July 2008 Archives
I just watched a high quality video — in terms of both content and imagery — called "The New Challenge for Agriculture" at www.potashcorp.com. The Saskatchewan company is booming these days, with expansions planned for all three of its mines. Potash Corp CEO Bill Doyle says the company will increase production from 10 million tonnes this year to 18 million tonnes within the next six years to keep up with global demand.
The video has commentary from Mark Pearson, Iowa farmer and host of Market to Market, Richard Brock, commodity analyst, and Keith Collins, former chief economist with the USDA. Collins quoted a UN projection that arable land per person will drop to 0.5 acres by 2030, down from 1.1 acres in 1960. That means productivity per acre must continue to rise to keep us fed. This ties into the positive outlook for a company like Potash Corp.
To see the video, click here then look for the cow photo with "The New Challenge for Agriculture" heading. Click on "watch video."
I get the weekly newsletter from CUESA, a group in San Francisco that runs a major farmers' market among many other things. It had an article in this week's newsletter about what farms are doing to cut down on fuel consumption. I've included the article below. Granted, these are California farms that do a lot of business through direct sales, but you might get inspired by some of them. I'd also like to hear about your tips for reducing fuel costs. Send them by e-mail and I'll share them with Grainews readers.
Here is the CUESA article:
You could call it a labor of love. Each Saturday, either Tory or Rebecca Torosian of Tory Farms will drive the farm’s grapes and stone fruit 212 miles to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. The two-way trip, which would have cost them 80 dollars a year ago, now costs around 140 dollars.
California might be the best state in the union for growing food, but transporting it here is another story. As of July 21, the average price* for regular gas in California was $4.46 per gallon, considerably higher than the national $4.06 per gallon average.
Farmers like the Torosians are feeling the pinch and taking steps to stay afloat. Rebecca says that in years past Tory Farms used a gas card that allowed them to fill up at any hour of the day for an extra surcharge. Now they pay solely in cash to avoid the surcharge. The shift has meant the farmers need to plan ahead, but they say it’s “a lot better than waiting for that huge bill at the end of the month.” The farmers have also had to raise the price of their fruit, but not by much. “We know the consumer isn’t getting a raise, either,” Rebecca adds.
Higher gas prices may also encourage some farmers to seek out gas-free and other low-carbon alternatives. Those who already have are reaping the benefits. Take Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm. He fuels his truck with recycled vegetable oil he picks up from two San Francisco restaurants that are on his weekly delivery route. Read more about the truck in the Eatwell blog.
David Winsberg of Happy Quail Farms is another example. On Tuesdays, and during the early and late months of the season when his load is smaller, he transports his specialty peppers and other veggies to the market in a rare electric Ford pickup truck. The vehicle was an investment, but one that has made a lot of financial sense for the comparatively short 34-mile drive from Palo Alto. David pays a hefty downtown rate to park in a nearby garage where several of the spots are equipped with electric vehicle plug-ins. But even with that cost, he says he spends about 30 per cent less than the cost of a gas-fueled round trip because the electricity itself only puts him out $1.50 each way.
“I don’t think there will be a silver bullet any time soon,” he said recently, from behind a busy stall at the Tuesday market. “There’s enough technology out there that we could all be doing a little more to lessen our footprints.”
Kirsten Olson of Hunter Orchards says that she anticipates a day when she and her husband might have to stop making the 300-mile-each-way commute from their farm near the Oregon border, but it’s not a day they’re looking forward to. For them the draw is not just the sales but the cultural exchange.
“For us it’s a delight—to come to this market, to interact, to see the other growers,” says Olsen, who has cut her time in the market to a few weeks per year. “We get to take all of this energy back to dinky Siskiyou county with its six signal lights and share with the farmers there. It has to do with the migration of ideas.”
John Kapicki has never seen such good fields with so little rain. His farm near Andrew, Alta., had three and a half inches of rain as of yesterday, when normal is around nine inches. Yet his canola is tall and lush and "heading for 60 bushels if we get a rain," John says. The photo shows him in that same field. "Is rain in the forecast?," I asked him yesterday. "Yep, for today," he said, adding that "You've got to be optimistic. Not just in farming, but in anything."
John has been writing for Grainews off and on for years, and I had just edited one of his articles for the September issue. I had called to clarify one of his points, and of course, we got onto the topic of crop conditions. He said the foot of snow just before seeding has saved them. It did delay spring work, and crops are about a week late but catching up.
John enjoys seeing farmers take pride in their work, and he says there are a few good young farmers in his area "in fierce competition to be the best." Their rows are straight, their fields are clean, he says. I asked if they were making money. "I think so, yeah, especially with grain prices where they are."
Every year of late, Grainews has dedicated its two October issues to the "seed" theme. Harvest or just after harvest is when farmers think long and hard about rotations and seed varieties for the following year. We want to give you more to think about, providing articles on new varieties and other considerations when it comes to seed choice.
I know SeCan is working on at least one new "general purpose" wheat variety. Nexera has Roundup Ready in line for registration, and the other big names in canola will have their own new hybrids. Peas and other legumes will be popular again in 2009 with current fertilizer prices. I'm opening up my e-mail in box to your ideas. Would you like more information on something specific? Send me a note and I'll add your suggestion to my list. Whether it makes the short list of articles that go into the paper remains to be seen, but if it's on the long list, at least it has a chance.
Here is a special treat for Grainews readers and everyone else. This is the long version of Mike Jubinville's market column for the August issue, which just went to print yesterday. Here is Mike's take on fertilizer prices heading into 2009, written July 18:
I’ve wrestled real hard with this subject. Many growers are concerned enough about production and marketing issues for 2008 crops, but now we are already being forced to consider 2009 production, especially as it relates to seemingly runaway rising production costs.
And when it comes to fertilizer issues, I’m afraid there just is no easy answer to this one. Many readers have called or e-mailed these past few weeks in particular, wondering what to do about fertilizer for next year. The sudden surge in interest lately has taken me aback, so I started calling around a few contacts in the retail and wholesale trade for some perspective on the fertilizer market outlook.
My conclusion from these talks: again, no easy answers. From a supply/demand perspective, North America needs to be considered a “continental” market. There is no boundary at the border with respect to the fertilizer market. Growers in Saskatchewan compete for available nitrogen product with growers in Manitoba and Alberta the same as we must compete with demand from growers in Illinois and Iowa. It’s one big unhappy market for the grower these days.
And to make matters more difficult and complicated, North America is net deficit in nitrogen (N) supply. With fertilizer plant and production rationalization over the past decade, the U.S. for example must import 50 per cent of the N it now consumes per year. Two dozen nitrogen plants permanently shut their doors since 2000, and seven phosphate plants have between 1999 and 2006. A handful of domestic ammonia plants are scheduled to reopen in the next few months, but since so much fertilizer manufacturing capacity has moved offshore, prices for natural gas and oil don't dictate fertilizer prices quite like they did only five years ago. And again, we are a continental market, so despite good N production capabilities here on the Prairies, we must compete for that supply within the grander continental context.
Global demand soars
Steady increases in population and continued strong economic growth, particularly in large and rapidly developing countries such as China and India, are boosting the demand for more protein-rich and grain- intensive food. In addition, persistently high energy prices are driving the rapid development of large biofuels initiatives in nearly every energy-deficit or grain-surplus country around the globe.
That combination is fueling an increasingly strong nutrient demand outlook. For example, the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) in June projected that world nutrient use will increase more than 21 million tonnes from 2006 to 2011. (See the chart.)
To add further to such a development, growers here in Canada and the U.S. can be rendered at a competitive disadvantage in the offshore N market. For example, in Argentina urea has been capped at US$410 per tonne, while government packages in Brazil and India assist funding for fertilizer use. China is a country that in previous years has been a net supplier of N. Not in the year going forward though as government policy changed two months ago to restrict exports out of that country, further contributing to an increasingly competitive global market for fertilizers.
So when China's recent earthquake knocked out some of the country's urea capacity, fertilizer buyers here in North America felt the tremors. And the fertilizer industry continues to watch nervously as the Chinese government's moves to discourage fertilizer exports by slapping a 135 per cent tariff on exported product.
So in a nutshell for as far as I’m willing to project, relief from the high cost of fertilizers seems limited for the year ahead and perhaps years into the future. We have typically seen a seasonal tendency to the ebb and flow of prices and supply/demand relationships each year. Following the heavy demand of spring usage here in North America, there is a tendency for prices to lighten up offering the best pricing opportunities of year typically in the summer to early fall season. In nine years out of 10, fertilizer prices are cheaper in the fall than the following spring.
This year, who is really to say. We are seeing an exceptional year across the board for commodity markets and perhaps a seasonal lull in price will not be seen this year. The price trend at this time remains flat to higher.
Will prices rise?
Should growers be pricing fertilizer for 2009 requirements in this charged environment? Like you, sticker shock gives me “deer-in-the-headlights” paralysis. Talking to a couple of independent Prairie fertilizer retailers, they certainly acknowledge the high priced situation the market currently finds itself in. They're having the annual debate on whether enough supply will be available for the next growing cycle.
However, to a man they also believe that a certain large grain company has been calling up growers and further stirring the pot, suggesting growers better get something done soon before the next round of price increases.
Are higher prices yet to come? Well certainly that is a good possibility. Should we all be panicked into action? That I’m not so sure of. I’m still thinking some measure of lull can yet develop in the summer months to perhaps at least give us some slightly better pricing opportunity, but that’s nothing more than a hunch at this time.
Fertilizer costs have recently stabilized because...
(a) prices are high,
(b) nobody knows what price will adequately ration demand, and
(c) users in aggregate don’t yet have conviction that high commodity price is to likely hang-around longer than thought.
World ammonia prices increased sharply toward the end of June. The prospect of added supply from the Terra plant at Donaldsonville, Louisiana and reduced corn sidedress demand due to bad weather in the U.S. Corn Belt were unable to overcome the effects of reduced supply from the loss of production from the Burrup plant in Western Australia and more than a few plant maintenance turnarounds in Russia, Eastern Europe and North Africa.
Ammonia prices increased by $75 per tonne to US$585 to $590 cif (cost and freight) Tampa. Medium term, Indian demand could drop sharply and plants returning to production after turnarounds could begin to offer ammonia at lower prices.
That said, strength in the urea market is maintained at this time with demand from South American and Southeast Asian markets...and those buyers have few options with China no longer a source of supply given their recently introduced export restrictions and only limited volumes available from Indonesia.
Phosphates have become a huge expense, as growers globally feeling the price pinch seem to be skipping or sharply reducing application where possible. While too early to tell, lower phosphate demand could help offset a potential lack of Chinese 4th quarter exports.
What to do
What happens next in this market is a difficult call. Prices rose in June when normally we’d begin to see a break. I'd like to think we'll see another dip before it's over.
However, I don't see fertilizer being less expensive over the winter and next spring than I do now. Into the foreseeable future, supply growth cannot resolve the 2008-09 supply/demand imbalance, which means resolution must come from demand rationing. As such, given prevailing global commodity price, export restrictive policy (as in China), fertilizer-use subsidies in some countries, current prices are still not high enough to get the world demand rationing job done.
So we don’t expect any sustained turn lower for this market. The question is whether the carrying costs justify contracting it now.
If a grower does have spare cash on hand to make fertilizer procurement part of one’s near-term plans...then perhaps that would make some sense and I say go ahead on lock some in.
But if in doing so, a grower with tighter cashflow requires large debt financing to accomplish this task for a return on investment that is still 18 or so months out, then I’m likely to hold off.
Fertilizers are a very expensive investment these days, and you folks know that more than anyone. At this time with the highest input costs in history and little ability to lock in prices for your crop output, it just seems to me as though the risks may be a bit too high if buying fertilizer requires assuming a large debt load at this time. What happens if crop prices start falling off in 2009? Then we could see a real margin squeeze.
As you can see, no real solid answers to this one. My only opinion is to buy it if cashflow can absorb it, but maybe sit tight if it means going heavily into debt.
In any event, in locking in some portion of 2009 input costs, consideration must also be given to locking up profit margin on a chunk of crop with forward sales this summer — ideally on further weather adversity. There is a chance of lower commodity prices in one year and being long expensive fertilizer outright is just as risky.
And finally, if you have not already done so, start working closer with your chosen fertilizer retailer. Work on payment, pricing and storage flexibility where available, and have them help you keep closer tabs on an opportunities which may materialize in the weeks ahead.
Oh, one last thing. I suspect if fertilizer costs remain higher, grower interest in 2009 to shift more acres towards crops such as peas, lentils and oats will increase. Early consideration towards longer-term pricing opportunities must them be given as well as seed and inoculant costs and availability in a year’s time.
I got a new Canon S5 IS camera a few weeks ago. I takes excellent photos of people and faces, and it's much quicker than the simple Olympus point and shoot I had before. I can actually get a photo of my boys in action. With the other camera, they'd be out of the room before it would actually snap the photo. But the one thing I couldn't figure out was how to use the "macro" setting. I read the instructions but was obviously missing some simple step. In macro mode, I should be able to take extreme close ups of canola flowers, fertilizer in the row and nose hairs. This is an important setting when you want to photo something small, such as flea beetles.
Well, I got help from an unexpected source. As I was checking out of the Saskatoon Inn last week, the front desk receptionist Shea Biss asked how I liked my Canon. "It's great, but I can't figure out how to use the macro mode," I said. Then he said, "I've got an S3, the older version, and maybe it works the same way. Set it to "P", then hold the macro button for about three seconds." I tested his technique right then and there, and it worked!
That was a week ago. Today I was sitting at my desk, looking at my camera and decided to check if I remembered how the macro setting worked. I did. Thanks to Shea.
You never know where you'll find an expert. I don't think I'll be telling every stranger about my problems on the off chance they might help me. But Shea did remind me that good tips can come from unusual places.
Three times I've been in a car when it hit a deer. Once I was the driver. Animals on the road is the one thing that makes me nervous about driving at night. Turns out General Motors is working on a windshield that will highlight these animals — and highlight the road itself as well.
An Associated Press article describes the idea in these words: "For example, during a foggy drive, a laser projects a blue line onto the windshield that follows the edge of the road. Or if infrared sensors detect a person or animal in the driver's path during a night drive, its outline is projected on the windshield to highlight its location."
The article says this feature is a few years from being perfected, but I look forward to someday buying a car that can help me see animals on the road or in the ditches. The target market for these windshields is senior drivers, but I think we could all benefit.
I welcome any questions, from the basics for farmers taking their first precision steps to the more nitty gritty details that will help a more experienced precision farmer get better results.
I've got three experts signed on so far to help out: Pam Haegeman, a GIS technician with the R.G. Mazer Group in Brandon, Man., Terry Aberhart, a precision whiz with Agri-Trend in Langenburg, Sask., and Warren Bills of GeoFarm Solutions in Calgary.
E-mail your questions to me at jay@fbcpublishing.com and we'll get this thing rolling in September or October.
Speaker after speaker at the AgProgress conference I covered this week in Saskatoon predicted that the end is near for ethanol and biodiesel made from food crops — corn, wheat, canola, soy, etc. What was once the great rising trend will come crashing down if what I've been hearing comes true. Ethanol plants in planning stages will be canceled. Many existing plants will close. Why? Because countries realize two things: One, they will never make a significant dint in their reliance on fossil fuels through the use of these food-based fuels. And two, subsidizing these food-based fuels just makes the current food price crisis worse, especially in developing countries.
Gwynne Dyer, in his presentation at the conference, says the latest buzz is about biodiesel made from algae. Apparently algae has very high oil content and according to the website oilgae.com, the U.S. could grow enough algae to replace its entire petroleum fuel requirement on only 10 million acres of land. I have not done any research into the algae fuel idea. All I can tell you right now is that the world is turning its back on corn- and wheat-based ethanol and vegetable-oil biodiesel. That didn't take long.
I'm really enjoying the feedback from Grainews readers on the topic of using pull-type sprayers for mid and late season applications. In this month's Grainews, I had an article on page 3 about Robert Hall's sprayer. Robert uses his sprayer to apply fungicide on cereals, but he had not yet tried canola. This inspired Bill Hodgson from Hartney, Man., to send me a few photos of his unit in a field of canola. He has been using a pull-type sprayer to apply fungicide on canola for the past six years.
The sprayer is a SprayAir with a 120-foot boom. Bill pulls it with a Cat on 18-inch tracks in line with the sprayer wheels.
He actually wasn't going to do any fungicide spraying this year, but then it rained half an inch last week, "and so I sprayed everything." He put Headline on his peas, Tilt on his oats, and Lance on his canola. And he did it all with his pull-type sprayer.
This is the first year he has pulled the sprayer with a tracked tractor. "Trampling while turning is no worse than with a wheeled tractor," he says.
Cory Bourdeaud'hui took a visitor on a farm tour Wednesday and Thursday last week. Lisa Adams came up from St. Louis, Missouri for a tour of Prairie farms. Lisa buys ad space and helps organize media campaigns for Dow AgroSciences, and Cory thought she should get up close with a few farms in Western Canada. I tagged along.
For one stop, we visited Murray Froebe at Agassiz Seed Farm near Homewood, Man. Murray sat us down with his whole crew at coffee time, and we talked about where they get their information and what kind of ads have an impact on them. Murray reads (he had copies of Grainews and the Manitoba Co-operator on the coffee room table) and he follows a few websites, including farmzone.com because "they give you a wind forecast" with their weather report. Murray says he also relies on advice from the three independent retailers in the area. He says he doesn't do surveys anymore, but he doesn't mind a quick call from sales reps.
After a few minutes, the crew went back to work. Some were loading a semi trailer with bags of soybeans for tofu, and others were getting ready to spray Basagran — if it was hot enough.
We had a goodbye chat in the driveway (see the photo), then went to a diner in Carman for lunch. Then we traveled west to the immaculate and spacious Jonk potato seed farm near Bruxelles. Stan Audette, communications manager for Dow AgroSciences, was on the tour with us, and he was really impressed with the Jonk operation, particularly their massive new shop.
(Side comment of interest: Stan told one farmer we met that crop protection pesticides will likely go up in price next year because so many of them are petroleum based.)
It was a beautiful day for a drive because about half the acres we saw were in canola and most of them were in flower. This was all new for Lisa so I took a photo for her to share with her friends in St. Louis. I also told her why canola oil was so much better than the vegetable (soy) oil she has been using.
That evening, we went to Mirlycourtois French restaurant in Winnipeg's Exchange District. The food was very good. Cory and I shared fois gras for an appetizer, and I had scallops (coquille St. Jacques) for my main course. But along with the great food, we had great service. The waiter explained everything with great detail and knowledge and without pretentiousness. Cory said, "Jay, is he the best waiter you've ever had?" I said, "He's definitely in the top three." I guess Cory went on and on a bit on the way home because his wife Jenny, who joined us, finally said, "Enough about the waiter!"
The next day we went to JRI's Kelburn Farm, which has all sorts of research plots. And then we had a short visit with Guy Saurette, who farms near Aubigny, about 50 km south of Winnipeg.
(Photo two, left to right: Cory Bourdeaud'hui, Murray Froebe, Earl Froebe, Lisa Adams and Stan Audette)
A Grainews columnist wrote to say, "I have a friend having a lot of problems with irresponsible neighbours spraying chemicals that are drifting onto them. Apparently one neighbour is even driving down the road with nozzles dripping and doesn't want to fix them because that way they don't freeze in the winter. He was wondering if there are people he can contact about it. Do you know?"
I didn't know, so I asked a friend with Manitoba Agriculture. He wrote: "Most farms and farmers carry insurance to cover drift situations. So he should speak to the farmer and mention that he thinks there may be some drift. The farmer may refer it to his insurance company and this progresses very easy. However, if the neighbour is a jerk, contact the local Manitoba ag office. An ag rep may come out and take some samples and send them to our lab. If they show a possible drift situation, then he will have more power to challenge this neighbour and request an insurance audit. If the neighbour is still a problem, he should contact the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists — get a certified agronomist — and discuss his options with that person and see where it goes from there.
"As far as the sprayer leaking or opening the booms, unless it is causing physical damage there isn't too much to do about it. Keep in mind whatever is coming out of the booms has just been sprayed on 100s of acres in the area already."
I saw Stan Audette this week and asked him his advice on drift into yards. Stan is the communications manager with Dow AgroSciences. He noted that spray drift is usually only about 10 per cent of the actual rate applied on the crop. Humans and animals are not at risk from drift. Stan says that if it's an insecticide, which some farmers will be spraying this time of year, the insecticdes photodegrade within a couple of hot days.
So if the "friend" noted in the intro paragraph is worried about insecticide on a garden, drifted chemical will be at a very low rate and it won't be around long. Root vegetables will not get any at all. And for tomatoes and cucumbers, you can wait a couple of days then wash and eat them without harm.
Honeybee and MacDon must have a decent market for their combine headers because the companies are still in business. So what is that makes these headers so special? John Deere, Case IH, New Holland, Lexion and the AGCO brands all make straight-cut headers to go with their combines, so why not stick with a header that matches the combine?
From what I know so far, Honeybee and MacDon draper headers are exceptional on pulse crops and provide great flow for cereals. These sound like good reasons to me. These headers are expensive, but farmers who grow pulses seem to think they're a worthwhile investment. I'm working on an article for the August edition of Grainews on after-market combine headers and I'd like to talk to a few owners. If you want to share your opinions, e-mail me at jay@fbcpublishing.com. Give your phone number and I'll call you for a chat.
Ontario farmers who paid big money to buy pigeons are helpless as their only buyer — Pigeon King — collapses in bankruptcy. It is yet another example of a big idea falling flat, and taking down a bunch of earnest farmer investors with it. Pigeon King was going to sell pigeons for food. The French, after all, eat "squab" all the time. So Pigeon King enticed a bunch of farmers to diversity into raising pigeons, buying breeding pairs for some ridiculous price. But the business plan didn't fly. It was a plane without passengers. It didn't have a homing instinct. And now there are 400,000 extra pigeons in Ontario.
I use this sad story about meat pigeons to introduce another "livestock" opportunity that I think really does have potential for Canada. And that is aquaculture. The world really does need more fish farming. Wild stocks are declining, especially for the fish species that people really want to eat. Farming is the only way to keep up with demand. But fish farming in pens in the ocean has lots of critics, and not just David Suzuki. One answer is to move the fish inland and raise them in tank-pens in climate-controlled barns.
This isn't a new idea, of course. It has been tried in Western Canada with tilapia and char and some other fish, and in many cases, it has not been all that successful. I have two questions that I hope to answer over the next few months: One, are there any successful inland fish farms in the world and what makes them successful? And two, how can Western Canadian grain and livestock producers participate more in this business?
Canola Digest earlier this year had an article by Rhea Yates about the Can Pro plant in Arborfield, Sask. It breaks up canola meal to isolate the protein. This could make a very good fish food, a company rep says. So even if we don't raise the fish here, we could grow the food that farmed fish eat.
We're not talking a squab-sized market either. Yates quoted Murray Drew, with the department of animal and poultry science at the University of Saskatchewan, saying, "This year or next year, (fish farming) is going to pass beef production in terms of size. Right now, about one third of the fish in the world are raised in aquaculture. In China, Japan and Norway, it's huge."
I’ve given examples the past week or so of how Canadian prices are more expensive than U.S. prices — but that was for hotels, groceries and vehicles. At the time, I didn’t have any specifics on farm input prices. Now I do. I’ve come across a study by Thomsen Corporation, presented to the Parliamentary agriculture committee, that shows a surprising degree of parity on both sides of the border.
This is an up-to-date study, with fertilizer and Roundup comparisons for May 2008. The study compared prices in Canadian provinces versus prices in neighbouring states. Here are some examples of prices (in Canadian dollars) for inputs in Saskatchewan versus Montana: Anhydrous ammonia was $1,000.67 per tonne in Saskatchewan and $1,005.70 in Montana. Monoammonium phosphate was $1,326.63 per tonne in Saskatchewan and $1,325.81 in Montana. Urea was $640.00 per tonne in Saskatchewan versus $696.74 in Montana. And Roundup Transorb was $10.80 per litre in Saskatchewan and $13.09 in Montana. There are many more comparisons for other fertilizer products and for other provinces and states. For the complete study, click on the link below.
The Thomsen study also compared the rise in fertilizer and glyphosate prices over the past 12 months, not just for May 2008. It seems the rising Canadian dollar was in fact keep a lid on inflation. “Fertilizer and glyphosate prices rose dramatically on both sides of the border, with U.S. price increases exceeding Canadian price increases for all products,” the study concluded. “Phosphate fertilizer prices increased by the greatest amount, followed by potash, and then nitrogen fertilizer products.”
Spray planes buzzed us regularly during the Bayer CropScience media tour at High Bluff, Man., on June 27. Jon Air’s runway was like Pearson airport with spray planes taking off and landing every couple of minutes. Spraying for fusarium head blight was in full swing. Damp and warm conditions were prime for fusarium infection of the emerged winter wheat heads, and with good wheat prices, farmers were taking action.
You want to apply fusarium fungicides between head emergence and 50 per cent flowering for wheat. Winter wheat plots at the Bayer site were just starting to flower. (See the photo.)
Lauren Davis, Bayer portfolio manager for fungicides and insecticides, took this as an opportunity to explain the differences between Folicur and Proline when it comes to FHB. Folicur is the main product used on cereals. But Proline, while billed primarily for sclerotinia control in canola, is registered for wheat and barley. “It is the best for DON reduction. It cuts DON in half,” says Davis.
He added that Bayer expects to bring a combination of Folicur and Proline to market, perhaps for 2010. It will be called Prosaro.
1. Raxil WW cereal seed treatment. The “WW” stands for wireworm. It combines the fungicide component of Raxil with imidacloprid insecticide. Bayer has applied for “on farm application” so you can apply it yourself.
2. Trilex AL seed treatment for pulses and soybeans. This combines trifloxystrobin (the active ingredient in Stratego foliar fungicide) and metalaxyl to protect seed and seedlings from a wide range of pathogens.
3. Prosper FX seed treatment for canola. Original Prosper has clothionadin insecticide for flea beetles and thiram fungicide. Prosper FX replaces thiram with trifloxystrobin for “more rhizoctonia protection,” Bayer reps say.
4. Velocity M3 herbicide for spring wheat and durum. M3 stands for three modes of action. The product combines a new group-2 herbicide (thiencarbazone-methyl) from Bayer with Infinity and bromoxynil. The group-2 component provides wild oat and green foxtail control and suppression of yellow foxtail and Persian darnel. The other actives provide broadleaf control.
Also a new formulation of Puma, called Puma Advance, improves crop safety on barley. You can apply it on barley from the one to six leaf stages, up to three tillers. (This matches the wheat label.) Also, Puma Super used to need a tank mix for barley. Puma Advance does not, but you will probably use one anyway for broadleafs.
