Farmers dealing with aphids and grasshoppers: Crop Pest Update

Aug 16, 2022

Summary

Insects: Insects of greatest concern currently are aphids in small grain cereals and soybeans, and grasshoppers. Insecticides have been applied for soybean aphid in some fields in Eastern and Central Manitoba. High populations of aphids are present in some fields of wheat, oats and barley, with insecticides applications occurring. There has been some spraying for Lygus bugs in canola in the Swan Valley area of the Northwest.

Diseases: Agronomists in the field reported two new diseases for this year: downy mildew in field peas and crown rust in oats. Read further below for the unique conditions that favour these diseases and why they might have appeared at this time in the season.

Weeds: Provincial Weed Survey is wrapping up with almost 700 fields sampled so far. Most fields are relatively clean and crops are in good shape. We are seeing a lot of warm season weeds like foxtails and pigweeds as well as wet season weeds like plantain and yellow dock. Other weeds like wild buckwheat, round-leaved mallow and Canada fleabane seem to be more prevalent this year. We will come back to about 1/4 of the fields at harvest time to sample mature weeds, these will be valuated for herbicide resistance.

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Video: How American Farmers Harvest 1.15 Billion Pounds of Sunflowers

Across the open plains of North Dakota and South Dakota, sunflower fields turn the American landscape into a sea of gold. In this farming documentary, we go inside modern sunflower farming to see how farmers plant, grow, harvest, clean, dry, process, and transform sunflower seeds into valuable products used every day.

In 2024, American farmers harvested about 1.15 billion pounds of sunflowers. This video follows the full journey from warm spring planting to combine harvesting, seed cleaning, storage, oil extraction, refining, roasting, packaging, and animal feed production.

You will see how sunflower seeds are processed into cooking oil, roasted snacks, bakery ingredients, birdseed, livestock feed, and useful byproducts. From golden fields to modern processing plants, this is the story of how a beautiful flower becomes one of America’s important oilseed crops.

Watch until the end to discover how sunflower farming connects farmers, machines, factories, food production, and sustainable agriculture.