out of the survey was Group 2 resistance appeared to affect a significantly lower number of fields (30 per cent of fields where wild oat was tested or 18 per cent of all fields surveyed). While that could mean producers are managing the issue, Geddes said another explanation could be that a different pesticide product from the previous Saskatchewan survey was used in this more recent survey.

Green foxtail continues to be a persistent threat in Saskatchewan, according to the survey results. Twenty-eight per cent of the fields where it was collected showed Group 1 resistance, which represents seven per cent of fields overall, a slight increase from previous surveys. Where that biotype did occur, it tended to occupy about 63 per cent of acres in those fields.

Yellow foxtail is also beginning to make its presence known in Saskatchewan, according to Geddes. Although no Group 1-resistant yellow foxtail showed up in previous surveys, three populations of the weed were found in the most recent survey. Geddes said this wasn’t a huge surprise since all three were situated in the southeast corner of the province near the border with Manitoba, where it had been found in previous surveys of that province.

Kochia is king

Geddes said the biggest issue when it comes to HR broadleaf weeds continues to be kochia. Based on the most recent survey results, 100 per cent of the fields tested showed some level of resistance to Group 2 herbicides, which equates to an estimated 39 per cent of all fields in Saskatchewan.

He said the kochia problem has increased dramatically since it was first documented in the Prairies in 1988. In Alberta, for example, four per cent of the populations sampled in 2012 were found to be glyphosate resistant. By 2017 that number had increased to 50 per cent. The Alberta survey was repeated in 2021 and it showed 78 per cent of weed populations had some form of glyphosate resistance. That same survey also showed triple-resistant kochia (resistance to Groups 2 and 9 and at least one Group 4 herbicide) made up 45 per cent of those populations while dicamba resistance was detected in 28 per cent.

Increasing threat

Spiny annual sowthistle is another weed that is showing an increasing resistance to Group 2 in Saskatchewan. In the most recent survey, 17 per cent of the fields where sowthistle species were collected showed Group 2 resistance. Geddes said that is concerning since it didn’t show up at all in previous surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015.

Redroot pigweed is also showing an increased resistance to Group 2 herbicides in Saskatchewan. Survey results from 2019-20 showed 57 per cent of fields where redroot pigweed was collected and tested had Group 2-resistant redroot pigweed (equivalent to four per cent of all fields) compared with just 10 per cent from the previous survey.

Shephard’s purse continues to show resistance to Group 2 herbicides in the province. The 2019-20 survey showed resistance in 45 per cent of the fields tested, or three per cent of all fields surveyed.

One of the more concerning pieces of data to come out of the Saskatchewan HR survey is possible evidence of protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) inhibitor-resistant kochia. PPO inhibitors are Group 14 herbicides. Geddes said more research will be required to confirm that finding but added he wouldn’t be surprised if that does end up being the case.

Two fairly recent newcomers when it comes to Group 2 herbicide-resistant weeds showing up in the Saskatchewan survey are hemp-nettle and lamb’s quarters. While Group 2 resistance was thought to have existed in hemp-nettle for some time, the 2019-20 survey results were the first time it showed up in survey samples (three of five tested fields). Group 2-resistant lamb’s quarters showed up in one field of the 78 tested. Geddes said he expects that number to grow in subsequent surveys.

Geddes explained that the HR survey results in Saskatchewan showed that, overall, 74 per cent of the fields where he and his colleagues were able to collect weeds with viable seeds had at least one herbicide-resistant weed biotype. They also showed HR weeds affect slightly more than half of the fields where they occur, and more than 15 million acres of farmland across the province are affected by herbicide resistance, equivalent to 28 million acres at the field level. As HR levels become more of an issue, the number of acres they occupy will subsequently grow, he added.

Manitoba numbers

Manitoba’s most recent HR survey was conducted in 2022, with a total of 157 fields across the province surveyed and 622 weed samples collected. Those results are expected to be released sometime later this year. While it’s too early to say what the implications of those results will be, Geddes said there is similar HR concerns in that province. Glyphosate-resistant kochia in Manitoba was registered at one per cent of fields based on survey results compiled in 2013 but had climbed to 58 per cent in 2018.

Take time to test

Geddes advises growers who are concerned about the threat HR weeds pose to their crops to send samples to a diagnostic testing facility to determine if resistant weeds are present in their fields. He said there are several different facilities to choose from in Western Canada including the Prairie Resistance Research Lab in Lethbridge, Alta., for novel herbicide resistance, the Crop Protection Lab in Regina, Sask., AgQuest in Minto, Man., and the Pest Surveillance Initiative in Winnipeg.

One relatively new tool when it comes to determining the occurrence and distribution of HR weeds is genetic testing. While provinces like Quebec and Ontario are further ahead in this regard, Geddes said efforts have begun in Western Canada to “start building our repertoire of genetic tests” for detecting herbicide resistance.

He said the advantage of genetic testing is it can be performed in a fraction of the time required for more conventional testing, that is, one to two weeks compared with four to six months required for a traditional bioassay. The upshot, he explained, is growers could implement new management practices for herbicide-resistant weeds within the same growing year rather than having to wait until the following season.

Still, Geddes said there aren’t any magical solutions for dealing with herbicide resistance.

“Understanding what you’re dealing with is one of the keys to developing an effective management strategy. There is no silver bullet and there’s not likely to be a silver bullet in the near future. Basically, integrated weed management is the way forward when it comes to herbicide resistance.”

Watch for Manitoba and Alberta herbicide-resistant weed updates in Grainews this spring.

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According to the latest FCC Food and Beverage Report, released Tuesday, sales increased 11 per cent to $156 billion in 2022. These gains came largely from higher export values and strength in the grain and oilseed milling industry.

On the manufacturing side, margins were tighter last year as companies navigated increases in the prices of raw materials, labour shortages and supply chain disruptions.

“Gross margins as a percent of sales fell to their lowest level in over 20 years in 2022,” FCC’s chief economist J.P. Gervais said.

“While margin trends vary based on industry, we do anticipate an overall improvement to gross margins in the coming year.”

FCC projects a modest two per cent growth in sales in 2023. However, dairy, meat and seafood are expected to outperform that forecast.

“Consumers cut back on discretionary spending last year as they faced higher inflation, depleted savings and higher costs of servicing debt,” Gervais said.

Domestically-produced food faced a decline, reverting to the pre-pandemic consumption mix of domestic versus foreign foods. However, that’s partly the result of an increasingly diverse Canadian population looking to put different kinds of food on their tables.

“Inflation led to changes in food consumption decisions which resulted in fewer purchases of locally made or higher-value foods that consumers supported in mass during pandemic lockdowns,” Gervais said.

“We all know money doesn’t have the same buying power it once did, and consumers are being careful with their grocery budgets. Despite inflationary pressures, we continue to see Canada’s food and beverage sector adapt and innovate to meet the changing market demands.

“The sector remains healthy and has a positive long-term outlook.”

Global demand for Canadian-produced food is growing rapidly, he said. Promising food manufacturing innovations and technology can position Canada to expand its reach into profitable emerging industries.

There is also opportunity to grow the sector by meeting consumer demand for affordable, convenient and sustainably produced foods.

“How businesses adapt to changing consumer needs and economic conditions will determine their success going forward,” Gervais said.

“There have been many tests of resiliency and adaptability in recent years and the strength of the sector proves that despite challenges, there are opportunities Canadian food and beverage manufacturers are eager to take advantage of.”

The annual FCC Food and Beverage Report features insights and analysis on grain and oilseed milling; dairy, meat, sugar, confectionery, bakery and tortilla products; seafood preparation; and fruit, vegetable and specialty foods as well as soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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According to Jason Casselman, an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, farmers can make gains in the uniformity of their canola stands just by paying attention to the details of how they operate the seeding equipment already on the farm.

Having said that, some of the newer seeding technology on the market is designed to remove variability associated with getting a crop seeded and growing. The message there being, if you are looking for a new seeding system, there are definitely some options.

Several years of applied research in southern Alberta has looked at the potential of using vacuum planters not just for row crops but for seeding grain, oilseeds and pulse crops as well. And Saskatchewan seed drill manufacturer SeedMaster has designed its seeding equipment not only around the uniformity of seed placement, but in the gentle handling of seed as well.

If seeds aren’t banged up in the air distribution system, there is a good chance more will germinate, which should contribute to reduced seed cost and increased production and profitability.

Farming Smarter research

The southern Alberta applied research association Farming Smarter has found that a vacuum planter can be quite effective in seeding a wide range of field crops including canola, durum and pulse crops, such as chickpeas, faba beans and peas.

The organization’s four-year study tested three seeding systems: an air drill at 12-inch row spacing, a precision planter at 12-inch row spacing and a precision planter at 20-inch row spacing. Crops were seeded at five seeding rates of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 160 seeds per square metre.

Gurbir Dhillon, a research scientist with Farming Smarter, says although there was variability over the four years of both irrigated and dryland research trials, overall yields of the various crops seeded with the Monosem precision planter were as good as, if not better than, the same crops seeded with an air seeding system.

Dhillon says, generally, under irrigation or growing seasons with improved moisture conditions, all crops had improved emergence and uniformity with the precision planter compared with those seeded with an air seeder. And in many cases yields were improved.

“The precision planters generally provided a better performance, especially in terms of crop emergence and plant stand establishment,” states Dhillon in a project report. “The seedling emergence improved for the majority of the crops including canola, pulse crops, durum and hemp.”

Crop stands seeded with precision planters also showed more spatial uniformity and even crop staging, which can promote weed suppression and more efficient application of fungicides and plant growth regulators.

“These improvements in crop stand establishment led to higher yield for certain crops, especially canola and chickpeas. However, the improvement in yield varied among different site years and was favoured by conditions favouring higher productivity such as irrigation or high precipitation. Nevertheless, the performance of precision planters was at least comparable to the conventional air drill in low-precipitation conditions for all crops.”

Dhillon says more research is needed but this project suggests precision planters can be used to successfully seed narrow-row grain, oilseeds and pulse crops.

SeedMaster technology

Developing seeding technology to improve seed placement and ultimately create uniform plant stands has been the focus of SeedMaster engineers since day one, says Tim Criddle, global sales director for SeedMaster Manufacturing.

“That is what company founder Norbert Beaujot set out to achieve,” says Criddle.

“As a farmer himself, he was looking at how to achieve more uniform stand establishment. He was frustrated by the fact that seeding systems of the day produced plant stands with a great deal of variability across the field.”

Beaujot set out to design a zero-till seeding system with uniform placement of seed that would produce uniform crop emergence, leading to improved nutrient uptake, more efficient use of in-crop herbicides and pesticides and, ultimately, improved yields.

“The company mantra from the beginning has been if you don’t get the crop seeded properly to begin with, the rest of the year you are always playing catch-up,” says Criddle. “The crop will struggle to achieve its maximum potential.”

The first feature developed by SeedMaster is the dual knife opener that places seed on one firm packed level and fertilizer on another.

“It is very precise seed placement with the seed separated vertically and horizontally — above and to the side — of the fertilizer,” says Criddle. “The crop safely germinates but as seedling roots develop they don’t have to reach very far to find the nutrients.”

The second main feature of SeedMaster technology involves seed distribution in the seed row. It’s called the UltraPro II metering system.

“It has planter-like precision, but it is not a planter,” says Criddle. “It has near-planter-like singulation of seed. If you take a close look at the seed row, you are going to find very uniform placement of seed — seed then a gap, seed then a gap, seed then a gap — all very evenly spaced in the seed row. We have eliminated all of that clumping of seeds or huge spaces between seeds.”

Criddle says it is excellent technology for seeding any crop “but with canola this technology shines in three key aspects of seeding canola.”

First, depth control and seed placement is very accurate. Second, the UltraPro II meter system provides near-singulation of seed placement in the seed row.

“And the third aspect, which is acutely important from a cost management point of view, is we have 100 per cent eliminated the tower seed distribution system,” he says. The seed is not blasted into a tower and then through a distribution manifold, which can cause seed damage and seed mortality.

Gentle handling

“We wanted to develop a gentle handling system that would eliminate seed mortality to statistically be as close to zero as possible,” says Criddle. The UltraPro II system involves a seed meter for each run across the width of the drill. And each meter has its own dedicated seed line, a hose, which carries seed from the meter down to the seed knife and drops the seed gently into the ground. There are separate lines for seed and fertilizer.

“Looking at the economics of today’s canola production, farmers are targeting a recommended plant count of five to eight plants per square foot,” says Criddle. “But to achieve that plant count with a conventional air seeding distribution system, they have to factor in a mortality rate of perhaps 30 or 40 per cent. That’s 30 to 40 per cent of the seed they know won’t germinate.”

Criddle says with the UltraPro II system that loss has been eliminated.

“We have farmers using the system who now base their seeding rate on zero mortality, or perhaps five per cent mortality at the most,” he says. He points out if canola seed costs $15 per pound and farmers are targeting a five pound per acre seeding rate, the UltraPro II metering system allows them to eliminate 40 per cent seed waste.

Another more recent SeedMaster design feature is the Ultra SR (single rank) air drill, which features a 60-foot single rank toolbar with openers set on 15-inch spacing. It has a total 735-bushel capacity.

Viewed as a simpler seeding system with fewer moving parts, the 60-foot Ultra SR toolbar has 48 openers versus “a more conventional” seeding tool with 10-inch spacing and three or four ranks carrying 72 openers. The Ultra SR drill has rotating spoked wheels between the openers that move crop residue to the side so the openers don’t get hung up on trash.

Criddle says while some farmers are concerned that the row spacing is too wide for economical crop production, SeedMaster field research and on-farm research trials carried out by farm customers show the single rank toolbar with 15-inch row spacing resulted in higher yields.

One canola yield trial comparing a drill with 12-inch row spacing with the Ultra SR drill showed a five bushel per acre increase in canola yields on 15-inch spacing.

Another farmer producing durum measured about a six-bushel-per-acre yield increase with the 15-inch row spacing compared with a crop seeded with 12-inch row spacing (77 bushels per acre versus 71.5 bushels per acre). And a lentil crop yielded 43.5 bushels per acre on 15-inch spacing compared with 40.1 bushels per acre on 12-inch spacing.

Criddle says SeedMaster design features are all geared to produce a very uniform, high-yielding crop to help optimize farm profitability.

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