Grainswest - Fall 2026

Fall 2026 grainswest.com 9 BY TREVOR BACQUE • LEAD PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION but he continues to grow midge-tolerant varieties of durum all the same. This year he is growing Weyburn VB, a medium height variety with better yield than current check varieties, including Strong- hold. Last year he had some ergot, but after cleaning, his grain was fine. Greg Stamp of Stamp Seeds sells durum varieties and said requests for midge-tolerant varieties continue to increase. “Lots of farmers are buying midge-tolerant varieties even if they don’t have the issue because they yield well,” said Stamp. He added that Alberta is not the primary market impacted by midge. “As you go east into Saskatchewan, they care a lot more about if a variety is midge tolerant.” His top seller is currently AAC Strong- hold, which his customers say performs well on irrigation and dryland acres. For extreme drought conditions, many have reported AAC Grainland has done quite well, too. He recommends farmers buy a durum variety that carries at least an I rating for Fusarium. Depending on location, farmers will want to ensure their variety is also solid stem to combat sawfly. SCOUTING REPORT Tyler Wist is a federal field crop ento- mologist based in Saskatoon, SK, and has seen firsthand the damage caused by wheat midge. While 2025 did have issues, he’s even more concerned with what he had seen in 2026. “The midge population has explod- ed this year,” he said when he spoke to GrainsWest in mid-July. “We got a bumper crop and in most places the wheat is just now coming into susceptibility, and the wheat midge populations are picking up.” As soon as the boot splits on wheat, the plant is vulnerable to attack from midges. In fact, it can be susceptible all the way up until anthesis, or even after. Wist encourages farmers to scout at dusk when it’s calm and warm. After spending the day hanging out in the canopy, this is when the females typically emerge. He encourages farmers to go into a few different areas of the field, get down level with the spikes and examine the heads. The midge itself is very small, only about two to three millimetres in length and distinctively orange in colour. They over- winter in the soil and can live for more than a decade. One midge per 10 heads is the official guidance to maintain grade while one midge per five heads is the yield thresh- old at which farmers should consider spraying. Currently, dimethoate is the only remaining registered product on the market that is effective against the insect. One midge per five heads repre- sents about a 15 per cent yield loss. “The thresholds are definitely something farm- ers have got to be aware of,” said Wist. This aside, the Sm1 gene in midge-tol- erant wheat is the only other defence. Wist estimates about 45 per cent of all wheat grown on the Prairies is midge tol- erant. He currently operates a program he calls Midge Busters. Farmers interest- ed in joining the program and receiving a pheromone trap can reach out to him directly at tyler.wist@agr.gc.ca . GET SMART ON BUGS WITH IRIS Created by Wist and his colleagues at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Insect Risk Intelligence System (IRIS) is a robust platform to both monitor and forecast the potential risk posed by in- sects across the Canadian Prairies. This includes projected climate change influ- ence on pest populations. IRIS is built on a combination of historical observations made between 1990 and 2025, citizen science and other modelling. Through these contributions, farmers help to iden- tify hotspots and add their observations to a broader and ever-expanding dataset. To participate, a farmer can download the app or scan a QR code on the IRIS website at agriculture.canada.ca . From there, they enter their field data which is mapped and publicly displayed online. It tracks everything whether a pest or a beneficial insect. “They can see their data in real time,” said Wist. The federal government estimates Prairie farmers lose $204 million every year due to insect pest damage. Above, male midges are caught in a pheromone trap. The red rubber device at its centre bears the irresistible female pheromone. Photo:CourtesyofTylerWist