clubroot in canola

The threat for canola

Two canola diseases have got researchers worried

Reading Time: 4 minutes Protecting any crop from plant diseases that lurk in the soil or in the stubble is a never ending battle for farmers and researchers. Often, however, it’s even worse in canola, as becomes clear with a quick look at clubroot and blackleg. Both attack canola and while scientists and farmers are doing their best to […] Read more

soybean test plot

Seed inoculation gains ground

Soybean Guide: OMAFRA’s Horst Bohner now recommends always inoculating. “There are some real benefits.”

Reading Time: 6 minutes In the world of agriculture, there are very few constants. Most practices and standards last only until new research shifts our thought processes, or until a new challenge or a new opportunity changes the landscape. There are plenty of recent examples. Within the past decade, the hard-and-fast rule of always planting corn first has changed; […] Read more


Last summer’s leached spikelets could mean a poor start for this year’s wheat crop.

2015 crop disease outlook

The 2014 growing season saw some serious disease 
outbreaks, and it looks like 2015 will too

Reading Time: 7 minutes Crops diseases are always a risk for grain growers. Be it rust in the 1950s, fusarium in the 1990s or clubroot today, it seems there’s always a new pestilence lurking just around the corner. Country Guide spoke to crop disease specialists from the three Prairie provinces late this fall about what they saw in the […] Read more

soybean field

A look back at thicker soybean stands

Is 2014 proof that we’ve been going in the wrong direction with soybean populations?

Reading Time: 6 minutes Sometimes it’s best to take a quick look in the rear-view mirror before considering where to go next. In farming, of course, it isn’t that simple. The weather next year will never be exactly the same as it was this year, and pest and disease pressures will vary too. Still, it’s essential to look for […] Read more


After three years, if the return 
on investment is always positive, we adopt it whole farm.”
— Kristjan Hebert, Moosomin, Sask.

Fungicide question on wheat is settled

For these farmers, it’s every acre, every year… but always at the right crop stage

Reading Time: 8 minutes Kristjan Hebert knows exactly what his target is when he is spraying fungicide on his wheat. “One hundred per cent,” says the Moosomin, Sask.-area grain grower, who farms with his father. “Our goal is to get it all covered at the heading stage.” That’s a far cry from just a few years ago, when the […] Read more

A soybean emerges from the soil in its early stage of development.

Soybeans fight to reach full potential against cyst nematode

A growing problem with sudden death syndrome is causing concern for Ontario soybean growers, but one plant pathologist says it’s a manageable concern

Reading Time: 7 minutes It’s an in-field whodunnit — a burgeoning crop disease that closely resembles other better-known problems, but is its own unique culprit, with its own unique symptoms, development and costs. The first symptoms are a widespread mottling and crinkling of leaves on soybean plants, usually coming after the start of flowering, though in rare cases symptoms […] Read more