We’ve had a lot of discussion in these pages lately about herbicide-resistant wild oats, so you’ll be interested to know Gowan Canada last month picked up a label expansion for its pre-plant granular herbicide Fortress MicroActiv, to include its use in field peas and lentils. Fortress, which combines triallate (Group 15) with trifluralin (Group 3), […] Read more
Fortress makes room for peas, lentils
AgWest expands westward
Two Saskatchewan sites join the Agco dealership group
During Ag Days last month in Brandon, farm equipment dealer chain AgWest announced it’s making its first move into Saskatchewan, buying the Yorkton and Weyburn locations of another Agco dealer, Agriterra Equipment. “This is a natural extension of our current presence in Elie, Neepawa, Brandon, Russell and the Swan River region in Manitoba,” AgWest’s CEO […] Read more
Editor’s Rant: Canadian graffiti
The government's conditions for a Bunge/Viterra marriage left much to be desired
I’ve got to admit, I’ve never fully understood the geometry behind federal regulators’ decisions on which assets a company has to sell in exchange for clearance on a big merger or takeover. There may well have been a solid reason why, after Husky sold off its retail gas stations in 2022, our neighbourhood wound up […] Read more
Bayer betting on Prairie camelina
Saskatoon-based Smart Earth has been working to optimize the oilseed
A Saskatoon company’s camelina catalogue is expected to go to develop new farmed fuels under Bayer’s guidance. Bayer announced in January it has closed a deal to buy the camelina germplasm and intellectual property assets of Smart Earth Camelina Corp. There’s been a fair amount of ink over the past 20-odd years about camelina and […] Read more
PMRA plans to reinstate lambda-cy use in feed grain crops
PMRA to update guidance, cancel some uses in fruit
Canadian grain and oilseed growers who’d had to stop using insecticides such as Matador, Silencer and Voliam in 2023 for feed grain crops can expect to be able to use them again starting this spring. Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) on Monday (Feb. 3) announced a round of public consultations, to run until […] Read more
Editor’s Rant: Lights out
Thoughts on green policy-making ahead of Justin Trudeau's departure
Up on the shelf where we keep light bulbs of assorted sizes and wattages, I just happened across an old compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) — remember, those bulbs that looked like an Arby’s curly fry wrapped in thin white glass? Talk about a relic from a bygone time in western civilization when, it seemed, the […] Read more
Label boost for Lumivia
Corteva’s insecticide seed treatment Lumivia CPL picked up a first-of-its-kind label expansion this summer. The company says the product — already registered for seed treatment of cereals, peas and lentils against wireworms, cutworms, armyworms and pea leaf weevil larvae — becomes the first insecticide seed treatment to cover suppression of grasshoppers. Lumivia CPL’s active ingredient […] Read more
Revisions for Raxil, other labels
Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency in late November weighed in with its final re-evaluation on the toxicity risks of tebuconazole. Apart from its use as a wood preservative, it’s best known to farmers as a Group 3 active ingredient in Bayer’s Raxil, Prosaro and Folicur, Corteva’s Straxan and other foliar fungicides and seed treatments. […] Read more
Ottawa blesses Bunge’s Viterra takeover, with conditions
Merged firm must sell six elevators, keep distance from G3
Canada’s federal government will allow the acquisition of major Canadian grain firm Viterra by one of the world’s biggest grain industry players, but not without conditions. Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand on Tuesday announced the government’s decision to approve Viterra’s acquisition by U.S.-based Bunge, the ‘B’ in the ‘ABCD’ group of the world’s most influential […] Read more
New Richardson CEO steps in
Succession takes effect today in the corner office at Richardson International, one of Canada's biggest grain handlers and processors.