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Half of Alberta fields have herbicideresistant wild oats The short-term gain from growing profitable crops too frequently will bring long-term pain, say weed experts
BY JENNIFER BLAIR AF Staff
F
or Craig Shaw, herbicide resistance is a wreck waiting to happen. “It’s manageable at the present moment, but I wouldn’t guarantee it will remain manageable moving forward,” said Shaw, who has widespread herbicide resistance on his farm near Lacombe. “We’ve learned our lesson in terms of staying on top of weed control and making sure we don’t have wrecks, but it’s an ongoing battle to try to get ahead of that and get it back to a normal situation. “It only takes one bad year, and then you can fight with that for five to 10 years after that.” Shaw first noticed Group 2-resistant cleavers and chickweed on his farm several years ago — a “difficult situation” because of how common the Group 2 mode of action is in herbicides. But the herbicide-resistant wild oats he found three years ago are quickly becoming a bigger problem. “With the wild oat issue, we’ve put winter wheat in there hoping that we could get enough crop competition that it could keep the wild oats in check so that we could get away from herbicides for a year. That didn’t work as well as we hoped.” Shaw’s problem is a common one for Alberta growers, said federal research scientist Neil Harker. While certain areas of the province have issues with herbicide-resistant chickweed, cleavers, and kochia, wild oat is the most herbicide-resistant weed in the province. While most of the resistance is to Group 1 herbicides, wild oats is also a high risk for glyphosate, or Group 9, resistance, and more than 10 per cent of fields in Alberta now have Group 2-resistant weeds. “Wild oat is the big one, and it’s
see WILD OATS } page 7
The big shuffle: Changes to wheat classes could hit you in the pocketbook The bar has been raised for the CPS and CWRS classes, which means some old favourites may sell at a discount
Starting next year, growers will need to pay close attention to which variety they’re growing and how it will be classified under the new system, said Alberta Agriculture’s Mark MacNaughton. PHOTO: JENNIFER BLAIR
BY JENNIFER BLAIR AND ALLAN DAWSON AF Staff / Lacombe
I
t turns out the customer is always right — at least when it comes to Canada’s wheat classification system. “Concerns from our overseas clients about gluten strength” has prompted a revamp of the wheat classification system, said Mark MacNaughton, director of field crops for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
Q FEVER
“The Canadian Grain Commission has changed the bar. It has raised the gluten strength (requirement) up.” On Aug. 1, the commission added a new wheat class — Canada Northern Hard Red (CNHR). American Dark Northern Spring varieties Faller, Prosper, and Elgin ND, currently in the Canada Western Interim Wheat class, will move to the new CNHR class and the interim class will end. These three varieties have slightly lower protein than wheats in Canada’s premiere Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) class, but are higher yielding.
Changes are also coming to the CWRS and Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) class but not until Aug. 1, 2018, when 25 CWRS and four CPSR wheats will move to the CNHR class. Among the CWRS wheats, there are some popular varieties including Harvest and Kane (see sidebar). The grain commission had initially planned to move them in 2017, but delayed it a year to give the industry more time to adjust. The Canada Western General Purpose (CWGP) and Canada Feed Wheat classes
see WHEAT CLASSES } page 6
you don’t want to get it } PAGE 13