The tools developed and verified through this project will enable efficient development of resilient varieties. The results support potential of canola digital phenotypes to field-scale agronomic applications. The expansive data sets and samples generated through this project are and will be used in various research projects, extending the utility of grower-invested research dollars.

Seed of PAK93-based pre-breeding lines will be more attractive to plant breeding companies than the original germplasm such as PAK54, primarily because it will be faster to develop hybrid varieties that combine the desirable traits from PAK93-derived lines with other important traits such as herbicide tolerance and resistance to the diseases, blackleg and clubroot.

Increase canola protein inclusion rates in monogastric animal feeds, followed by canola germplasm that produces protein better suited for human diets, and finally specialty varieties that produce protein for specific technical applications.

The proposed research will deliver knowledge and tools to improve utilization of existing clubroot resistant cultivars and to accelerate the discovery of new clubroot resistance genes, with the anticipation of exploring broad-spectrum and durable clubroot resistance that will be highly beneficial to breeders and growers of canola and other Brassica crops.

The Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) was the first veterinary college in North America to begin a honey bee research and teaching program, recognizing the high importance of pollinators for the long-term sustainability of agriculture and food security.

This facility will increase the overall capacity for insect and pest related research and will therefore benefit numerous researchers and projects at the USask. Finally, this facility will result in important training opportunities.

Pathotying with the CCD or race profiling with the NILs is a phenotyping based approach, which can be tedious and time consuming. A genotyping based method could be an ultimate solution for race profiling.

This is the first investigation into the infection by pycnidio- and asco-spores, as well as a mixture via wounds under the influence of cultivar resistance and fungicide seed treatment for blackleg disease in canola. The findings from this study suggested that it is feasible to produce ascospores and pycnidiospores in the lab and use these types of spores to test canola materials for blackleg resistance in both controlled environment and field conditions.

Clubroot poses a significant threat to canola growers. Although genetic resistance is critical for managing the disease, changes in pathogen virulence endanger its effectiveness. Second-generation resistance offers promise against pathotypes that can overcome first-generation resistance. However, without an understanding of pathogen virulence on second-generation resistance, we risk compromising its efficacy. This project provided data on the performance of second-generation clubroot-resistant cultivars in the field, along with insights into the virulence characteristics of pathogen populations collected from these cultivars.

Cleavers emergence, both fall and spring is driven by moisture. Fall seasons with a number of precipitation events should see increased scouting for cleavers emergence. Cleavers can and will flush, so precipitation events should trigger scouting prior to in-crop herbicide applications for their presence. Dry conditions at seed set timing may lead to increased emergence the following year. Applications of quinclorac may not result in plant death and injured plants that survive can produce a large quantity of seed that goes into the seedbank. Post-application scouting is critical to managing any survivors of these herbicide applications.

Researchers and breeders will have greater confidence that the clubroot material they are working with is actually the correct pathotype, and that a pathotype shift hasn’t occurred part way through their research experiment and/or clubroot resistance breeding program.

This activity will generate information on how P fertilizer source (form) and its interaction with placement and rate influences yield, fertilizer P recovery and use efficiency in a cereal- pulse-oilseed rotation, and the potential loss of soluble reactive phosphate off-site in spring snowmelt runoff in contrasting soils, and its relationship to the forms of P that accumulate in the soil and water.

This will accelerate the breeding of improved canola varieties as breeders from academia/government/industry use this service to phenotype larger breeding programs. This builds research capacity at GIFS, and will provide a useful phenotyping platform that will be utilized in future research proposals.

Healthy soils form the basis of productive farming systems, and soil health tests can be useful tools to support good management decisions. The concept of soil health recognizes soil as a living and dynamic natural system, a notion that aptly fits in the realm of biology; however, soil health tests are often dominated by indicators of soil fertility and chemistry. Biological indicators of soil health remain understudied and underrepresented in soil health assessments.

Evaluation of Canola Meal as compared to Soybean meal in Practical California Rations: Effects upon long term lactational performance, reproductive performance and metabolic disease.

Our proposal describes ethanol and small molecule extraction. This process is similar to hexane extraction used to recover oil but uses potable anhydrous ethanol as the solvent. Our local industries can produce potable anhydrous ethanol and also recover the ethanol after it has been used for extraction.

This research will promote the use of these important Canadian feed resources, effectively in animal nutrition. A comprehensive database on the chemical and nutritional profiles will be generated and specifications on the digestible energy and available amino acids and P contents for poultry and swine will be developed.

This type of deep knowledge will be particularly essential for farmers facing an increasingly variable climate - they need to understand how and why different areas of their fields might respond under marginal production conditions in order to maximize both their profits and their productivity.

This research has been an integrated and collaborative approach to addressing the major research priorities around the new disease, verticillium stripe, in Canada. It includes four specific objectives; to measure yield loss, monitor disease development, evaluate canola genotypes resistant to verticillium stripe and determine the interacting effects of verticillium stripe and blackleg.

We did not find that high rates of phosphorus (P) fertilizer affected crop yield and had only a minimal impact on the overall canola microbiome community structure. In our study, the intermediate-rate P supplied in a narrow opener was the most cost-effective fertilization method which generated equivalent canola yield to the high P rate. Our rhizobox studies showed that early canola growth was higher in plants where half of the root system was exposed to fertilized soil and the other half to unfertilized soil. Each half of the root system had a distinct root microbiome indicating that the root-microbiome system may confer the best advantage in soil where P availability is heterogenous as would be found in most field soils.