That’s one of the messages sent out during this year’s Crop Diagnostic School in Carman in the first two weeks of July.

Why it matters: Manitoba’s most popular oat varieties have either been downgraded for crown rust resistance or were already moderately susceptible, and woody stream banks contain wild hosts for the pathogen.

David Kaminski, a field crop pathologist with the province, warned that common buckthorn provides an easy wild host for the pathogen. The infected buckthorn plants are a haven for spores to overwinter after they blow in from the United States, he said. Susceptible oat varieties may be in trouble with crown rust if planted within a few miles of those wild areas.

“If you were 15 or 20 miles from any river or stream course in Manitoba, it’s very unlikely that you’ll have a concentrated source of inoculum that moves into your field, but if you’re within a couple of miles from a stream that has woody species along it, there’s a good chance that there are spores available at the time when the crop is also susceptible,” he said.

Two of the pathogen’s five life cycle stages impact oats, he said, while common buckthorn is affected by three.

“The first and second spore stages come out on the leaves of buckthorn (in) early, early spring when our crops are still seedlings,” he said.

Common, or European, buckthorn is endemic along Manitoba’s waterways, Kaminski went on to say. The Invasive Species Council of Manitoba lists the woody shrub as a problem species, both in the province’s natural areas and in green spaces within Winnipeg. It is commonly mistaken for the native chokecherry bush with its dark berries and is highly adaptable to different moisture and light levels, the council says.

The plant’s thorns are a hazard for both people and livestock, the council’s website warns, while the dense shade created by buckthorn stands impact the ability of natural plants to compete.

The Carman research station knows the buckthorn problem all too well, given its proximity to the Boyne River.

Commercial oat plots this year are planted to Souris oats, a variety still advertised for its crown rust resistance, although Seed Manitoba counts the variety as moderately susceptible.

The older Souris variety has fallen out of favour with millers, agronomists attending the diagnostic school said, although about 17 per cent of oat acres in Manitoba were planted to Souris as recently as 2017. The variety’s popularity dropped significantly last year, accounting for only nine per cent of the province’s 401,000 oat acres.

One of the province’s most popular oat varieties shares that crown rust susceptibility, however. CS Camden is also labelled mildly susceptible and accounted for 40 per cent of oat acres last year.

Manitoba’s second most popular oat variety last year, Summit, was also downgraded in 2019 thanks to changes in crown rust virulence in Manitoba. Seed Manitoba counted the variety as resistant until this year, a rating that dropped to intermediate in the publication’s 2019 edition.

Alexis Stockford is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator. Her article appeared in the July 18, 2019 issue.

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What’s been happening in Arkansas underscores the risk dicamba drift presents. The U.S. state of Arkansas on Friday announced a 120-day ban on the use and sale of dicamba in the wake of 550 drift complaints this season.

And last year an altercation between two farmers over drift escalated to the alleged shooting and death of 55-year-old farmer Mike Wallace of Monette, in the state’s northeast.

The Arkansas Legislative Council had already approved an emergency rule allowing fines of up to US$25,000 for “egregious” misuse of dicamba.

“Dicamba drift damage can occur at low doses,” Terry Buss, a provincial farm production extension specialist for pulses, said in an interview Wednesday during Manitoba Agriculture and the University of Manitoba’s Crop Diagnostic School at the university’s Carman research station.

Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans, which can tolerate the herbicides glyphosate and dicamba, were made commercially available to Manitoba farmers for the first time this spring.

Dicamba, a group 4 herbicide, is more volatile than some other weedkillers, provincial weed specialist Jeanette Gaultier said in an interview Friday.

However, two less volatile dicamba formulations — BASF’s Engenia and Monsanto’s Xtendimax with VaporGrip Technology — are available.

Dicamba drift can be further reduced by applying it before crops emerge, increasing droplet size, spraying when winds are light and keeping sprayer speeds down.

Monsanto Canada spokeswoman Trish Jordan said Arkansas is an anomaly.

“What we’ve seen so far is the vast majority of farmers and applicators using our products are seeing great results, both from a weed control and efficacy standpoint, as well as the application itself and the products staying put,” Jordan said in an email Friday. “So we feel really good about what we are seeing.”

Though Xtendimax has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, farmers in Arkansas don’t have access to it because the state government hasn’t approved it, Jordan said.

“Therefore they don’t have access to the formulation that is designed to go with the product, nor have any of their farmers had the benefit of education and training sessions like in other states.”

Dicamba drift complaints have also been filed in Tennessee, Missouri and Mississippi.

But Jordan said the number of complaints is normal, despite 25 million acres of Xtend soybeans and cotton planted in the U.S. this year.

“(W)e will continue to work with every farmer that’s purchased our technology… to have a positive experience,” she said.

Manitoba Agriculture has heard a few dicamba drift complaints, but the extent of damage isn’t known yet, Gaultier said.

She suspects warmer weather in the southern U.S. might be contributing to more problems there.

States such as Arkansas also have more dicamba-susceptible crops, while canola and wheat, Manitoba’s two biggest crops by acreage, are not injured by dicamba drift. However, Gaultier said, non-Xtend soybeans, edible beans, sunflowers, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers are.

Some of the problems with dicamba drift in the U.S. are the result of “rescue” treatments when both crops and weeds are well advanced, Buss said. Susceptible crops hit with dicamba entering the reproductive stage result in bigger yield losses because they don’t have time to recover, he said.

Although dicamba can be applied to Xtend soybeans from pre-emergence to early flowering, applying pre-emergence has a lot of advantages. For one, if your crop isn’t up, your neighbour’s might not be either, and can’t be damaged.

“Dicamba provides residual control for a short period of time,” Buss said.

Research has shown earlier weed control boosts crop yields.

Monsanto also recommends applying dicamba with nozzles that produce coarse to ultra-coarse droplets such as Turbo TeeJet Induction and Air Induction. Those nozzles require application rates of at least 10 gallons of water an acre.

Spraying should take place when wind speeds are three to 15 km/h and at sprayer travel speeds of no more than 24 km/h. Boom height should be no more than 50 cm, Monsanto says.

Farmers shouldn’t spray during inversions, or when wind conditions are dead calm, Buss said. The spray might not penetrate the crop canopy and could move to a neighbouring field.

“There is potential for a lot of drift damage if we are not doing things properly,” he said.

While widespread drift damage is unacceptable, Buss hopes Manitoba famers cut each other some slack where field edges meet.

“I think people are going to have to be reasonable… because it could be you causing the damage next year,” he said.

“I don’t think we saw as much of the minor drift that was going on and now we are going to be more aware of it.”

Farmers and their employees should also pay more attention to what they and their neighbours are growing to avoid not only drift, but spraying the wrong field, Buss said.

Cleaning all the dicamba out of a spray tank isn’t hard, but critical.

“Eight ounces of dicamba solution — not the concentrated product, but the solution left in a big sprayer filled up with something else — can cause (injury) symptoms,” Buss said.

“If you leave three gallons of solution in that sprayer… and then fill up and go spray something else susceptible you can actually cause yield loss.”

Monsanto recommends triple-rinsing sprayers after applying dicamba. The first rinse is with water. All filters and screens should cleaned with an ammonia- or detergent-based solution. The tank should get a similar solution and be agitated, then flushed. A third rinse, with water, should then follow.

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man. Follow him at @AllanReporter on Twitter.

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Anyone working in agriculture today has 24/7 access to online information about crop disease and pests, but there is no substitute for seeing these problems in real life. Getting up close so you can see all sides of a plant or bug, or even smelling a “new” weed can really help agronomists out in the field.

Researchers from Saskatchewan Agriculture and the University of Saskatchewan brought actual weeds and pests out to the School site. This opportunity for a good look is especially helpful when a weed or pest is extending its area — if you get a preview of a weed on the move, you’ll recognize it when it settles into fields in your area.

• GALLERY: See more photos from the Crop Diagnostic School at Grainews.ca

It’s useful to see weeds in pots and bugs in jars, but where the Crop Diagnostic School really excels is with its field plots. Saskatchewan Agriculture organizers begin to plan for the event months before it takes place. They lay out, seed, and treat crop plots to display actual problems that farmers will face during the growing season. Some problems they demonstrated this year were lentils seeded without inoculant, soybeans suffering from accidental herbicide drift and canola plants sprayed at the wrong time. Some of these “problem” plots were clearly labeled so participants could learn from them. Others were intentionally left unlabeled, and agronomists were challenged to use their own skills to diagnose the underlying issues.

Cory Jacobs, Saskatchewan Agriculture regional crops specialist likes this event because “you get the people out in the field, and you actually have the real plant species here to show people.”

As with regular farming, not everything goes as planned. Some of the plots that were intended to show common mistakes appeared to be quite healthy. This year’s good growing conditions allowed the plants to compensate for the intentional stress. “We never expected this much water in Swift Current,” said Kim Stonehouse, Saskatchewan Agriculture regional farm business management specialist. If only all real-world farming mistakes were so easily accommodated.

This year’s Saskatchewan Crop Diagnostic School takes place at the Wheatland Conservation Farm near Swift Current from July 26 to 28 (programming is the same each day). In Manitoba, a similar Crop Diagnostic School took place earlier in July at the Ian N. Morrison Research Farm at Carman.

Because they require so much time and plot space, these events are not the type that can be replicated in several areas. There may not be a Crop Diagnostic school conveniently located near you. But be on the lookout for dates and locations next year. This hands-on experience is well worth the travel time.

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