2025 Farmland Forum: Watershed Wisdom: Water Protection’s Role in Famrland Conservation

Jan 14, 2025

In agriculture, water has become a critically limited resource, even as demand for it surges to feed a growing population. Ontario farmers and communities now face a fundamental question: How can we protect our water sources while ensuring they continue to nourish the land that feeds us?

The 2025 Farmland Forum provides a vital platform to address this pressing issue. This year’s forum will explore innovative, cross-disciplinary solutions to water management, with a focus on how protecting our watersheds is key to safeguarding Ontario’s farmland. Bringing together farmers, conservationists, planners, and community leaders, participants will learn how integrated watershed management can help mitigate flooding, drought, and other water-related challenges while sustaining agricultural productivity.

The hybrid 2025 Farmland Forum is taking place on Thursday, March 20th, 2025 in person in Elora, Ontario as well as online. The full day’s agenda will be available soon. Please stay tuned!

Registration opens February 1st! See our Forum website page for more information.

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Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.