The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network is a collaborative project. Monitoring data is released on a weekly basis when insect pests pose the greatest threat to crop yield.

Climate change is presenting challenges to established agronomic practices and can stretch the adaptive capacity of currently available crop cultivars due to extreme weather events such as early and intense heat and drought conditions. Adapting to such challenges within a suitable time frame will require the application of modern tools of plant breeding and genomics for plant improvement, along with the exploitation of existing breeding lines that possess inherent traits conferring resilience to such stresses.

The objective of this project was to utilize archived small-plot canola agronomic trial data and corresponding regional weather data to conduct a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between environmental conditions and canola emergence.

This project will contribute to more efficient and sustainable weed management practices by optimizing canola genetics, plant stand densities and herbicide programs to achieve the above benefits.

This project aims to help guide the effective use of cultivar resistance, which, when used in combination with other management practices will help mitigate the impact of blackleg on the Prairies.

Several clubroot-resistant canola cultivars have been developed in Canada, however the newly evolved Plasmodiophora brassicae pathotypes have overcome some of the resistances. The long-term objective of this project is to diversify the clubroot resistant genes in Canadian canola for clubroot resistance and develop molecular markers for these resistances.

Aster leafhoppers are the main vector of Aster Yellows Phytoplasma (AYp) in the Canadian Prairies. AYp causes Aster Yellows (AY) disease in many plant species but can greatly affect canola in outbreak years.

The uniformity of a spray deposit is fundamental to a successful spray application. Spray dosage is directly related to pesticide performance. The timely, accurate and efficient application of pesticides is an important activity in modern crop production methods.

Crop rotation is an important component to sustainable, healthy agroecosystems aiding in disease suppression, nutrient cycling and risk mitigation. In this study, researchers examined the agronomic impacts of crop rotation strategies including canola-canola; canola-wheat; and canola-pea-barley.

Researchers with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada recently completed the genetic mapping of the blackleg resistance gene Rlm11. Rlm11 is effective against the L. maculans isolates carrying the avirulence gene AvrLm11, which is found in 95 percent of L. maculans isolates collected from western Canadian canola farms.

Residue management is a significant challenge for producers on a year-to-year basis. Wheat and canola crops are often grown in rotation, and it is important to understand how wheat crop residue management can affect the emergence of canola in a rotation.

Crops that can readily exploit and utilize soil nutrients more efficiently require less fertilizer inputs, offsetting input costs and reducing potential losses to the environment.

Researchers wanted to continue the work to learn more about root microbiomes, identify the core microbiome in canola and in turn, improve fertilizer efficency in canola.

Canola cultivar was the most influential management variable on percent emergence and early growth rate, and also significantly impacted the spatial uniformity of emergence in this observational study.

A Saskatchewan Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Scoring Functions were successfully developed. This provides the foundation for developing tools that are capable of transforming a farmer’s routine soil test data into a Saskatchewan Soil Health Score.

Researchers initiated a two-year study in 2018 to determine the maximum safe rate of seed-placed P fertilizer with different opener widths and row spacing in canola; and to develop updated seed-placed P fertilizer guidelines for producers and crop advisors to use.

Lygus bugs are a sporadic pest of canola at the pod stage across parts of western Canada. In this four-year study, researchers were interested in validating the economic thresholds of lygus in commercial canola fields across western Canada.

The surveillance network identified a total of 157,407 arthropods of 418 species from 317 sampled areas in southern and central Alberta. Sampling by the surveillance network developed a geographically extensive database on the distribution and abundance of beneficial arthropods found in Canadian prairie croplands.

Fertigation is the application of fertilizer in irrigation water. This practice offers producers a means to maximize their fertilizer nitrogen use efficiency in high-yield canola production.

The outer surfaces of land plants are covered by a complex water-repelling material referred to as cuticular wax. This layer plays a fundamental role in prevention of water loss from the plant and in defense against attack by insect pests and fungal pathogens.