A healthy wheat head at left and one with severe symptoms of fusarium head blight at right. (Keith Weller photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Pearce: Multiple modes of action an emerging reality for fungicides

As growers face more challenges from weeds, diseases and insects, many researchers, agronomists, advisers and farmers have shifted thinking from “control” of pests to “managing” them. Some of this trend is attributable to single-mode-of-action products and a reliance on one or two chemistries or technologies — but the adaptability of weed, disease and insect species […] Read more

(Arysta.cl)

UPL to buy crop chem firm Arysta

Indian chemical manufacturer UPL has raised the financial backing for an all-cash deal to become what’s expected to be the world’s fifth biggest crop chemical firm. UPL on July 20 announced it will pay $4.2 billion to buy 100 per cent of Arysta LifeScience — the maker of Everest and Inferno herbicides, among other products […] Read more



Bayer’s Zone Spray is currently set up to help target sclerotinia in canola, but there are plans to incorporate other crop and disease combinations in the future.

Bayer Digital Farming launches Zone Spray

This new cloud-based program helps farmers spray only the right acres

This summer, canola growers will likely again be faced with the tough decision of whether or not to spray fields with a fungicide to protect the crop from sclerotinia. Spraying unnecessarily can mean wasted inputs, but failing to protect crops when needed could also mean significant yield losses. Even if producers decide to spray fungicide, […] Read more


August 1, 2014, the crop looked great.

FHB: a disease of even-numbered years

It seems unlikely that FHB strikes every second year, but the data backs it up

This is an update of a piece about fusarium head blight (FHB) we did about one year ago now. To be honest, much of it is actually “cut and paste” from last year. I’ve never done that before, but it seems appropriate for this situation. We are just adding another year of data. In agronomy […] Read more

(Thinkstock photo)

Honeybees’ attraction to fungicide ‘unsettling’

London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Honeybees are attracted to a fungicide used in agriculture with “unsettling implications” for global food production, a U.S. scientist said on Tuesday. Tests carried out by a team from the University of Illinois showed bees preferred to collect sugar syrup laced with the fungicide chlorothalonil over sugar syrup alone. […] Read more


Western bumblebee. (Stephen Ausmus photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. study links bumblebee declines to fungicide use

A new look at the environmental factors around declining bumblebee populations and ranges points to a less-than-usual suspect: fungicides. “Insecticides work; they kill insects. Fungicides have been largely overlooked because they are not targeted for insects, but fungicides may not be quite as benign — toward bumblebees — as we once thought,” Scott McArt, assistant […] Read more



Blackleg in canola.

Helping our plants to help themselves

One day, farmers may be able to use natural products to fight blackleg and other diseases

New research that could lead to a biological alternative to chemical fungicides began with work into food safety. “We were interested in whether food-fermenting lactobacilli would produce molecules that prevent fungal growth,” says Dr. Michael Gaenzle, who is leading the research into antifungal lipids at the University of Alberta. Gaenzle’s team came across some molecules […] Read more

blackleg in canola

Blackleg management and agronomy

Agronomy tips... from the field

Three main tools go into a successful blackleg management strategy in canola: seed genetics, seed treatment and foliar fungicides. Blackleg genetics, along with seed treatments, can help you get into the season and established while protecting seedlings from blackleg for the first few weeks after seeding. At the two- to six-leaf stage, consider using a […] Read more