Although a relatively new disease of concern for Canadian canola producers (1), verticillium stripe (VS) is an important disease for the European canola growers and has been extensively studied over the past several decades (2).

Canola is the most important oilseed crop in Canada, but it is vulnerable to heat and drought stresses. These stresses may cause abnormal vegetative growth, flower abortion, abnormal siliques, and substantially reduced seed yield and quality in canola and other crops.

Clubroot is a major disease that threatens Canadian canola industry. Developing strong resistance and understanding the clubroot pathogen are top priorities for CARP research, which will lead to increase productivity.

Engaging farmers in research has the potential to both increase agriculture productivity and reduce the environmental footprint. Farmers’ engagement in research is enhanced by organizing groups of farmers to conduct on-farm experimentation.

Global change factors including climate warming, agricultural intensification, and species invasions are leading to range expansions, altered phenology, and increased impacts of agricultural pest insects that threaten worldwide economies and food security.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions has become a high priority for western Canadian producers. In 2020, the federal government established a target of reducing N2O emissions associated with fertilizer application by 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.

Clubroot disease continues to spread on the Canadian prairies. Use of resistant cultivars combined with crop rotation is the only economical method to reduce production losses caused by the disease.

Verticillium stripe is an important vascular disease of canola caused by the soilborne fungus Verticillium longisporum. This disease was well established in Europe decades ago and has subsequently been reported in other major oilseed growing regions.

Past research clearly shown that management practices such as no-till have led to an increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in the Canadian Prairies.

SKSIS launched in 2018 with the goal of making quality soil information accessible to Saskatchewan producers, agrologists, researchers, land managers, and policy makers.

Researchers had a couple of objectives to complete during this project; the first was to identify readily applied diagnostic features for mapping small patch clubroot distributions using hyperspectral data, and to develop a diagnostic tool. Second, they wanted to refine and validate the diagnostic tool for identifying small patches of clubroot infestations.

Canola plays a significant role in carbon sequestration given the deep rooting nature of the crop. Priority 1 activities will concentrate on methods to further increase carbon sequestration, while  reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer and dairy-associated methane emissions. Projects  will evaluate strategies to increase nitrogen use efficiency and improve nitrogen management and  methods to inform fertilizer rate recommendations.

Canola meal is a concentrated source of protein and has well-balanced amino acid composition especially methionine. Globally canola meal is the second most common source protein source used in animal diets with soybean meal being the most common. In western Canada, most of the soybean meal is imported and therefore costly. Canola meal has lower metabolizable energy than soybean meal limiting its use in some higher-density diets necessitating producers to use soybean meal despite its high cost.

Conventional canola oil and the high oleic (HO) specialty oils are high quality vegetable oils very well suited for human consumption, food preparation and biofuel production. They offer the lowest saturated fatty acid content of any commodity oil with total saturate levels ranging from 7% to as low as 4.5% in some “Low Sat HO” varieties.

Kochia has grown to be one of the worst agricultural weed problems on the southern Canadian Prairies where its impact on crop production has been exacerbated by warm dry summers over the past half decade. Kochia is a tumbleweed that thrives in conditions of drought, salinity, and heat stress, allowing it to compete with crops for essential resources, resulting in substantial crop yield losses.

Canola seed processing in Canada is currently optimized to obtain high quality canola oil for the vegetable oil market, while the canola meal co-product primarily goes into the livestock feed market.

Aster leafhoppers and diamondback moths migrate to the Canadian Prairies in spring and early summer on wind currents originating in the USA. Infestations of these insects are tied to migration on the winds since neither of these insects overwinters well in cold Canadian winters.

Verticillium longisporum is a soil-borne fungal pathogen that can infect a range of host plants, such as horseradish, canola, cabbage, and cauliflower. In canola, the fungus enters the plant through the roots and colonizes the vascular system, causing verticillium stripe (VS) disease.

Effective weed management is critical to maximizing harvest efficiency and yield potential for producers and this is achieved by the application of efficacious herbicides. These herbicides have become a victim of their own success, as the selection pressure they apply to control weed populations inevitably leads to the evolution of herbicide resistance within those populations.

Current commercial soil testing relies upon physically removing soil from fields and shipping it to centralized labs for analysis through wet chemistry. The soil is shipped, dried, sifted and then analyzed through chemical treatment.