wheat plant waving hello

FEED ME: Can well-fed plants fend off diseases and insects?

We examine an Idaho farmer’s program for crop self-defence

Blake Matthews works with agronomist Jared Cook on an intensive cropping program that improves plant health and soil health, reduces pesticide use and somewhat increases profits. We check in with Prairie experts to see how that program’s principles could work in this region.





Wheat leaf rust. (James Kolmer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Digital supercluster backs precision fungicide development

Project aims at wheat leaf rust, reducing pesticide load

A West Coast ag tech company in the crop pest control business is setting its sights on wheat leaf rust, with support from one of Canada’s five research superclusters — but not the cluster you might expect. Out of the five federally-supported superclusters launched in early 2018, Protein Industries Canada has been most closely linked […] Read more

As corn acreage expands on the Prairies, there will be a whole new crop that can host fusarium spores.


Still no magic bullet for fusarium head blight

There’s still no cure, but at least there’s no sign of fungicide resistance. Yet

“We have no magic bullet.” When Randy Kucher, associate professor at the Crop Development Centre/Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan, said that at the beginning of his presentation, the mood in the roomful of CropSphere attendees deflated just a bit. Fusarium head blight has stolen yield from many durum and spring wheat […] Read more