Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Excess moisture in parts of central Manitoba could bring disease problems to winter wheat fields in the region. Fungicide spraying has occurred to control diseases such as fusarium head blight and leaf diseases, but farmers are running into some problems with applications, according to Bruce Burnett, crop specialist with CWB in Winnipeg. […] Read more
Wet weather brings disease worries to Man. winter wheat
Your soil needs crop diversity
Stacked rotations may be worth more research, but until then, diversity is your best profit management tool
Reading Time: 4 minutes Healthy soil is the craziest, busiest jungle you can imagine. One gram of clubroot-infested soil can have a billion clubroot spores. A billion! All in a pinch of soil the size of a Skittle! Fusariums, pythiums, rhizoctonia and countless other beneficial fungi, bacteria and microbes are there, too. So are ions and molecules of calcium, […] Read more
Grain grading, and the science behind falling number
The test is an effective way to determine sprout damage in wheat
Reading Time: 3 minutes Pre-harvest sprouting or germination of wheat triggered by wet weather during the end stage of new-crop maturity can lead to poor end-product quality. The falling number test is one effective and objective way to determine the extent of sprout damage in a wheat sample. “Farmers are especially interested in falling number when they come to […] Read more
Developing new seed varieties for better crops
Reducing risk for the entire grain industry is key to variety development
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s not easy growing grain for a living. Between bad weather, plant disease, insects, rising input costs and fluctuating markets, it can be tough to make a buck. That’s why new seed varieties are so important to Canadian wheat growers, says Ron DePauw, a senior wheat breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s, Semi-Arid Prairie Agricultural […] Read more
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
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
