lygus bug

Lambda-cy back in the toolbox

After two years reviewing updated data, regulators rule in favour of a popular pest control product

Prairie farmers are welcoming the return of some important insecticides to the crop protection toolbox — although there’s still some headshaking over why use of the products was interrupted in the first place, and why it took two years for the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) to re-evaluate registration data. Although producers such as […] Read more


One gap created by the absence of lambda-cy products could be effective control of lygus bugs.

Editor’s Column: Important safety report released and lambda-cy update

In the March 7 issue of Grainews, Lee Hart wrote two in-depth features on what 2023 looks like without lambda-cyhalothrin products, which provide cost-effective and efficient means of controlling common crop insect pests. Starting this April, Health Canada and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) have introduced restrictions on the use of insecticides containing the […] Read more

News that a cost-effective insecticide that controls a wide range of pests will no longer be available this April is causing disbelief among farmers.

Farmers discuss how lambda-cyhalothrin regulation changes will affect them in 2023

Concerns include the loss of another crop protection tool, lack of science-based reasons for excluding feed crops from the label and costs and availability of alternative insecticides

Western Canadian farmers are hoping that common sense prevails in Ottawa before a potentially serious outbreak of insect crop pests play havoc with grain, oilseed and pulse crops across the Prairies this growing season. News that a cost-effective insecticide that controls a wide range of pests like grasshoppers and flea beetles won’t be available to […] Read more


Photo: BirdShutterB/iStock/Getty Images

Rodent poisons allowed on B.C. farms during temporary ban

British Columbia has temporarily banned a stronger class of rodent poisons pending a review of their effects on non-target wildlife, but farm uses will be exempt. The province on July 21 announced an 18-month prohibition on sales and use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs). The second-generation products are “more powerful” than the previous generation and […] Read more

A high clearance sprayer on a field in a prairie landscape

Ontario report backs value of glyphosate

Thirty years of crop data support economic and environmental value

The value of glyphosate to the agriculture industry, the economy and the environment is getting a bad and uninformed wrap from critics, say two long-time experts in agronomy and pesticide regulation fields who have reviewed a mountain of data compiled by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) which shows just the opposite. […] Read more


(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Environment commissioner criticizes neonic registrations

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s official environmental watchdog on Tuesday expressed concern that authorities were allowing the long-term use of pesticides linked to bee deaths despite not having enough information about the products. Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) can grant a five-year provisional license to some products to give manufacturers time to provide […] Read more

What’s it take to produce new pesticides?

What’s it take to produce new pesticides?

Farmers know a lot about using pesticides. Here’s a chance to learn about how chemical companies dream them up, produce them and market them to you

Have you ever wondered how chemical companies create and launch new pesticides? How much it costs them, how they decide what it will cost you and how they come up with those names? Well, we were wondering the same thing at Grainews, so we talked to Kelly Bennett. Bennett manages Dow AgroSciences’ cereal broadleaf herbicides […] Read more


honeybee on a canola flower

The latest buzz on bees and neonics

Ontario government proposes restricted use of neonic-treated seed

The Ontario government has released its proposed regulatory changes to the provincial Pesticides Act to restrict the sale and use of corn and soybean seed treated with neonicotinoids in the province — and to say Ontario’s grain farmers aren’t pleased would be an understatement. According to provincial agriculture minister Jeff Leal, the intent is to […] Read more