There’s no better place to conduct practical agronomic research than in the real world, under the same conditions, using the same equipment and management practices. That’s the premise underlying the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers’ On-Farm Network, a farmer-driven research program that was officially launched 10 years ago, in 2014. “We really saw a need… Read More
Tag: Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers
Once soybeans are up and out of the ground, the crop can be quite resilient. What’s more, soybeans are proving hardier than first thought, and new research suggests that planting earlier — even before corn or canola — can yield good results. In this episode of the Soybean School, Laura Schmidt, production specialist with the… Read More
Scientists and plant breeders have their sights set on root rots, given the risk that one in particular — aphanomyces — poses to pea and lentil production in Western Canada and the Northern Plains. Federal funding for a new five-year Pulse Crop Research Cluster, leveraged by funding from farmer check-off organizations, was announced earlier this… Read More
The dry bean breeding program at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Morden Research Centre in Manitoba will continue for at least another five years under a new arrangement involving McGill University in Quebec and AAFC’s Harrow Research Centre in Ontario. An earlier proposal from the federal government would have seen the program cut or moved to… Read More
First found in Canada in southern Alberta in the 1990s, the pea leaf weevil is continuing to expand its territory to the east. The invasive pest whose larvae feed on the rhizobia in nitrogen-fixing root nodules has since spread across most of the pea-growing areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It was first detected in Manitoba,… Read More
Edible beans are usually viewed as one of the weaker performers among legume crops when it comes to fixing nitrogen, but new research shows they likely deserve more credit than they’ve been given. “We’ve really regarded them as non-legumes and standard practice in most areas has been to fertilize to their full nitrogen requirements,” notes… Read More
Pea aphids love to feed off the sap flowing to new pods on the plant. The trouble is, just two aphids per plant at the right stage can siphon off as much as five per cent of yield. Laura Schmidt, production specialist with the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, says that modern pea varieties are… Read More
Manitoba farmers struggling with wet conditions this year will have a few more days to plant soybeans while still receiving full crop insurance coverage through the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC). A permanent extension to the AgriInsurance seeding deadlines for soybeans was announced by Manitoba Agriculture and MASC on May 20. The deadline for full… Read More
2021 will certainly be remembered for the drought in Western Canada, but there were other factors, such as late frost, damaging winds, and new pests that also challenged the soybean crop on the eastern side of the Prairies. Despite all of those stresses, there was still a crop to harvest in most cases, with yields… Read More
Adequate root nodulation is critical for filling soybean pods with seed, as there’s a strong correlation between the number of nodules on soybean plants’ roots and yield. But in a dry year, the number of nodules might not matter quite as much, as soybeans can compensate for reduced nodulation by producing larger nodules. As part… Read More
It’s often noted that soybean yield is made with rain in August, but moisture has been scarce throughout the entire growing season for soybeans on the Prairies this year. While there are areas that have received more moisture, many fields in Manitoba are showing tell-tale signs of drought stress as they move through the critical… Read More
Resistance to Group 2 herbicides has been common and assumed in many cases with kochia in Western Canada for years, but weed survey results show glyphosate (Group 9) resistance in the invasive tumbleweed species has exploded in recent years. In 2013, less than 1 per cent of kochia populations sampled by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada… Read More
Whether you’re an experienced soybean grower, or are looking to get into this interesting leguminous oilseed crop, there’s always something to learn. In this episode of Soybean School, we take a look back at the past year’s soybean season in Manitoba — what went right, what went wrong, and what kind of knowledge we gleaned… Read More
Rainfall during the growing season is often a major determinant in how severe phytophthora root rot is in soybeans, but there are several tools growers can deploy to build a strong defence against the underground yield robber, including genetic resistance. As soybean harvest winds up in Western Canada, and attention shifts to choosing varieties to… Read More
Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers is getting a new executive director, as Francois Labelle is retiring from the role as of July 15. Labelle has served as MPSG’s executive director since 2014. The board of directors has chosen Daryl Domitruk, who serves as MPSG’s director of research and production, to replace Labelle. “It’s been an… Read More