Wireworms are a widespread concern across the prairies early in the growing season. Kara Oosterhuis recently caught up with John Gavloski, provincial entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development, in this Canola School episode to talk about the insect pest that can impact your canola crop. Wireworms are the larval stage of the click beetle… Read More
Many farmers are familiar with consulting economic threshold charts when it comes time to control insects, but many may be surprised to learn that there are economic thresholds for other pests, too. Gregory Sekulic, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, explains in this Canola School episode that although spraying is an important tool,… Read More
When it comes to stress on a canola crop, there are two ‘buckets’ that it can fall into: abiotic stress and biotic stress. Biotic stressors can include things such as harmful insects — flea beetles, for example — and abiotic stressors have to do with factors dealing with the environment, such as frost. This time… Read More
Often when we think of herbicide resistance, as producers, we think it means we have to stop spraying certain products completely. This is not always the case, and as Tom Wolf of Sprayers 101 and AgriMetrix explains in our latest Canola School episode, why and how you can take some extra steps from the sprayer… Read More
Most producers that grow canola are well aware of blackleg and the damage the disease can inflict on a canola crop. However, when we think of scouting for blackleg, we often think of clipping canola plants later on in the season when the disease is evident in stems. Believe it or not, blackleg is a… Read More
It’s been six years since the disease we now call verticillium stripe was discovered in canola in North America. First identified on a research farm in Manitoba in 2014, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) survey the next year found the pathogen, which can cause striping symptoms on canola stems, in six provinces — from… Read More
Spring, summer, or fall — when do you think is the best time to test for clubroot? Visual symptoms on the plant show up later in the season, yes, but that’s not when soil spore load is highest, explains Kim Kenward of 20/20 Seed Labs, in this episode of the Canola School. “Soil testing is the… Read More
Harvest is already a busy time of year, but a few extra moments outside the combine or swather could make a big difference for disease management on those fields in future years, and could help explain yield dips you might see on the yield monitor. According to Shawn Senko, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of… Read More
Every year, many canola producers seem to face the same challenge across the board — how do we manage all these flea beetles? The answer to this question is quite often pointed towards one main action — seed treatments. In this episode of the Canola School, Gregory Sekulic, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of… Read More
There are several species of aphid that are a pest on several crop types, but on the bright side, there’s only one species of aphid canola farmers need to worry about. As Sean Prager, assistant professor of plant sciences at the University of Saskatchewan explains, it’s the green peach aphid, or Myzus persicae, that causes… Read More
Besides just the sheer work of moving through crops on foot (and, in some cases, trying not to get lost in them), scouting can prove difficult in just deciding what path to walk. Drone technology is changing that. According to Adrian Moens of AJM Seeds, using drones to map a field prior to scouting gives… Read More
It may have been a dry start to the year, with little to name of seedling diseases, but that doesn’t mean canola producers are off the disease-scouting hook this summer. According to Clint Jurke, agronomy director with the Canola Council of Canada, due to the last four weeks of higher precipitation levels over the Prairies,… Read More
It’s the beginning of July, and farmers growing canola are starting to ask themselves how they can get ahead of the curve and manage sclerotinia before it becomes a problem. In this episode of the Canola School, RealAgriculture prairie field editor, Kara Oosterhuis speaks to North Dakota State University professor Luis Del Rio about some… Read More
An unusually cool and dry spring across Manitoba has caused some difficulties when it comes to weed pressure in canola. Angela Brackenreed, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, tells Kara Oosterhuis in this Canola School episode that the annual weed pressure especially has been low. However, a change in moisture and temperature means… Read More
As seeding, for the most part, has come and gone — it’s now time to scout! In this episode of the RealAgriculture Canola School, field editor Jessika Guse speaks with Dr. Meghan Vankosky, research scientist in field crop entomology with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, all about what to look for when you sweep. Her first… Read More