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Southern Applied Research Association at Lethbridge offers its one-day Diagnostic Field School July 6, 7 and 8. The agenda includes CCC senior agronomy specialist Jim Bessel explaining how to minimize combine losses. For more information, call 403-381-5118 or emailsara.research@connectcomm.ca.
The Crop Diagnostic School in Carman, Manitoba will run July 6 to 9 and July 12 to 16. Canola topics include seedling diseases, sclerotinia, blackleg and insects. Click here for more information and to register.
BCGPA will hold its Annual Field Crop Tour and BBQ July 14 starting 4:00 p.m. at the Fort St. John Research Farm. CCC agronomy specialist Erin Brock is speaking. Visit the BCGPA website for contact information.
Combine Performance Clinic: CCC and Alberta Canola Producers Commission present the one-day workshop July 27 or 28 in Vegreville, Alta. Learn tips to cut combine losses, which can be 3-5 bushels per acre. Click here for more information or to register online. Space is limited to 250 per day.
Insect threat mounts on many fronts
Hold off on cabbage seedpod weevil spray. Some growers in southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan are tempted to spray at this early stage. Weevil numbers will continue to build until early flower and they will reinvade if sprayed now. If the crop is not stressed, hold off until early flower.
Diamondback moths came in early and could be a threat across the Prairies. Feeding damage at flowering and early pod stages may warrant control. For more information, click here for a factsheet or click here to read the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network’s monitoring and control tips.
Cutworms like mud? Cutworm feeding continues, particularly in Saskatchewan. Although they usually prefer drier soils, they have been seen feeding in low wet areas. With rain and warm conditions, canola should grow quickly through the threat, but sprays may still be warranted on some later fields.
Root maggots may alter your plans for 2011. One field south of Edmonton has “root maggots like I’ve never seen before,” says Lloyd Dosdall, entomologist with the University of Alberta. Erin Brock, CCC agronomy specialist for the Peace region, also reports “heavy” root maggot feeding on a field near Eaglesham. Nothing can be done except recognize the problem and rotate out of canola for a couple years and increase seeding rate next time. “Tight rotations play into root maggots’ hands,” Dosdall says.
For more on insect issues around Alberta, click here to hear Scott Meers’s interview on the ACPC website.
