A brown mustard flower in bloom. As of mid-October, brown mustard is priced at just over 30 cents/lb.

Leveling the crop protection playing field for mustard

The challenges of growing mustard in the shadow of canola

While mustard growers face many of the same agronomic challenges as canola growers, they often find themselves with fewer crop protection options than canola growers do. So when Bayer recently announced its Buteo Start seed treatment for flea beetles would be available for mustard seed, mustard farmers welcomed the news. “That’s going to help us […] Read more

Some biostimulant products are meant to help see crops through environmental stressors such as unusual cold or heat.

Biologicals aren’t the silver bullet

The products can be complements, not replacements, for other inputs

Glacier FarmMedia — Biological products have been touted as replacements for synthetic chemistry and fertilizer in crop production, but that may be a false promise. According to one pitch, if farmers add biological X to the soil, they can cut nitrogen rates by 15 pounds per acre. According to another, biological Y can control a […] Read more


Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada requires that all ingredients, as well as the percentage of each, must be on the label of a product sold in Canada. Your job as the product user is to read that product label.

Perceptions and misconceptions versus realities in agriculture

Practical Research: In the court of public opinion, the drama can fog the facts

Since my retirement from Alberta Agriculture in 2002 I’ve acted as a legal expert in a number of lawsuits. Often, when a farmer is sued by a lawyer on behalf of a client, the farmer will immediately seek his own lawyer or lawyers for advice. While the lawyer may be well apprised of provincial and […] Read more

Freshly-sprayed pots and loaded petri dishes for the dose response work with wood vinegar and potassium nitrate. The compounds were placed with the seed in the petri dishes while -- for the potted work – seeds were deposited in the soil and sprayed at 200 litres per hectare.

Wake weeds up and let Mother Nature sort them out

Researcher finds value in wood vinegar in unique weed-killing process

Glacier FarmMedia — It makes some intuitive sense: stimulate weeds’ growth at the wrong time of the year and let the winter frost kill them off. The challenge, says a scientist, is finding the right stimulant to wake them up. Shaun Sharpe, a weed researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Saskatoon, may have […] Read more






The use of drones to deliver field pesticides, such as in this illustration, has an uphill road ahead, not just in terms of regulation but in technical development.

Don’t hold your breath for a drone sprayer

The dynamics of spraying via drone are complex and unforgiving — as are regulations

Glacier FarmMedia — Precision agriculture has simplified many on-farm practices and procedures, particularly in the past five years as seen in the rush to automate tractors, planters and weed management systems. But those are two-dimensional applications, and although those can go awry and complicate a grower’s plans, adding a third dimension — in the air […] Read more