Blackleg pseudothecia on stem

Steps to stop blackleg in canola

Agronomists and canola growers have many proven steps to manage blackleg disease in canola. Genetic resistance has been an extremely effective tool, and will remain so — as long as that resistance matches the blackleg races in a field

Blackleg disease, caused by the pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans, is common in canola across the Prairies. It can cause very high yield loss in cultivars susceptible to the predominant blackleg races in a field. The two best defences are: Seed treatment and early-season fungicides can also help, especially if the first two are compromised. This article will […] Read more

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

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


Corteva’s next round of soybean product launches will be enhancements on products that are already available.

Changing weather, changing varieties

With growing conditions in flux, adaptability is a consideration for soybean developers

Climate change has had a huge impact on farm operations in Western Canada for some time. Those shifting temperatures and weather patterns are also playing a key role in how future varieties are being developed. Grainews recently spoke with several prominent seed companies about new soybean varieties they have in the development pipeline and the […] Read more

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

Phytophthora’s Prairie evolution

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

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


DeKalb campaign marketing lead Nikki Vercaigne introduces a canola development panel including Dale Burns, Liz Simpson and Xuehua Zhang (l-r) at Ag in Motion.

New tools clear paths for canola’s next steps

Gene editing, artificial intelligence bring new efficiencies to the process

Recent technological advancements applied to canola breeding are already making selection a more efficient process. On an industry panel during Ag in Motion in July, asked about what’s next in the canola development pipeline, breeders and developers with Bayer spoke of the new processes and pathways they can now use to get there. One significant […] Read more

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

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'

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


Honey-brown discolouration of pea roots, characteristic of Aphanomyces euteiches.

Aphanomyces still a stubborn foe

Research offers hope, but proper crop management remains the best defence for today

In today’s bad news/good news ledger of pulse crop diseases, the bad news is there’s still no quick fix for controlling root rot in field peas and lentils. On the good news side, there are management options that help reduce the risk, research is narrowing in on some treatments that may help control the disease, […] Read more

canola stems showing blackleg infection

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

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


Researchers to put numbers to verticillium yield loss

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

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

blackleg infection on a canola stem

‘Canola and snow’ is not profitable

New research says mixing cultivars does not mitigate the effects of continuous canola

Reconsider those plans to seed back-to-back to canola this spring, recommend Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) scientists. And they have new data to back that up. Dr. Neil Harker and other study researchers recently published the results of their five-year of the effects of continuous canola crops in The Canadian Journal of Plant Science. The […] Read more