disease control Archives

Fusarium head blight symptoms in wheat. The key target for fungicidal treatments will always be the head tissue.

Managing against fusarium takes a multi-part strategy

Tweaking fungicide timing could provide farmers with better control

By Mark Halsall March 7, 2025

Kelly Turkington, a longtime plant pathologist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, strongly supports the notion that an integrated approach to managing fusarium head blight (FHB) offers the best chance of success for cereal producers. Even so, Turkington says, in much of Manitoba and northeastern Saskatchewan, that strategy hasn’t always worked as well as […] Read more

Microsclerotia growing on the skin of the outer stem, which is peeling back.

GrowPro

A crash course on verticillium stripe

It’s important to know how to identify this newcomer to western Canadian canola crops and distinguish it from other diseases

By Jay Whetter November 5, 2024

Verticillium stripe of canola is causing yield loss in Manitoba and probably other areas of the Prairies. And it’s getting worse. The disease, caused by the Verticillium longisporum pathogen, was first reported in Manitoba in 2014. In 2015, Canadian Food Inspection Agency surveyors found the pathogen in six provinces, including all three Prairie provinces. The […] Read more

Root diseases do their worst between germination and early flowering, leading to poor emergence and stunted, yellowed seedlings.

Guides, Soybean Production Guide, Soybeans

Phytophthora’s Prairie evolution

For Manitoba the ‘honeymoon’ is ending as soy diseases such as phytophthora root rot arrive

By Gord Leathers September 16, 2024

Glacier FarmMedia — The worst phytophthora infection that Laura Schmidt of Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers has ever seen was in the province’s west, just south of Souris. “Probably 25 per cent of the field was impacted,” the production specialist told attendees at a Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization field day near Melita, Man. “One in […] Read more

Shared pastures can be a biosecurity hazard as the mixed herds can bring disease back to their home herds.

Cattleman’s Corner, Livestock

For your cattle, the best biosecurity offence is defence

15 plays to keep your beef herd safe

By Beef Cattle Research Council June 19, 2024

The recent passing of highly pathogenic avian influenza A into bovines in the United States has people talking about the value of biosecurity in beef cattle herds. As humankind evolved from a nomadic hunter-gatherer society into agricultural-based settlement populations, there is a reason domesticated bovine played a major role as a farmed species. Cattle are […] Read more

Ergot is best recognized in the field as black or dark purple sclerotia sticking out of a floret.

Columns, Crops, Practical Tips

How a worldwide destructive cereal disease problem was solved in Alberta

In the story of ergot in wheat, barley and oats, the answer was simply 'copper'

By Ieuan Evans May 4, 2024

When I was first hired by Alberta Agriculture as a diagnostic plant pathologist, I was told I would be primarily responsible for barley, oat, wheat and canola diseases. I was also asked to head up the provincial control program for bacterial ring rot of potato (BRR). The BRR program, run in partnership with the federal […] Read more

Canola, Crops, Features

Machine learning may help get a leg up on blackleg

AI-backed research results may help growers better manage the risk of blackleg in canola crops

By Jim Timlick April 16, 2024

Results of a recent study by researchers in Manitoba and Alberta could help growers fight blackleg disease in canola more effectively. The study was done by a team of researchers at the University of Manitoba led by Dilantha Fernando, a professor in the school’s plant science department. They were joined by Michael Harding, a plant […] Read more

Crops, Features

Leafhoppers remain a cause for concern

Aster yellows can quickly wipe out canola and other crops

By Jim Timlick April 5, 2024

Aster leafhoppers may be small but they pose a huge risk to canola and other crops on the Prairies. The aster leafhopper (Macrosteles quadrilineatus) typically measures 3.5 to six millimetres in length. It is straw-coloured and is sometimes referred to as the four-lined leafhopper because of the four dark lines on its forehead. While aster […] Read more

Canola, Features

Researchers to put numbers to verticillium yield loss

The team behind blackleg and clubroot yield loss models tackles the newer canola disease

By Robert Arnason February 23, 2024

Glacier FarmMedia — Canola industry leaders have been worried about verticillium stripe and its impact on crop yields for several years. Reports out of Europe suggest the fungal disease could cause losses of 10 to 50 per cent on oilseed rape. However, extreme losses are usually confined to a small number of fields in England […] Read more

Measures to reduce the spread of Johne’s on calving grounds can help manage the disease, as young calves are more susceptible to the disease.

Beef Cattle, Cattleman’s Corner

Calculator can analyze Johne’s options

The online tool provides producers with a range of management scenarios for their herds

By Piper Whelan February 16, 2024

Glacier FarmMedia — With no treatment or vaccine available, the impact of Johne’s disease on beef herds can be a nightmare. “Johne’s disease is particularly challenging to manage because we have so few options,” says Dr. Cheryl Waldner, professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine. To help beef producers make better […] Read more

Growing potatoes in Prairie farm gardens should be relatively easy if you’re able to anticipate and avoid the usual problems.

Columns, Potatoes, Practical Tips

Let’s meet the potato family

Part 4 of a series on Prairie farm gardens

By Ieuan Evans February 13, 2024

The potato is a member of the solanum or Solanaceae family, made up of thousands of wild and cultivated species that range from deadly nightshade to tomatoes. Commonly cultivated in farm gardens are potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and tomatillos. Members of this family also include petunias, lobelias, tobacco and common weeds such as black nightshade […] Read more

Alberta crop conditions improve: report

U.S. grains: Corn sets contract lows on expectations for big US crop

U.S. livestock: Cattle strength continues

GFM Network News