Grasshoppers, Flea Beetles Causing Concern For Farmers

Farmers are continuing to deal with grasshoppers.

 

John Gavloski is an entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture & Resource Development.

 

"What is happening this time of year is some of their preferred food that they feed on, they like things that are lush and green, things like your cereal crops, a lot of your roadside vegetation, when that's being harvested or cut or just maturing, it gets them moving and they will move into things such as canola, soybeans, things that they will feed on but often not the preferred choice and with those crops we often caution people, just watch for potential edge effects. Sometimes, it's not something that you need to spray for, other times you might want to be doing the edges if they're moving in from other crops."

 

Gavloski notes some farmers are also seeing high levels of flea beetles in canola.

 

"They're coming out now as fall adults. They will feed for a while before they go into their overwintering site...Right now it's mainly crucifer flea beetle that we're seeing a lot of and they're quite abundant in some fields."

 

Video: Finally We Are On The Fields Planting Corn!

It seems like it was a long-time coming but we are finally on the fields planting corn. Cold, wet weather has made working the land and planting the first of our crops and difficult proposition but today we got at least one corn field done. Join us at Ewetopia Farms as we use old methods to get corn planted. This corn will feed our sheep for another year and heat our home!