A weekly report prepared by the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF) and the Ministry of Rural Affairs (MRA). If you require further information, regarding this report, call the Elora Resource Centre at 519-846-0941. Office hours: 8:30am to 5pm. For technical information, call the Agricultural Information Contact Centre at 1-877-424-1300 or visit the OMAF and MRA website: www.ontario.ca/omafra.
CONTROLLING PESTS AROUND FARM BUILDINGS
by Wayne Du, On-Farm Food Safety
Specialist, OMAF and MRA
Controlling pests around farm buildings is critical to food safety. Pests can potentially carry pathogens, contaminate food and spread disease. To protect food and your business put control measures in place. Here are some general tips:
– Keep pests out: Seal holes or cracks. Repair windows, walls and roof. Install screens for vents, eaves and windows. Keep a 0.5-1.0 m border around buildings free of debris, weeds and other vegetation to eliminate harborage areas;
– Discourage them: Cut off food and water sources by keeping buildings clean, fix leaky taps and pipes and deny access to other water sources;
– Catch and exterminate them: Use traps and glue boards/strips to catch them or in non-food production areas use chemical products approved for use in Canada to exterminate them; and
– Monitor control practices. Evaluate pest control practices at regular intervals by observing if there is a pest population reduction or elimination. Adjust practices if necessary.
Food safety is everyone’s responsibility. To attend one of our free online workshops on pest control and other important food safety topics, visit us at: www.ontario.ca/foodsafety or call: 1-877-424-1300. Food safety practices keep agri-food businesses competitive, productive and sustainable.
FALL WEED CONTROL IN WHEAT
by Peter Johnson, Cereals Specialist, OMAF and MRA
During the spring and summer of 2013, I took a straw survey of how many growers sprayed their fields getting planted into wheat with a burndown herbicide, or with some fall herbicide once the wheat emerged. I was shocked! Less than 5% of growers utilize this weed control opportunity. It should be 95%, not 5%! So here is a list of reasons and options.
• Better weed control: Control of winter annuals and perennials is far better in the fall than in the spring. The weeds are translocating to the roots, where the herbicide needs to go, rather than to new growth. Control of things like dandelion, perennial sowthistle, stinkweed, and many more are all much better with fall applications. And it is so nice not to have yellow wheat fields in the spring!
• Control of resistant fleabane: Roundup resistant Canada fleabane is spreading rapidly throughout the province. Most fleabane germinates in the fall, or very early spring. Inclusion of products like Eragon or dicamba in the fall will give much better fleabane control. Eragon even gives residual control into the spring.
• Chickweed control: Many growers on sandy soil fight chickweed every time they grow wheat. Trouble is, chickweed almost grows under the snow, it is that cold tolerant. By the time you can spray it in the spring, it is already flowering, and often has set seed. The damage is done. Again, most chickweed germinates in the fall. Fall glyphosate helps. Fall Eragon or Refine Extra give 90% + control, even providing some residual into the spring.
• Red clover: With heavy, early weed pressure in the spring from dandelion or chickweed, red clover is often out of the picture. We have no herbicide that will kill the weed in the spring without killing the clover. With most fall applied herbicides, the clover can be applied in the spring without injury. This provides a clean field, and clover for soil structure and nitrogen for the next corn crop.
• Options galore: There are more options than you may think for fall herbicides. Glyphosate and Eragon must be applied before the wheat emerges, of course. But Refine Extra products, bromoxynil / MCPA products, and Infinity are all registered for fall use. Depending on which weeds you have, there is almost always a fall option, whether the wheat has emerged or not. (OMAFRA Publication 75, Guide to Weed Control www.omafra.gov.on.ca/englishcrops/pub75/chapter8.htm).
• NO 2,4-D!: The one caveat to fall weed control – stay away from 2,4-D. Fall 2,4-D can actually impact heading and pollination of the wheat crop the next spring. Weird. But real. No fall 2,4-D!
Whatever the herbicide, do the right thing. If you can at all, spray in the fall.
COMING EVENTS
Oct. 11 – 14: Erin Fall Fair. For more information call 519-833-2808.
Oct. 15: Return Your Unwanted or Obsolete Pesticides and Food Animal Medications at Woodrill Farms, Guelph. For more information call 519-821-1018.
Oct. 18 – 20: Walkerton Fall Fair. For more information call 519-881-1251.
Oct. 23: Return Your Unwanted or Obsolete Pesticides and Food Animal Medications at North Wellington Co-op. For more information call 519-338-2331.
Nov. 7 – 9: 19th Dairy Sheep Symposium at the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre, 700 Hespeler Road, Cambridge. To register please call the OSMA office at 519-836-0043 or email admin@ontariosheep.org. Check www.dsana.org for more detailed information.
