Reading Time: 4 minutes Municipal officials across the province are increasingly on guard in the ongoing war to slow the relentless spread of clubroot. It’s been 15 years since the pernicious soil-borne disease was first found in a canola field near Edmonton. The confirmed tally last year was 2,744 fields — but the true number is almost certainly higher. […] Read more
Municipalities on the front lines in clubroot war
Persuasion preferred, but no-grow orders are also being used
Key source of clubroot resistance goes AWOL
‘Grandparent’ can defeat new mutated clubroot strains but somehow it doesn’t get passed down
Reading Time: 3 minutes The ‘grandparent’ of clubroot resistance in most Canadian canola varieties is resistant to new virulent strains of clubroot — but its offspring aren’t. “It’s possible that, in the course of breeding, some of the resistant genes were lost,” said provincial research scientist Rudolph Fredua-Agyeman. European clubroot differential (ECD) 04 is a key source of clubroot […] Read more
Building a stronger wall to keep out clubroot
New research finds resistant canola varieties are better at strengthening cell walls in their roots
Reading Time: 2 minutes Researchers want to build a better wall — at a cellular level — to thwart clubroot. Of the dozens of canola varieties, only eight have resistance to the fungus-like pathogen and all of them are now showing signs of losing resistance, said Gary Peng, a plant pathologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s research centre in Saskatoon. […] Read more
Canola acres set to jump, but so will the risk of disease
Canola plantings are expected to increase by about one million acres, and that means more disease risk
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canola could top out at over 24 million acres in Canada this year — one million more acres than growers planted in 2017. “With the relative return right now, canola is looking better than wheat,” said Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “If these kinds of price signals continue or strengthen in […] Read more
Tax credit for canola checkoffs
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta Canola is reminding its members that they can get a tax credit on a portion of the checkoffs they paid in 2017. The Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit allows canola growers to claim the portion of the checkoff used to fund qualifying research. “Farmers are funding research into finding solutions to agronomic […] Read more
Biosecurity on the radar for many crop growers
Clubroot sparks worry about outsiders — whether on ATVs or oilfield trucks — coming onto farms
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farm fields should be as biosecure as a big barn — and that means preventing trespassing and knowing who’s on your land, says a Saskatchewan farm leader. The spread of plant diseases — particularly clubroot — as well as weeds means farmers are paying more attention to the issue, said Norm Hall, vice-president of the […] Read more
Get the latest performance data on canola varieties
The results from the 2017 variety performance trials are now available on an online, searchable database
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canola Performance Trials results for 2017 are now available in an online searchable database at the Canola Performance Trials website. Canola growers can use this online tool to finalize seed decisions for the coming growing season. The performance trials compare leading canola varieties in small-plot and field-scale trials. Results can be filtered by province, season […] Read more
Peace Country farmers told the time to halt clubroot is now
Workshops are being held across the region to arm farmers with best practices for combating the devastating canola disease
Reading Time: 2 minutes Clubroot was found in the Peace last summer — and that’s prompted an all-out effort to mobilize the farm community to do everything possible to halt the spread of the disease. Officials from the ag research group SARDA and local municipalities along with ag fieldmen are hosting workshops at seven different locations so producers can […] Read more
Imagine you couldn’t grow canola, warns farm leader
Clubroot’s arrival in the Peace isn’t a shocker, but it’s another sign farmers are flirting with disaster, say canola experts
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the war between canola producers and clubroot, clubroot is winning. “The clubroot-infested area is spreading at roughly about 30 kilometres a year, and we’re only managing it at 20 kilometres a year,” said Dan Orchard, agronomy specialist for the Canola Council of Canada. “We got an appreciation this year for just how fast it […] Read more
Clubroot ‘heavily’ infests NW Saskatchewan field
Clubroot has made its presence known in the far northwest of Saskatchewan’s canola-growing region, with the discovery of a “heavily infested” field. SaskCanola on Monday reported the discovery of the disease in a field in crop district 9B, but didn’t give its specific location. District 9B is a group of 16 rural municipalities east of […] Read more
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