The Saskatoon company’s camera-based system mounts on a sprayer boom and captures field conditions as farmers make passes across the field. Using machine learning, it analyzes thousands of images to generate crop and weed maps, along with plant stand counts.

The system was first introduced in a limited rollout in 2022 and went through on-farm testing before expanding more broadly. Early versions were installed on a small number of farms to gather data and refine the technology.

“We spend a couple of years using the product in the field before it’s commercialized,” CEO Cory Willness said.

“By the time something gets commercialized, it has already been used internally and has been through pretty rigorous testing.”

Adding in-season data to zone maps

SWAT Cam is designed to complement the company’s core SWAT Maps platform, which divides fields into management zones based on soil, water and topography. While those maps are relatively static, SWAT Cam adds a layer of in-season observation.

As the sprayer moves through the field, cameras mounted on the boom capture images every 50 to 60 feet. Those images are processed to measure plant populations and identify weed pressure and are then overlaid onto existing zone maps.

“It’s really a tool that uses the SWAT Map as the base underneath to define what’s happening in different areas of the field,” he said.

The system is not designed to make real-time decisions. Instead, it provides information that farmers and agronomists can use to evaluate performance and adjust management in future seasons.

For example, growers can use the data to compare expected and actual plant stands or identify patterns in crop performance across different parts of a field. In some cases, that can lead to changes in seeding rates or other input decisions.

“It’s information that helps them make better decisions in the future,” he said.

“It’s like a quick check-up tool.”

Adoption to date has been concentrated in Western Canada, where the company operates both directly with farmers and through a partner network.

The technology can be used on crops such as canola, wheat and soybeans, although its effectiveness depends on crop stage and canopy conditions.

The milestone offers a snapshot of how Croptimistic’s platform is expanding beyond its original focus on soil-based mapping.

In recent months, the company has introduced a series of new initiatives aimed at building out that platform, including SWAT Labs, an in-house soil testing facility, and a white paper outlining its approach to regenerative agriculture.

Together, those efforts point to two sides of the company’s development — expanding its core services while building new tools and frameworks around them.

“We have what I call an innovation engine and a business engine,” Willness said.

SWAT Labs is an example of the “business engine,” reflecting an effort to bring more of the soil data pipeline under one roof, from sampling through analysis.

The white paper, meanwhile, falls under “innovation,” and signals a push to shape how that data is interpreted and used in agronomic decision-making.

“These initiatives are building toward bigger things,” he said.

CLARIFICATION, April 7, 2026: Cory Willness’ name was accidentally left out of the print version of this article in the April 9 issue. We regret the error.

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AgraCity is a Saskatchewan-based crop input provider that was granted creditor protection by the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench on Dec. 1, 2025.

Jason Anderson, a grain farmer from SexSmith, Alta., is owed $74,000 of product from AgraCity.

He prepaid for herbicides and MicroPhos fertilizer for the 2025 growing season. Some of the product arrived but not all of it.

WHY IT MATTERS: A lot of Prairie farmers have paid for and are owed product — and are also worried about investments they made.

As he was applying the fertilizer that he had received, Anderson was informed that the remaining 60 tonnes would not be coming, so he was forced to make alternative plans.

“With egg on your face, you go begging to your local retailer that you kind of quit dealing with, which really sucked,” he said.

“But they were fantastic and helped me out.”

He had to do the same thing with the herbicides AgraCity shorted him, dipping into his line of credit to finance the duplicate purchases.

Humphrey Banack, a grain farmer from Round Hill, Alta., has purchased a lot of product from the retailer over the years.

A few years ago, he ordered glyphosate from AgraCity that never showed up.

“We kind of swore, ‘we’re not doing that anymore,’ and then we did. We went back to them,” he said.

Banack ordered $21,000 of fungicide from the retailer in the fall of 2024 for the 2025 crop because it was offering by far the best price for the product.

He never received the fungicide and was not offered a refund.

Alternatives

The two Alberta farmers are not alone. Court documents show that 1,228 farmers were owed $32.4 million of product as of June 2025 when the firm’s liquidity problems came to light.

An affidavit filed by AgraCity president Jason Mann claims that customers with orders for approximately $24 million of that total agreed to receive alternative product.

Anderson is one of those customers. He agreed to receive $32,000 of wild oat herbicide, broadleaf herbicide and an herbicide for his pea crop.

AgraCity pushed hard for him to order more product and use up his entire $74,000 credit, but he didn’t want to order product he doesn’t really need.

He is still waiting for the $32,000 of replacement product to arrive. Anderson said he keeps calling his AgraCity sales rep, who repeatedly assures him that the shipment is being organized and will soon be on its way.

Part of the $74,000 he is owed is a $10,000 investment in a glyphosate production facility that never materialized.

“I thought it was a fantastic idea,” he said.

“If they could have got it off the ground, that would have been the greatest thing.”

Anderson has never seen a breakdown of what he is owed, so it is hard to keep track of everything.

“It’s just so frustrating to realize that so much of this turned sideways because of a family feud more so than anything,” he said.

He is referring to a lengthy legal battle between Jason and Jim Mann, brothers who are listed by the court-appointed monitor as directors of the various AgraCity Group of companies.

Banack did not get an offer for replacement product.

He hopes whoever buys AgraCity’s assets will reimburse him what he is owed.

“I go to bed dreaming about it,” he said.

However, when he wakes up, he realizes it is probably unrealistic to expect full compensation from the new owner.

“If you were taking on a business, would you be interested in shipping out ($32.4) million worth of product for nothing?” he said.

“It’s hard for me to expect to have full compensation, but what kind of compensation am I going to get?”

Stalking horse

Banack is also an investor in Genesis Grain and Fertilizer, a fertilizer distribution centre in Belle Plaine, Sask., which is part of the AgraCity Group of companies.

He thinks he invested about $10,000 in that venture. Banack hopes whoever purchases that facility continues to operate it and provides returns to all the farmer investors.

Peter Chisholm, Ernst and Young senior vice-president and court-appointed monitor, said the fate of those farmer investors depends on what happens during the sales process.

“Creditors would have to be paid in full before there would be funds available to any limited partnership unit holders or investors,” he said.

Qualified bidders had an opportunity to submit a non-binding letter of intent to purchase the AgraCity assets by Feb. 6.

The best offers will be selected to participate in phase 2 of the process, where parties will be required to submit binding offers to acquire part or all the business.

The original deadline for that process was Feb. 16, 2025, but it is being extended to a yet-to-be-determined date.

United Farmers of Alberta has been chosen as the stalking horse bidder, agreeing to a base bid of $20 million for the assets, with the right-of-first-refusal to top any winning bid by $2 million.

Anderson thinks UFA would be a good buyer.

“They’re a big enough company and they’ve got a large enough footprint if they could grab ahold of this, I think it could be very successful,” he said.

Banack does not care who ends up with the assets, as long as he and other farmers get paid what they are owed.

“I hope it turns out for everybody and that includes us getting the product we paid for,” he said.

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Announced May 12, the initiative pairs ag-input platform AgList with soil microbiome analytics firm Biome Makers, to introduce a new “badge”-type system signalling when products have undergone independent, science-based testing.

AgList, a brand-new platform launched in January 2025, lets farmers and agronomists browse a curated database of biological inputs. Users can endorse products they’ve had success with, helping others make informed decisions based on shared experiences. The company describes itself as “Yelp for agriculture” — but without the negative reviews.

Biome Makers is a global ag-tech company specializing in soil biology founded in 2015 by biotech entrepreneurs Alberto Acedo and Adrián Ferrero. Its flagship platform, BeCrop, analyzes the functional potential of soil microbial communities in the lab. BeCrop Trials builds on that foundation by measuring how specific inputs affect the soil microbiome under real-world field conditions.

Biome Makers is the first company to contribute field trial data to AgList. Products tested through BeCrop Trials now feature a BeCrop badge on AgList, indicating they’ve undergone independent, science-based evaluation using DNA-based soil analysis.

Building trust

“This partnership is all about increasing transparency and building trust,” says Tyler Nuss, co-founder of AgList. “Our goal is to help the industry cut through the noise, and Biome Makers’ science-first approach gives credibility to the products that earn their badge.”

BeCrop Trials measure changes in the soil microbiome after a product is applied. While the badge doesn’t validate efficacy, it signals the product has been through third-party field trials. Trial results are also published on AgList to further transparency.

“When a user of the platform sees the BeCrop logo, it’s an indication the company has run field trials with BeCrop to understand how their product is impacting the soil microbiome,” says Sunny Kaercher, business development manager at Biome Makers. “It’s an invitation for the grower to review the results.”

The challenge for biologicals

The move comes at a time when biologicals — agricultural inputs derived from living organisms or natural materials — are under growing scrutiny. Interest is rising, but so are questions about how well these products work and how they work at all.

Biologicals face a unique challenge, according to Oleg Yakhin, lead author of a 2017 global review of biostimulants published in Frontiers in Plant Science. Unlike conventional inputs, they often lack a clearly defined mode of action, complicating regulation and product comparisons.

“There are few products for which a specific biochemical target site and known mode of action has been identified,” Yakhin notes.

He also points out that products can come from a wide range of sources — bacteria, fungi, seaweed and more — and that varied manufacturing processes add further complexity. That diversity makes it difficult to group products or predict performance.

Despite these hurdles, he argued that proof of safety and efficacy — regardless of whether the mechanism is fully understood — is essential for broader acceptance.

While Yakhin’s review focuses on biostimulants, the same issues apply across the biologicals category: unclear mechanisms, inconsistent results and limited standardization remain persistent challenges for researchers, companies and growers alike.

Addressing the challenge

Those are exactly the kinds of issues the BeCrop Trials aim to address.

Kaercher says Biome Makers’ lab capabilities allow them to map biological function in the soil — providing over 50 different biological metrics. Depending on trial design, data on yield, fertility, and even plant tissue can be layered in.

“What our technology really enables is an exploration of what a product is doing biologically and whether that’s tied to a measurable effect like yield gain,” she explains.

Biological products are often complex formulations involving multiple species and materials, and their effectiveness depends heavily on environmental conditions. Factors such as soil type, moisture, climate and crop all influence outcomes — but that nuance is often lost. As a result, stories about the failures of biologicals circulate widely among farmers.

“We hear from folks all the time, ‘Yeah, we’ve used biologicals. They didn’t do anything,’” Kaercher says, adding that this perception often stems from unrealistic expectations or a mismatch between the product and the field’s biological needs.

“It’s often a function of the law of diminishing returns,” she says. “If a soil is already sufficient in any given biological function — like nitrogen cycling — then adding a nitrogen-mobilizing bacteria isn’t going to deliver a return on investment.”

That’s why understanding baseline soil biology is essential. Kaercher says soil testing upfront can lead to smarter product recommendations — and, in some cases, show no input is needed at all. In those rare cases where it’s determined yield can’t be improved with a biological, that too should be viewed as a win for the farm.

Modern agriculture often judges the success of an input based on yield alone, and as a result, BeCrop spends a lot of energy focusing on products to increase yield. But yield is not always the most relevant metric.

“Farmers could also be focused on building soil health, sequestering carbon or increasing biodiversity. Those are all metrics we can measure and help predict in our recommendations,” Kaercher says.

Looking ahead

Yakhin’s review also highlights a lack of well-structured field trials and limited communication of results as key barriers to commercial development and grower confidence. The AgList/Biome Makers partnership may help close that gap, bringing third-party trial data directly to a platform farmers already use.

Looking ahead, Kaercher sees an expanding role for soil diagnostics in shaping not only input decisions but overall farm strategy. Properly deployed, biologicals could reduce irrigation needs, cut fungicide use or even enable the soil’s natural defences to manage pathogens.

Whether this partnership will be enough to shift industry skepticism remains to be seen. But as interest in biologicals continues to grow, Kaercher says the need for clearer data and smarter recommendations is more urgent than ever.

“We’re providing real data on what these products are doing,” she says. “The smarter we get as an industry about how to prescribe them, the more success we’ll see.”

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The company is building two new product distribution centres.

The warehouse in Brandon is scheduled to open Sept. 1, 2025, while the one in Grand Prairie, Alta., will begin operations on Jan. 1, 2026.

Follow all of our Ag in Motion coverage at the Western Producer.

Those are two big growth markets for FBN. The company had been working with third party warehouses but decided to take more control of product distribution.

“We think that we can grow the business on our own faster and better by doing it ourselves,” FBN general manager Breen Neeser said during an interview at Ag in Motion 2025.

FBN has a big warehouse in Saskatoon, another in Yorkton and one in Langley, B.C. that it is in the process of selling.

The two new distribution centres will stock all FBN’s agricultural product line.

Neeser said the expansion is not related to competitor AgraCity announcing that it was having cash flow problems, but it hasn’t hurt the project.

“We’ve been able to hire a couple of their former salespeople,” he said.

FBN is also in the process of expanding its crop input offerings beyond agricultural chemicals.

The company recently launched six bulk liquid fertilizer products.

FBN had already dipped its “toe in the water” with its Pro Ag fertilizer products, which were distributed through the Langley warehouse.

However, this is a new venture with a Saskatoon company that manufactures fertilizers for pre-seed and post-seed applications.

Neeser said it is way better to be working with a company in the heart of the Prairie region than attempting to do it from a distance.

“The fertilizer business is freight sensitive,” said Neeser.

“You can only go so far on a truck before you market yourself out on cost.”

The company is selling both nitrogen-based and phosphorous-based products.

“They’re all blended fertilizers,” he said.

Nigel Buffone, senior director of crop protection with FBN, said the company has not forgotten about its core business, launching 10 new crop protection products and co-packs for wheat in 2025.

FBN is attempting to provide farmers with the closest thing to pre-mix products by using its manufacturing facilities to package products together in case sizes such as 40, 160 and 320 acres.

Those co-packs are designed to make life easy for growers, eliminating the math.

Buffone said the company is identifying successful herbicides and bringing those products to its members.

“I think in the cereals market, we will have a solution for every acre next year,” he said.

Neeser said the next venture for the company will be livestock products.

“We’ll probably dip our toe in the water this fall and get into some of those,” he said.

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“AgraCity has experienced some cash flow issues and has been in a process to refinance our business,” the firm said in its message to farmers.

“The process has unfortunately taken much longer than expected and has resulted in product availability issues this spring.”

As a result, the firm will be unable to deliver outstanding product to its customers in a timely manner this spring.

“All outstanding product orders are being cancelled and being converted into a product credit,” AgraCity told its customers.

“We want to inform everyone that the sales team worked tirelessly to the best of their ability to meet the needs of their customers and was caught off guard, as we all were, by the delay of the refinancing efforts.”

Orders not delivered

A farmer from the North Battleford, Sask., area, who requested anonymity, told the Western Producer that he prebought $54,000 of glyphosate from AgraCity that was supposed to show up on his farm during the winter months.

It did not.

“I got calling my representative in the spring and there was no chance of any glyphosate showing up,” said the grower.

“They were hoping for new crop chemical, is what I was told.”

He also purchased $27,000 of glufosinate from the company in the fall of 2024 that never arrived, he alleges.

He has given up on receiving any of the herbicide that he ordered and paid for.

The farmer is speaking to a lawyer about what steps he can take.

A scan of the Better Business Bureau website shows this isn’t the first time customers have claimed the company left them high and dry.

An anonymous complainant says they ordered $34,000 of product from AgraCity in April 2022 and then immediately cancelled the order.

“The product was charged to our credit card and has yet to be reimbursed,” the person stated in the complaint.

AgraCity responded to the complaint, saying that it was in the process of issuing a full refund.

The complaint status is listed as “unresolved” by the bureau.

‘Portfolio of lawsuits’

AgraCity is owned by James Mann and Jason Mann, who are listed as equal shareholders in the company, according to court documents.

The two brothers are directors and officers of AgraCity, with Jason responsible for the day-to-day management of the firm.

James is also the sole registered shareholder of Farmers of North America, although Jason claims to have an ownership stake in that firm.

The two companies are intertwined because AgraCity sells agricultural crop inputs but historically has done so only to farmers who are members of FNA.

The Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan says the two brothers and their companies have been embroiled in a “portfolio of lawsuits” against one another dating back to 2017.

“Most parts of this litigation have yet to reach a conclusion, whether through trial or otherwise,” the court stated in a March 5, 2024, decision.

Stopped deliveries news to Mann

In a statement released June 8, James Mann said he learned on June 6 that AgraCity had stopped delivering prepaid product to producers.

“By court order, I have not been in charge of AgraCity since 2017. Since that time I have been concerned about various issues with the management of AgraCity and have been fighting these issues in court,” he said in the statement.

“In April of last year, I brought an application to have a neutral third party manage or inspect AgraCity’s finances. This application was heard on March 13 of this year, and we are still waiting for the court’s decision.

“I want to assure our members that Farmers of North America will do everything in its power to protect and help them.”

Awan Khurrum, a Regina lawyer who has represented AgraCity, said the litigation between the Mann brothers remains before the courts.

He is not aware of any receivership or creditor protection proceedings against AgraCity.

AgraCity has been operating for 20 years and claims to have saved farmers millions of dollars a year on their crop input bills.

Jason is also the president of Genesis Fertilizers, a company that is proposing to build a nitrogen fertilizer production and distribution plant in Belle Plaine, Sask.

—Updated June 9 to include comments from James Mann.

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Darwin Sobkow was announced Jan. 6 as the company’s new chief executive officer, effective Jan. 10 with the formal retirement of Curt Vossen, the company’s CEO since 1995.

Sobkow served as chief operations officer since 2020 for the Winnipeg-based, privately-held firm, an arm of family-owned James Richardson & Sons.

The company’s ag industry holdings include a network of 55 Prairie grain elevators; port terminals in B.C., Ontario and Quebec; canola crush plants at Lethbridge and Yorkton; oat milling facilities in the three Prairie provinces and one each in the U.S. and U.K.; several further-processing plants; and 93 Prairie ag retail outlets supplying seed and crop inputs to farmers in the region.

During a nearly 30-year stint as CEO, Vossen oversaw much of that expansion, including the acquisition of more grain elevators, mainly during other Prairie grain handlers’ mergers and divestitures—as well as acquisitions such as U.S. durum miller Italgrani USA and the U.S.-based Wesson cooking oil brand.

“Under his leadership and bold vision, Richardson International evolved into a world-class organization with expertise across its vertically integrated agribusiness and food processing operations,” the company said in its Jan. 6 announcement.

Richardson noted Sobkow, who started with Richardson in 1999 as executive vice-president for agribusiness operations and processing, was “instrumental” in those acquisitions and integrations.

His “operational expertise and deep industry knowledge will guide Richardson International into its next phase of growth,” the company said.

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The poll of 858 producers from coast to coast determined that farmers rank climate change as their No. 1 concern.

“When farmers and ranchers were asked an open-ended question—at the very beginning of the poll—about the top challenge for the agricultural sector for the next decade, climate change was the number one answer,” says Farmers for Climate Solutions, a group, that as its name suggests, is focused on climate change mitigation and adaptation within Canadian agriculture.

The organization hired Leger, a market research firm, to conduct the survey.

It was done by phone from Aug. 8 to Sept. 8.

The headline question from the poll asked farmers to identify the top challenge for the agriculture sector over the next 10 years.

The results?

• 17.9 percent said climate change.
• Input costs were 17.2 percent.
• Government policy and regulations, 11.5 percent.
• Market uncertainty/price volatility, 9.8 percent.
• About 5.8 percent of respondents ranked severe weather as their No. 1 challenge over the next decade.

Brent Preston, president of Farmers for Climate Solutions, said the poll result was unexpected.

“I was surprised that climate change was right at the top. I thought it would be a concern for most producers, but I didn’t think it would be the number one concern,” said Preston, a vegetable grower from Creemore, Ont.

Farmers for Climate Solution decided to pay for a poll because it wanted information on how farmers feel about climate change and related issues.

He said it’s important to have this sort of data when meeting with federal and provincial officials.

“We’re hoping it will give us ammunition when we talk to politicians and policy makers,” he said.

“We can now say, ‘look, this is an issue that’s top of mind for producers and we’re hoping governments are going to do more to help up adapt.’ ”

East-west split

The poll suggests that Canadian farmers are anxious about climate change, but the details within the 37-page report tell a more nuanced story.

Eastern farmers are concerned about the climate, while western producers are less so:

• 116 farmers out of 450 respondents (26 per cent) from the East ranked climate change as the biggest challenge over the next decade.
• In the West, 38 of 408 respondents (9.3 per cent) said climate change was the biggest challenge.
• Nearly three times more farmers in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes are worried about climate change.

The gap between East and West is striking, Preston acknowledged.

“There’s a very clear difference in perception or attitude,” he said, adding that farmers across Canada have some concerns about climate change.

“Everywhere in the country, climate change is in the top three.”

In its report, Farmers for Climate Solutions noted that Prairie farmers are less concerned about the issue.

“Input costs and government policies are seen as the top challenges (in the West).”

In more detail, 21 per cent of western farmers said input costs are their top challenge. About 16 per cent said government policy and regulations. Around 12 per cent cited market uncertainty and nine per cent said climate change.

The poll received responses from 858 people across Canada, including 247 farmers from Quebec. That’s nearly 29 per cent of the total for a province that has five per cent of the country’s arable land.

Comparing the total number of poll respondents, 450 out of 858 were from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. The remainder, 408, were from the West.

A critical piece of data that could be missing from the poll is the opinions of large-scale farmers.

Of all the producers who responded, about 50 percent said they have farm revenues of zero to $500,000. Only 7.6 per cent in the survey had revenues of $3 million or higher.

More large producers are likely needed in the survey to paint an accurate picture.

“You might be right. We may have over-represented small farmers,” Preston said, adding it was difficult for Leger to acquire lists and contact information of producers.

“The sample is definitely not perfect…. We’re not going to use these results to say that definitively, X percentage of farmers think (this or that) … but we think the sample is good enough to make some broad inferences.”

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“Lower farm revenue this year and next will reduce the demand for crop inputs,” wrote Leigh Anderson, senior economist with FCC, in analysis posted Aug. 28.

Record U.S. corn and soy yields are pushing commodity prices down. If Canadian farmers have average yields, lower prices could result in negative net returns for some farms, Anderson wrote.

Portions of the Prairies struggled with hot, dry weather this summer. Between July 29 and Aug. 11, more Prairie farms made more than 1,600 hail claims, with the heaviest damage in Alberta, the Canadian Crop Hail Association reported.

Chemical prices have eased, Anderson said. Prices of key active ingredients have fallen, and inventories of chemicals like glyphosate have increased. Agricultural chemical sales are expected to decline by 14 per cent in 2024 and another four per cent in 2025 due to lower prices.

Fertilizer prices have declined throughout 2024. Demand, particularly for nitrogen, has been lower globally. Prices could rise before next year’s crop, Anderson said. China’s export restrictions, paused production in Egypt, and other issues are keeping prices high.

However, “if global crop prices keep falling, it could lead to even lower fertilizer prices,” Anderson wrote.

Demand for domestic fertilizer is a concern. The amount of land used for specific crop affects demand, and fertilizer use also changes on profitability, moisture and soil nutrients. Recent profitability and moisture levels could result in farmers using less fertilizer.

“Soil testing and planning crop inputs are just as important as marketing plans for profitability,” said Anderson.

FCC predicted farmers will spend 3.6 per cent less on fuel next year, though prices tend to rise and fall on global market conditions.

Commercial seed sales are expected to rise five per cent because of higher prices for hybrid seeds like canola, soybeans and corn. Prices for pedigreed seed should be stable.

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Again, if we’ve inadvertently missed something or someone, let us know. And as always, be sure to read and follow label directions.

Authority Strike herbicide

FMC Canada this month launched Authority Strike, a combination of two Group 14 actives, carfentrazone and sulfentrazone, registered for pre-seeding or pre-emergence use in pea, chickpea, fababean, soybean, mustard, wheat (spring and durum), flax and sunflower crops. The company describes the product as “an especially strong tool for kochia, allowing growers to target the weed with a fast burnoff followed by extended control to keep flushing kochia at bay.”

FMC says the product is also effective on other broadleaf weeds such as lamb’s-quarters, pigweed, Russian thistle, wild buckwheat and waterhemp, and can also be tank-mixed with glyphosate.

AvadexMicroActiv herbicide

Gowan announced in September it had picked up a label expansion for Avadex MicroActiv, for the control of wild oats in lentil and chickpea crops.

“Already a cornerstone wild oat management solution for spring and durum wheat, barley, canola, canary seed, mustards, peas and flax, this addition provides more growers the means to combat wild oat populations resistant to Group 1 and 2 modes of action in select fields,” Dale Ziprick, Gowan’s product manager for Avadex brands, said in a release at the time.

Davai A Plus herbicide

Adama’s Davai A Plus, launched last January, is advertised as a broad-spectrum herbicide combining its Group 2 product Davai 80 SL (imazamox) with a Group 1, Arrow All In (clethodim). Davai A Plus is registered for use in imidazolinone-tolerant (Clearfield) lentils as well as in peas, dry beans and soybeans.

“This new registration brings product choice to growers for a crop that historically had none,” Cornie Thiessen, Adama Canada’s general manager, said in a release at the time.

Delaro Complete fungicide

Released previously in Eastern Canada, Delaro Complete has since picked up registration for use in Western Canada on pulse crops including peas, chickpeas and lentils. The Bayer CropScience product combines actives from Groups 3, 7 and 11, which the company said will provide “advanced control of the most important pulse crop diseases while delivering a vital tool for lentil and chickpea growers in combatting increasing pressures of anthracnose and ascochyta.”

By adding fluopyram, a Group 7 active, to the Delaro brand, Bayer said the new offering “enhances white and grey mould control performance and offers extra residual protection.”

In its announcement last July, Bayer said Delaro Complete “should be applied preventively at first flower or the first signs of disease” for best results.

Maxentis fungicide

Adama said earlier this month its Maxentis fungicide, for use in lentil, pea, canola and soybean crops, is the first in Canada to combine prothioconazole (Group 3) and azoxystrobin (Group 11) into “one easy-to-use product.”

Andre Barabach, Adama Canada’s fungicide product manager, said Maxentis allows growers “to spray faster and more efficiently across multiple crops, and across multiple stages of plant growth and disease development.”

Adama said Maxentis also includes its Asorbital 2 Formulation Technology, which creates “systemic and translaminar movement (and) allows the fungicide to spread across the entire plant, even when sprayed on top of dense canopies, creating longer-lasting and more complete coverage.”

RevyPro fungicide

BASF launched RevyPro in May as “a new standard for disease management in pulses for western Canadian growers,” saying reports of disease resistance in pulse crops beginning in 2019 caused “a pivot” in the company’s approach.

The product is the first pulse fungicide in Canada using BASF’s Revysol, which is based on a Group 3 fungicide, mefentrifluconazole. RevyPro combines that active with another Group 3 azole fungicide, prothioconazole. Revysol’s mode of action “allows it to bind to the target site—the pathogen—more powerfully than conventional triazole fungicides,” BASF says.

RevyPro, whose listed crops include peas, lentils, chickpeas and various dry beans, is registered for control of anthracnose on lentils and dry beans; ascochyta blight; mycosphaerella blight on field peas; and white mould on all crops except dry beans. It’s also registered for suppression of grey mold and chocolate spot; powdery mildew; and, on dry beans, white mould.

Select Plus herbicide

UPL in July announced it would launch Select Plus, which combines a “fop” and “dim” product from the Group 1 family of ACCase inhibitors. It puts UPL’s Select brand of clethodim together with quizaolfop-p-ethyl for “improved tank mixing capability” in post-emergent control of various annual and perennial weeds in canola, pulses and soybeans.

Adding quizaolfop-p-ethyl “ensures Select Plus can improve growers’ ability to tackle hard-to-kill, post-emergent annual and perennial grasses — stopping the weeds in their tracks,” Jon Gough, UPL’s Canada portfolio marketing lead, said in a release at the time.

Vibrance Total fungicide

Available for the 2024 season, Vibrance Total is billed as the only pulse seed treatment on the market with the active ingredient picarbutrazox, providing “highly effective” protection against 13 different pythium species found in soils in Western Canada, Syngenta Canada said in September.

The product, which also includes thiabendazole, sedaxane, metalaxyl-M and fludioxonil on its list of actives, represents five different fungicide groups in total. The product is listed for control of various seed-borne and soil-borne diseases on beans, lentils, lupins, fava beans, peas and chickpeas.

Zetigo PRM fungicide

Corteva in March introduced a novel Group 21 active fungicide, Adavelt, billed as the “first broad-spectrum picolinamide fungicide for use against ascomycota pathogens in major crops grown worldwide.”

The first Adavelt product out of the gate in Canada is Zetigo PRM, which, as our Mark Halsall reported at the time, was made available for the 2023 season for use against anthracnose in lentils. Its current label also covers it for suppression of blackleg in canola.

Based on UK-2A, a naturally occurring compound found in soil bacteria, Corteva had previously launched the picolinamide family with fenpicoxamid (Inatreq), a cereal crop fungicide.

Adavelt’s active ingredient, florylpicoxamid, has “a novel target site of action in many crops with no cross-resistance to other modes of action,” thus can be used in integrated pest management programs as a resistance management tool. Zetigo also includes pyraclostrobin (Group 11).

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“We wanted to create a way to promote our proprietary products that was different and fun for our customers,” said Derek Flad, agronomic innovation manager for the Southern Alberta Division of Nutrien Ag Solutions, in a release.

Flad is co-leading Nutrien Ag Solution’s Hometown Yield Challenge with Shelby LaRose, Crop Nutrition Product Manager for Canada.

Nutrien launched the program on February 2, and they are inviting farmers across western Canada to enroll in the challenge. The submission deadline is Friday, March 1.

The challenge will run until November 2024, when harvest totals will be tallied and the two top-yielding growers will be awarded $20,000 to go to a local organization of their choice. The three second-place winners will each be awarded $5,000 to go to a local organization of their choice.

“Competition always gets people fired up, but creating a benefit for the communities that our growers live and work in will not only engage our growers but their neighbours as well,” said Flad.

Growers participating in the challenge will have to seed at least 80 acres and will be required to use a number of proprietary Nutrien products, the details of which can be found on Nutrien’s Hometown Yield Challenge web page.

In a media release, Jesse Hamonic, Nutrien Canada’s vice president and country lead, said programs like this, which put a focus on community, are an important component of the work they do.

“While Nutrien Ag Solutions is a large, global company, we really pride ourselves on our focus and commitment to connecting with the communities where our employees and customers live and work,” said Hamonic.

For those interested in following along, farmers will be invited to post photos throughout the challenge with the hashtag #NutrienHometownPride.

—Don Norman writes for the Manitoba Co-operator from Winnipeg.

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