SeCan recently discovered that the majority of the soft white wheat varieties grown in western Canada naturally contain the Sm1 trait for midge tolerance. The trait has likely always been there, but only recently have we had the technology to test for it. The Sm1 gene was first identified as naturally occurring in soft red winter… Read More
Category: Pests
Aphanomyces is a soil-borne water mold thatcauses devastating root rots in pulses, especially pea and lentil crops. Unfortunately for farmers, the aphanomyces spores can live in the soil for 10 years, and thrive under wet conditions. That means, not only has this root rot advanced rapidly across many areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta, but it’s… Read More
Summer may feel a long way off, but being prepared to manage heat stress in dairy cattle goes a long way in warding off the production losses that go along with it. We’re also well into the 2016 feed crop, and there are reports of several farmers struggling to keep mycotoxin (specifically DON/vomitoxin) levels low enough… Read More
Ladies and gentlemen, farmers and agronomists, we’ve hit triple digits! That’s right, this week’s episode of Wheat Pete’s Word is number 100, and from all of us here at RealAgriculture thank you for following along and making this podcast a huge success in a short time. Host Peter Johnson has made the most of this… Read More
With corn planting just around the corner, it’s time to take stock of agronomic advice we learned this winter and take it to the field. In this episode of Real Agriculture Corn School, Bernard Tobin and Pride Seeds market agronomist Aaron Stevanus review research findings and agronomic management insights that emerged during the winter meeting… Read More
Taking a break from peas or lentils for six years is a tall order for fields where aphanomyces has been a problem. Are there in-field options or tools for managing this relatively new disease? Syama Chatterton, pulse crops pathologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, has been conducting field trials across the prairies over the last two… Read More
“If it doesn’t impact me, I don’t care…” I have attended many conferences across Canada and nothing gets farmers to fall asleep faster than speeches of the threat (actually, it’s reality) of herbicide resistance. For many farmers, it seems, they either don’t see this as something that impacts them or they don’t think it’s as serious an… Read More
Here’s a fun fact: not all weevils are pests. Unfortunately, as fun as that fact may be, the reality is several weevil species are damaging pests, and their range is expanding in Alberta. Alfalfa weevil, pea leaf weevil, and cabbage seedpod weevil have all shown an expanded range in the province, and, as Scott Meers,… Read More
Do wheat varieties perform in line with the ratings provided during the registration process? When it comes to fusarium head blight tolerance, the short answer is yes, but the long answer is it depends on the year. Holly Derksen, plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, explains that the province has been tracking resistance performance of wheat… Read More
Tough to say and even harder to control, aphanomyces has the potential to significantly reduce pea and lentil yields, and can stick around in the soil for an extremely long time. It’s recommended that farmers not plant pea or lentil for five to six years if aphanomyces has been confirmed in a field, but that’s… Read More