The trials at the Ian M. Morrison Research Station in Carman, Man., come at a critical time. BLS isn’t new to Canada, but infections are being reported with increasing regularity across the Prairies.

“Bacterial leaf streak has been detected in Canada since the 1920s but we are seeing the re-emergence of it. And it’s worsening rapidly,” said Dr. Shaheen Bibi, a plant pathologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba in Dr. Dilantha Fernando’s lab. Fernando and his BLS team lead the Carman trials.

Identification can be tricky

BLS often goes unreported because it mimics other cereal leaf diseases. Farmers may mistake it for tan spot or, in later stages, confuse necrotic lesions with natural senescence. Accurate diagnosis often requires lab expertise or a trained eye. That diagnostic challenge makes scouting all the more important during the growing season.

The disease is caused by Xanthomonas translucens, a bacterium with two pathovars of concern in Prairie cereals: pv. undulosa, which infects both wheat and barley, and pv. translucens, which primarily infects barley.

On leaves, the disease shows up as long, translucent streaks — hence the name translucens — that begin as small water-soaked lesions. Under wet conditions, lesions may exude a milky or yellow ooze — a key diagnostic feature that separates BLS from fungal leaf spots such as tan spot. As lesions mature, leaves lose photosynthetic area, and the flag leaf in particular, the part of the plant that contributes the most to grain fill, can be severely damaged.

Severe infections destroy photosynthetic tissue, and anecdotal reports suggest yield reductions of up to 50 per cent. The potential for loss is especially high because damage peaks at the flag-leaf stage.

But yield isn’t the only economic concern. The same bacterium can also infect heads, causing a symptom known as black chaff, which can reduce marketability by downgrading grain due to discoloration. Infected seed may also carry the pathogen, creating problems for seed use and resale.

Black chaff appears as dark streaks or bands across glumes and awns, sometimes alternating with healthy green tissue in awned varieties. In severe cases, glumes may turn completely black, and exudates can give heads a water-soaked appearance.

Conditions matter

BLS thrives during warm days, cool nights and in moist environments. Wetter years tend to bring more problems than drier ones, and areas that are naturally arid are less prone to outbreaks.

“Last year at Carman, we saw more of it because it was so moist,” said Bibi. “This year, not so much.”

Moisture also drives how the disease moves within fields. Rain splash, wind-driven rain, irrigation and even mechanical activities can help spread bacteria from plant to plant. On the Prairies, irrigation is a particular concern, especially in southern Alberta, where irrigated acres are more common. That’s one reason Fernando’s BLS team uses sprinkler irrigation on their Carman plots: to create the humid canopy conditions that allow the disease to develop.

The bacterium is primarily seed-borne but can also survive in crop residue, volunteers and perennial grasses. Because it is bacterial, standard fungicides, whether seed treatments or foliar sprays, are ineffective.

Management today

With no resistant varieties thus far in Canada, and no chemical options, growers are left with cultural practices and careful scouting to reduce risk. To help farmers manage the threat, a group of Prairie cereal organizations, including SaskWheat, SaskBarley, Alberta Wheat, Alberta Barley and the Manitoba Crop Alliance, released a joint fact sheet in 2023 outlining key practices and scouting strategies to reduce inoculum levels and slow the spread of BLS.

Start with clean seed. Infected seed is the main source of inoculum. If BLS is suspected in a field, especially when black chaff is visible, harvested grain should not be used for seed. Certified seed is not routinely screened for Xanthomonas translucens in Canada, so growers are encouraged to ask about testing or send samples to independent labs.

Stretch the rotation. Extending the break between cereal crops to more than two years helps reduce inoculum in residue. Volunteers and grassy weeds should be controlled to cut down on secondary hosts.

Scout carefully. Begin at herbicide timing and continue through senescence, with extra passes after storms that might wound plants. The best time to distinguish BLS is at the flag-leaf stage, when translucent streaks are most visible. Avoid walking fields in wet conditions, since the disease can spread on boots and clothing.

Manage irrigation. In irrigated areas, water management can reduce risk. Practices such as irrigating in the evening when the canopy is already wet with dew, letting the canopy dry between sets, and avoiding unnecessary irrigation can shorten the hours of leaf wetness that favour bacterial spread.

Assume susceptibility. No Prairie varieties are currently rated for resistance to BLS. Some U.S. wheats (Glenn, Faller, Prosper, Bolles) and barleys (AAC Connect, AAC Synergy) have shown partial resistance, but local screening is still underway. For now, farmers should plan as though their chosen variety is susceptible.

Research directions

Fernando’s BLS team is running controlled trials in Carman with inoculated seed and irrigation to create conditions for infection. The aim is to better understand how much seed infestation translates into seedling infection, how moisture drives spread, and whether genetic resistance is possible.

Fernando’s lab is tackling several angles at once. One project is characterizing Canadian isolates of the bacterium — collecting strains from different provinces to see how diverse they are and how that diversity affects disease severity. Another is mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs), regions of DNA linked to traits such as disease resistance that breeders might eventually use. The team is also testing biocontrols that have shown promise in the greenhouse.

Most notably, they’re looking at cereal genes already known to confer disease resistance. The Manitoba team is focusing on two in particular — Lr34 and Lr67 — named for the leaf rust (Lr) resistance they provide. Both are broad-spectrum, meaning they protect against more than one disease. Lr67, for example, has shown some resistance to fusarium head blight and is most effective in mature plants.

Early trial results suggest Lr67 lines may show more resistance than Lr34. It’s too early to call, but the work could point to varieties with at least partial protection against bacterial leaf streak.

For now, clean seed, long rotations, careful scouting and mindful irrigation remain the most practical defences against a disease that is re-establishing itself across the Prairies. But resistance research offers a hint that the playbook could expand in the years to come.

“What we want to see is whether there are any lines showing resistance to BLS that could be used in breeding programs in the future,” said Bibi.

Article updated Nov. 6, 2025 to replace photo at top.

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“I do think that we are seeing more durum being grown,” Kirk said. “I anticipate we will see some increased interest in durum with these newer, better varieties that are being released.”

Manitoba isn’t exactly known for its durum production. According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba producers brought in 24,100 acres (9,800 hectares) worth last year, producing about 35,588 tonnes.

That’s a fraction of the rest of the Prairies. In 2024, Saskatchewan alone harvested 5.11 million acres (2.07 million hectares), good for 4.48 million tonnes, while Alberta produced 1.29 million tonnes off of 1.17 million acres (475,400 hectares).

Wetter conditions in the eastern Prairies, and the disease risk and associated quality concerns that come with them, are a big reason for that divide. Mycotoxin-causing infections such as fusarium and ergot are of particular concern, and Manitoba producers tend to reach for less susceptible spring wheat varieties.

AAC Frontier enters the game

New genetics highlighted at the Ag in Motion farm show at Langham, Sask., look to close that susceptibility gap.

AAC Frontier is being pitched as Canada’s first ergot-resistant durum variety. It also brings intermediate resistance to fusarium head blight, as well as resistance for stem and stripe rust.

It was developed at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Swift Current station, under the guidance of lead breeder Yuefeng Ruan, and was officially registered last year. Commercial rights for the variety currently fall under SeCan.

“When talking to durum producers, they would say that (after) fusarium, ergot would be the No. 2 downgrading factor in durum wheat,” said Todd Hyra, SeCan’s business manager for Western Canada.

The variety is currently in the seed multiplication stage of full commercialization. Seed growers in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta have it growing, Hyra says, and it’s currently on track for commercial release in 2027.

Trade assistance

Even with a better disease package, Kirk doesn’t expect that durum will suddenly explode to areas around the province.

More likely, she said, durum production will stay concentrated in the drier, southwest portion of Manitoba.

READ MORE: Let’s close the circuit on what leads to ergot

Looking past Manitoba’s interest, the advent of better disease resistance may help Canadian durum growers on the world stage.

Moroccan grain processors, who buy Canadian durum wheat for couscous, prioritize the colour of imported grain.

Rachid Chamcham of the Federation Nationale De La Minoterie (National Millers Federation) in Morocco made that point during the 2025 Durum Summit in Swift Current this winter.

“Moroccan millers look for semolina that boasts a vibrant, golden yellow colour — a hallmark of high-quality durum wheat,” Chamcham said.

“This is why they (millers) prefer Canadian amber durum wheat, particularly CWAD No. 1.”

That makes the dark, fungal sclerotia that are a hallmark of ergot an increasingly problematic issue.

Moroccan buyers examine semolina, the flour produced from durum wheat, for dark “specks.”

“Speck counting is often a mandatory quality control parameter, which ensures that the semolina meets customer specifications,” the Canadian Grain Commission said in a 2022 report on ergot in Canadian crops.

“The physical presence of the dark-coloured sclerotia … can negatively influence consumers’ acceptance of semolina and finished products.”

Ergot contamination on the rise

Ergot typically isn’t a significant threat to durum production in most years, but the grain commission report indicates that ergot occurrence has been rising since approximately 2010.

Between 1995 and 2009, ergot incidence (percentage of plants with symptoms) averaged 2.9 per cent in durum. The average incidence jumped to 13.1 per cent from 2010 to 2020.

Additionally, durum wheat has a strict grading tolerance for ergot at just 0.02 per cent of net weight, creating a genuine concern that producers may face downgrading at elevator facilities.

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First, the good news: overall insensitivity of sclerotinia sclerotiorum to Group 3 (prothioconazole), Group 11 (azoxystrobin) and Group 7 (boscalid) did not change substantially between 2010 and 2024, says Dwayne Hegedus, a researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Saskatoon Research and Development Centre.

However, some sclerotinia populations were discovered with elevated insensitivity — or rather, increased resistance — to all three fungicides, he says.

There was also a single case of extremely high resistance in boscalid in southern Manitoba, plus heightened levels of adaptation to prothioconazole among disease samples.

It’s crucial to assess crop protection tools in order to conserve the chemistries that are effective in sclerotinia and other crop diseases, Hegedus said on the Canola AgriScience Cluster Research Roundup webinar June 26.

“It’s important going forward … that we prolong the usefulness of these fungicide active ingredients, which requires rotating between fungicides with different modes of action using fungicide mixtures — which are becoming more common now in the new products that are coming out — and also to apply these fungicides only when necessary.”

Prairie-wide test

Hegedus reported on an ongoing AAFC project that’s been testing for sclerotinia insensitivity throughout the Prairies over the past two years. He gave the presentation on behalf of his research partners Edis Dzananovic and Lone Buchwaldt, both also with AAFC Saskatoon.

The sclerotinia fungus, of course, is the cause of stem rot — or white mould — in canola. According to Manitoba Agriculture, it’s the most serious disease of canola on the Prairies, with loss reports ranging from five to 100 per cent for individual fields.

In 2023 and 2024, AAFC — through the third-party contractor Epilogic — collected dozens of isolates of sclerotinia throughout south and central Alberta, south-central Saskatchewan, southwestern Manitoba and additional locations throughout the Prairies.

—> WATCH THIS: Fungicide timing for sclerotinia in canola

The sensitivity, adaptation and resistance of the isolates to the three fungicides were then compared to the results of a similar project Buchwaldt ran in 2010.

Hegedus explained the latter two measurements. “An adapted isolate is an isolate that has undergone small changes that allow it to survive higher levels of the fungicide,” he says.

“These could be changes that might interfere with the uptake of the fungicide or the activation of systems that would pump out the fungicide from the cell, but they can increase tolerance for the fungicide and this can have ramifications for field efficacy.”

Resistant isolates, meanwhile, are those with a mutation in the protein that fungicide targets. “These have hugely enhanced resistance to the fungicide, making the fungicide completely ineffective in field situations.”

‘Genuine concern’

The most crucial discovery in the boscalid comparisons was an isolate found at Westbourne, Man., northwest of Portage la Prairie, showing a very high degree of resistance to the Group 7 fungicide. In fact, it was 100,000 times more resistant than the sensitive control, Hegedus says.

The finding motivated the researchers to sequence the target gene — succinate dehydrogenase B — in the isolate.

Doing so, they found a mutation in that gene that has already been found to create resistance to other Group 7 fungicides. It is also known to cause cross-resistance in a broad set of succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicides.

“This is something we have to be genuinely concerned about,” Hegedus says.

Otherwise, the overall population in both 2010 and 2023-24 was sensitive to boscalid.

“We did see some isolates with increased insensitivity as we did with both of the other fungicides. So there’s some adaptation occurring or other isolates with some adaptation.”

Overall, the sclerotinia isolates were sensitive to azoxystrobin with little change in that sensitivity since 2010. Hegedus was surprised by this finding, given the product’s decades-long use against stem rot.

The researchers found some isolates with insensitivity and adaptation, however.

Prothioconazole was a different kind of case. Compared to both the sensitive and adapted controls, a large portion of the population showed adaptation — and in some cases high levels of adaptation — to the Group 3 product.

The sclerotinia population already had a high degree of insensitivity to the active ingredient prior to the research, but the scientists did not find any increase in insensitivity from 2010 to 2023-24.

“So the situation appears to be at least stable,” he says.

—> READ MORE: Company field-tests sclerotinia-resistant canola

Despite this, Hegedus urges caution in the use of prothioconazole, considering the level of population sensitivity and the blowback from its patent expiry.

“This year, we saw many generic products appearing that were registered for control of stem rot in canola. I think there are now nine products available — six or seven appeared last year — containing only prothioconazole,” he says.

“So the market could very well be flooded with cheap, generic prothioconazole, which could lead to its overuse, which could further exacerbate the situation. So I think this is something we want to continue to monitor.”

More data coming

This work is far from over. Next year the researchers — with a particular focus on Manitoba — will be testing all groups and chemistries registered for sclerotinia control in Canadian canola in 2024 and 2025.

The funding for the prothioconazole, boscalid and azoxystrobin research was provided through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s (S-CAP) AgriScience cluster.

The group has obtained new funding from the Canola Agronomic Research Program (CARP) to support the testing of three additional fungicides, two other Group 7 fungicides with slightly different chemistries and a Group 12 product that came on the market in 2024.

Get the jump on sclerotinia

Maps published by the Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network (PCDMN) suggest some heavy rain incidents — such as those seen on the June 21-22 weekend — have increased the risk of sclerotinia, which thrives in wet conditions.

Late May saw very dry conditions in the southern portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The most recent map, which covered June 23-28, saw a wide swath of the Prairies with surface moisture percentages of 20 to 25 per cent.

Kelly Turkington, a plant pathologist with AAFC’s Lacombe Research and Development Centre in Alberta and the chair of PCDMN, says these maps offer a “heads up” to producers about their sclerotinia risk, which can be highly variable.

“That may mean that there isn’t a lot of urgency in terms of getting out to scout if things have been dry but if it’s been wet and damp, that would mean that you want to be out in that crop and using the tools that are out there … and gauging the field-specific risk and thus the need for fungicide.”

The dryness around much of the Prairies in late May and early June minimized the risk of stem rot at the time, he says.

“What that means, in a broad sense, is that soil moisture levels were not overly conducive for germination of sclerotiorum stem rot and you typically need about three weeks once you have suitable temperatures (for germination).

“The temperature range is quite broad: 10 to 20 C is the optimum range for germination of sclerotiorum and moisture is a much more critical factor.

“So you need prolonged (moisture) conditions close to field capacity or at field capacity and that will trigger germination of sclerotiorum.”

A “quick-and-dirty” way of assessing sclerotinia risk is to go out in the field around 9 or 10 a.m. and scout, Turkington says.

“(If) the crop canopy is bone-dry, those are conditions that are not conducive to germination of sclerotiorum as well as infection from infected petals that lodge down in the canopy.

“Conversely, if you go out to your field at three or four in the afternoon and the soil is sopping wet, the crop canopy is wet, your pants get wet well past your knees up to your crotch, those would be conditions that — in a broad sense — would be ideal for germination of sclerotiorum.”

Due to the recent rains, some producers may soon be in the position of spraying for stem rot, Turkington says. Germination starts with the production of stipes: little stalks that look a little like golf tees.

“What that means is your inoculum loads might not arrive until well into mid- to full bloom, especially for earlier-seeded crops.

“So in that sense, that might help to give you some clues in terms of timing and when to spray. Early bloom versus full bloom might be more of a target. That’s when you would have that three-week period and the … production of spores might coincide with that crop when it’s in full bloom.”

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Clubroot is a persistent and evolving soil-borne disease that affects canola and other cruciferous crops, causing swollen galls on roots that reduce nutrient uptake and stunt plant growth.

The Clubroot Steering Committee, an industry-led working group made up of seed companies, researchers and producer organizations, proposes a new voluntary labelling system that specifies the exact forms of clubroot to which a variety is resistant.

Instead of the current blanket “resistant” or “susceptible” tags, the new system would indicate resistance to specific strains, or pathotypes, of the clubroot organism common in Prairie soils.

The goal is to help farmers choose and rotate varieties more effectively, reducing disease pressure and preserving the usefulness of resistance over time.

Currently, seed varieties are labelled as resistant if they show less than 30 per cent disease compared to a susceptible check. But it doesn’t tell growers which specific strains a variety resists. The proposed changes aim to address that limitation.

Newer forms of the clubroot pathogen are already overcoming resistance bred into popular canola varieties, threatening yields and long-term soil health.

“Pathotypes in a field can shift dramatically within just a few years,” the Canola Council of Canada notes. “We need a more nuanced approach to help farmers rotate resistance sources and reduce disease pressure.”

Under the new proposal, seed labels would identify resistance to the three most common clubroot pathotypes in Western Canada, designated 3A, 3D and 3H. These are among the most widespread and damaging strains found in Prairie soils.

While the proposal focuses on just three, more than 47 distinct clubroot pathotypes have been identified in Canada, with new ones appearing nearly every year. Multiple forms of the pathogen can sometimes be found within a single clubroot gall. So, researchers are working to isolate and characterize minor strains for future inclusion.

“Eventually we’re getting to testing some of the minor pathotypes in Western Canada as well,” says Curtis Rempel, vice-president for crop production and innovation with the Canola Council of Canada.

Dr. Stephen Strelkov, a University of Alberta plant pathologist who has tracked clubroot’s spread since it was first identified near Edmonton in 2003, is leading the development of single-spore isolates for the most widespread pathotypes.

Strelkov shared updates earlier this year at CropConnect in Winnipeg, highlighting the urgency of staying ahead of evolving pathogen types. Rempel reports that Strelkov’s work on the three isolates is progressing well.

“Stephen is on track to have them available late this year or early next year for developers to start testing,” he says, adding that within the next couple of years he expects them to show up on labels. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”

The proposed system would give seed developers a clear framework to describe resistance consistently and in a grower-friendly way, making it easier for farmers to compare varieties based on how they perform against specific clubroot strains.

Rempel emphasized the practical value of this system for long-term resistance planning. He says the new labels could help growers plan rotations that reduce selection pressure.

For example, after planting a variety resistant to pathotype 3H for three cycles — nine years in a typical rotation — a grower might switch to a variety with resistance to 3A to keep the pathogen population off balance.

“It’s going to tell the farmer that whatever gene is in the variety they’re buying and growing will be resistant to pathogen type 3H,” he said.

Though the new labels will be voluntary, Rempel expects strong uptake.

“I’ve looked historically at our canola industry in Canada — the companies are always trying to do right by the grower,” he says. “They’re looking to optimize yields. They’re looking to optimize profitability. So all of this adds up as favourable for the grower.”

Breeding resistance to specific pathogen strains using single-spore isolates is not a new concept. It mirrors what’s already done in wheat breeding for leaf and stem rust resistance.

“This is a model that’s working elsewhere,” Rempel notes. “You have to be able to characterize it to know that your resistance genes are of any value — or optimum value.”

The labelling system is still under discussion, and key details such as implementation timelines and seed industry participation have not been finalized.

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The report by the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC), in collaboration with the Manitoba Crop Alliance, says new Canadian malting barley varieties can be grown successfully in Manitoba.

With yields and quality comparable to the check variety — AAC Synergy — the study found new varieties including AAC Connect, CDC Fraser, CDC Copper, CDC Churchill and AAC Prairie are the next generation of varieties for Manitoba growers, the CMBTC said in a release Friday.

“The study showed that these new varieties offer good agronomics and the high end-use quality traits that are the hallmark of Canadian malting barley,” CMBTC managing director Peter Watts said.

According to the Manitoba Crop Alliance, total barley acres, whether for feed or malting, have declined over the last two decades on “a combination of disease concerns, market forces and difficulty to meet malting grade.”

That said, seeded acreage reports from Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp., the provincial crop insurance agency, have found Manitoba barley acres steadied in the years 2020 to 2023, at a level between 365,000 and 400,000.

Producers in Manitoba have struggled with diseases such as fusarium head blight in malting barley, but with improved disease resistance packages, better fungicide products and improved management practices, fusarium has not been a significant issue in recent years, CMBTC said.

Producers growing malting barley varieties have the option of both malting and feed markets. With a malt barley variety, farmers gain an additional 2.5 million-tonne market that they could not access with feed varieties, the centre said. As well, malt barley generally offers a premium of around $1 per bushel or more.

“Manitoba is one of the best barley producing regions in the world,” Manitoba Crop Alliance CEO Pam de Rocquigny said in the same release. “This success can be attributed to climate and geography, and our advanced farming practices.”

Barley is a good cereals crop option, as it provides many benefits when included in crop rotations. It can be planted early in the growing season and is both competitive and high yielding. Furthermore, including barley in crop rotations can provide flexibility during harvest, as it matures early, allowing harvest to be spread out between crop types, the centre said.

“In combination, these attributes make barley a great option for farmers,” says de Rocquigny.

Registrations of new malting barley varieties for producer use in Canada in recent years led to the need to evaluate those new varieties in field-scale trials, under Manitoba growing conditions, to provide data for that province’s growers on how new varieties could fit in their cropping systems.

More details from the CMBTC study can be viewed on the Manitoba Crop Alliance website.

Several companies in Manitoba source malting barley to supply domestic and international markets including CMBTC members Cargill, Richardson, Viterra, Malteurop and Boortmalt, among others.

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The University of Arkansas last week announced its ag researchers had found glufosinate-resistant Palmer amaranth in crops in two eastern Arkansas counties across the Mississippi River from Memphis.

The finding “does not appear to be widespread” in those counties, they said — and among other weeds, only four grasses are known to have developed glufosinate resistance, three of those in other countries overseas.

But the finding may not bode well for the chemical’s expanded use against weeds that have already developed resistance to other chemistries.

Bayer, for example, recently expanded its Roundup Ready Xtend crop system to include a new line of XtendFlex soybeans, which have tolerance not only to glyphosate and dicamba but to glufosinate as well, partly as a way to expand growers’ options against herbicide-resistant weeds throughout the growing season.

Glufosinate, a broad-spectrum Group 10 product, “is one of the few remaining chemistries that are effective in controlling pigweed in soybeans and other crops,” Arkansas extension weed scientist Tom Barber said Thursday in a release.

“We have put a lot of selection pressure on glufosinate the last 10 years or more, so no, it is not surprising… and likely was inevitable.”

The resistance in Palmer amaranth was first reported last summer in two “fields of concern” in Mississippi County where three applications of the chemical had failed to control the weed. “These two fields had that ‘look’ and were very suspicious, to say the least,” Barber and other researchers wrote in a blog post last week.

Putting the strain of Palmer amaranth through the screening process to confirm resistance, the researchers found the biotype from Crittenden County was 3.5 times less sensitive to glufosinate, and the cases in Mississippi County “appear to be at least 15 times more resistant than the susceptible standard used for evaluation in the screening.”

Without glufosinate, “in cotton or soybean crops, the options are limited, especially post-emergence,” Barber said, recommending the use of two residual herbicides at planting, along with “paraquat at planting to make sure we start clean.” Dicamba and use of the Enlist system are also options.

However, “the best plan is to rotate to corn or rice on the acre if possible as well as remove all pigweed escapes, which will reduce seed returning to the seed bank,” he said.

Tommy Butts, also an extension weed scientist and co-author of the blog post, said growers can slow herbicide resistance in weed populations by avoiding “overreliance” on a single control method.

“Now, more than ever, it is a must to diversify weed control strategies and implement an integrated weed management approach including cultural, mechanical and preventative tactics,” he said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Quebec’s Reseau d’avertissement phytosanitaire (RAP) last Friday reported a patch of waterhemp with resistance to mesotrione herbicide in the Haut-Richelieu municipality, in the province’s Monteregie.

A Group 27 HPPD enzyme inhibitor, mesotrione is the active ingredient in Syngenta’s Callisto herbicide and one of several in products such as Halex and Acuron, all used mainly for broadleaf weed control in corn crops.

Tests by the Centre de recherche sur les grains (CEROM) also confirmed resistance to Groups 2, 5 and 9 (atrazine, metribuzine and glyphosate respectively) in the same waterhemp patch, RAP reported.

Established in Ontario since 2002, Manitoba since 2016 and Quebec since 2017, having arrived via the central and eastern U.S., waterhemp is able to germinate all throughout a growing season.

The weed is also known to be highly prolific — a single plant can produce up to 300,000 seeds — and if left unchecked, has been known to cause yield losses of up to 73 per cent in infested corn and soy crops, RAP said.

The plant also grows rapidly, at a rate of up to 2.5 to three centimetres per day, and is tough to distinguish visually from relatives such as redroot and green pigweed.

Waterhemp patches in Ontario have previously shown resistance to groups 2, 5 and 9 and, more recently, Group 14. That group includes PPO inhibitors such as Syngenta’s Reflex and Corteva’s Goal, also used mainly for broadleaf weed control.

The Quebec agriculture ministry previously set up a support program to help corn and soy growers deal with waterhemp infestations. RAP, in its notice last Friday, urged affected producers to sign up for the program, to help limit the weed’s further spread in the province. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Canola is pushing upside chart limits and modest corrections are likely going forward, but the fundamentals remain supportive and “the trend is up until further notice,” said analyst Mike Jubinville of MarketsFarm Pro.

While activity in the Chicago Board of Trade soybean market remains a key driver in canola, “the demand for canola, in and of itself, has also been quite powerful,” said Jubinville.

“We are now in a demand-pull environment, whereas typically we are supply-push — where growers are just pushing supply into the marketplace.”

A demand-driven market, he added, was a situation “that has not emerged, not just in canola but for grains and oilseed markets in general, for almost a decade.”

The unique situation “is providing lift across the spectrum… amazingly in the midst of harvest,” he said.

From a chart standpoint, long-term resistance is very close in the $535-$540 per tonne area. “That would send a very big message to the market if we were able to break through there,” Jubinville said.

The November contract, which traded as high as $533.30 on Sept. 21, settled Wednesday at $525.40. Breaking above the resistance will take support from outside vegetable oil markets, such as palm oil and soyoil, according to Jubinville.

He thought such a move was possible, as canola is still cheap compared to other oilseeds. “It’s not overvalued relative to competing products.”

While he felt higher prices were inevitable given the current market conditions, Jubinville recommended farmers continue to make sales on a scale-up basis.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“We’re running into the top end on the monthly and weekly charts,” said Jamie Wilton, senior commodity futures specialist with RJ O’Brien in Winnipeg.

The November contract settled Wednesday at $530.20 per tonne, while some of the more deferred positions topped $540.

Looking at the charts, Wilton said the $530 per tonne level has been a “tough level of resistance” for a number of years.

With harvest operations picking up over the next few weeks, “I think there will be enough supply around, which should put a halt on the uptrend at some point,” he said.

However, he added, solid demand on the other side will remain supportive and temper any correction lower.

In addition to harvest conditions in both Canada and the U.S., Wilton said South American weather may also provide some direction for futures, with Brazil on the dry side as its soybean growing season gets underway.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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The November contract hit an intersession high of $482 per tonne on Wednesday, but settled below the $480 mark.

“You can’t discount at least the potential of this time being the breakout time, but for right now it (resistance) continues to hold,” MarketsFarm Pro analyst Mike Jubinville said.

Gradual strength in outside vegetable oil markets, including European rapeseed futures and Chicago Board of Trade soyoil, were supportive influences, and Jubinville said it would take continued gains in those outside markets to keep canola pointed higher.

Weather conditions in the United States and their influence on the CBOT soy complex will likely be a major driver over the next few weeks, with Canadian weather also being followed closely.

Excess precipitation may lead to issues with slow development and possible disease issues in parts of Western Canada. However, Jubinville said it was too early to cut yield estimates.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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