A fall rye crop ripens in June 2025 near Selkirk, Manitoba.

Keep it clean on pre-harvest chemical use

Farmers urged to toe the line on pre-harvest pesticide application and market product restrictions to avoid grain marketing headaches

Canadian farmers urged to toe the line on pre-harvest pesticide application and market product restrictions to avoid grain marketing headaches.


Canadian producers must navigate conflicting global pesticide and residue rules that can clash with domestic approvals, risking market access and requiring careful management and industry support, according to industry experts. Photo: Greg Berg

Keep it clean on pre-harvest chemical use

Farmers urged to toe the line on pre-harvest pesticide application and market product restrictions to avoid grain marketing headaches

Canadian farmers urged to toe the line on pre-harvest pesticide application and market product restrictions to avoid grain marketing headaches.


Giorgos Zeikos, apple farmer and president of the Agia apple producers’ cooperative checks the fruits at an apple orchard in the village of Agia, in Thessaly, Greece, June 12, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Alexandros Avramidis

Europe’s illegal pesticide trade surges as farmers cut costs

At least 14 per cent of pesticides used on EU fields today are illegal

As the cost of spraying crops with pesticides becomes increasingly expensive, farmers in Greece's agricultural heartland have turned to a cheaper alternative: liquids in unlabeled plastic bottles smuggled over land and sea.

A ground spray rig applies nematodes to a corn field.

Using nematodes to control crop pests

Alberta research and U.S. commercialization suggest soil-dwelling nematodes could become a practical option for Prairie pest control

Alberta research and U.S. commercialization suggest soil-dwelling nematodes could become a practical option for Prairie pest control.


Two adult two-striped grasshoppers stand face-to-face on a green surface..

What pests are bugging your forage crops?

Grasshoppers, cutworms and armyworms can cause major damage if left unchecked. Learn how to scout and manage them

Manitoba Agriculture entomologist John Gavloski highlights several key insect pests that can affect forage crop production and shares strategies for managing them.

U.S. President Donald Trump is seated at a table next to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

U.S. farm groups call Kennedy’s ‘MAHA’ report unscientific, fear-based

The health report takes aim at crop protection products like glyphosate and ‘ultra-processed’ foods

Several U.S. agriculture groups say the federal Make America Healthy Again report, released Thursday, is fear-based and anti-science. The report takes aim at what U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy has called a crisis of increasing rates of childhood obesity, diabetes, cancer, mental health disorders and other health issues.

A canola cotyledon shows damage from flea beetles feeding.

Canola can be protected from flea beetle threat

Following best practices can help producers beat back flea beetles and prevent financially damaging crop stress

Flea beetles wreak around $300 million in damages annually across the Prairies and were named the greatest economic risk to canola by last year’s Canola Council of Canada grower survey.