Reading Time: 7 minutes What will be the big disease concern this year? Will it be tar spot in corn, or frog-eye leaf spot in soybeans? Or will growers be facing more of the same, with soybean cyst nematode and northern corn leaf blight? Forecasting diseases is iffy at best. The truth is that most disease pathogens, once they […] Read more
Disease outlook for the 2020 crop season
We can’t be sure which diseases will attack this year, but indications are that once they arrive, they’ll be here to stay
Putting a value on crop diversity
Economists and agronomists are getting together to compare the benefits of short and long rotations
Reading Time: 3 minutes Have you ever stared at your crop plan and wished that it didn’t rely so heavily on canola? Or wheat? Or peas? Or any crop that is too often called on for cash flow at the expense of proper rotation? Agronomists have been beating the drum of crop diversity for years and farmers understand that […] Read more
Species-specific crop protection
RNA interference provides a new method of pest control, using tools so precise they hit only the target insect or disease
Reading Time: 4 minutes “We like to call sclerotinia the bully,” says Mark Belmonte. And stopping a bully is not easy. The pathogen attacks fast, it moves quickly through the plant and it can do heavy yield damage right away. “Because it acts with brute force and involves multiple genes, sclerotinia is difficult to study and get a good […] Read more
Row upon row of fusarium
At this ‘nursery’ at Carman, Man., researchers simulate exactly the conditions wheat farmers fear — warm, humid and loaded with fusarium spores
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s incredibly labour intensive,” says Anita Brûlé-Babel of the FHB screening process. She should know. A professor at the University of Manitoba, Brûlé-Babel established the FHB screening nursery at the University’s Carman location back in 2001 and has managed it ever since. “It’s much more efficient to do disease screening in a nursery like this, […] Read more
Two new diseases in corn crops
The flow of sub-tropical diseases continues in the the North American heartland
Reading Time: 4 minutes It has been an interesting year for field crop pathologists in the U.S. Although many seasons often pass without the discovery of any new diseases, this year they were treated with not just one but two new corn diseases in the country. Tar spot and bacterial leaf stripe were both discovered late in the growing […] Read more
Crop diseases take a bit of a break in 2015
Drier conditions this past season kept a lid on most crop diseases — but this is probably just a brief respite until environmental conditions line up again
Reading Time: 8 minutes The bad news is that dry weather cut yields across much of the Prairies in 2015. The consolation? This same weather kept fungal diseases in check. In fact, areas that were in the sweet spot of lower pressure but enough rainfall to carry yield were rewarded with exceptional crop quality. Country Guide recently spoke to […] Read more
Pest Patrol: Using the ‘Pest Manager’ app
Weeds and weed management information in the palm of your hand
Reading Time: 2 minutes We have good pest management information and research. The challenge can be to get that information to the farmers who need it. Earlier this summer, a smartphone app was launched called Pest Manager. Currently, only information on weeds and weed management is included, so I tell farmers it’s what you would get if a weed […] Read more
Only upside to drought? Less spraying and less risk of crop diseases
But diseases like stripe rust, tan spot, or sclerotinia could be an issue if there’s been decent moisture
Reading Time: 4 minutes This summer’s dry growing conditions in Alberta have at least one silver lining — lower levels of disease in fields. “In those areas that have had very little rainfall this summer, you’re probably looking at limited development of diseases,” federal research scientist Kelly Turkington said in a July 6 interview. “Of more concern would simply […] Read more
Are you ‘always wrong’ at camp sclerotinia?
Your decision to spray essentially comes down to one simple equation
Reading Time: 6 minutes Ah, all the joys of summer camp… first loves, campfires and archery supremacy. And don’t forget wood ticks, swimmer’s itch and the stench of a cabin on weiners and beans night. In fact, it probably isn’t too big a stretch to say that the way we remember summer camp is probably as diverse as the […] Read more
Root rot disease could become the clubroot of pulse crops
For pulse growers, aphanomyces has all too much in common with canola’s clubroot
Reading Time: 3 minutes Nervous eyes are watching it, and voices are already whispering that it may become the clubroot of pulse crops. Aphanomyces is a virulent root rot, technically classified as a water mould, and it appears to be slowly spreading throughout the Prairie region, affecting annual and perennial legumes including legume forages. First confirmed in Saskatchewan in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
