Canola Watch 2023 exam – Section 2 – Diseases, Weeds & Insects

The Canola Watch 2023 annual exam for Certified Crop Advisors and Certified Crop Science Consultants (and anyone else who wants to enhance their agronomy skills) has five sections:

• Soil & Water (1.0 CCA credit in soil and water management)
• Diseases, Weeds and Insects (1.0 CCA credit in integrated pest management)
• Canola Watch Fundamentals (0.5 CCA credit in integrated pest management and 0.5 CCA credit in crop management)
• Agronomy tips from new canola multi-media (1.0 CCA credit in crop management)
• Canola Digest Science 2023 (0.5 CCA credit in integrated pest management and 0.5 CCA credit in nutrient management)

Find them all here.

Customize the exam based on credits you need. Credits will apply in either 2023 or 2024, depending on when you pass each section. For those who pass, Canola Watch will submit names and program ID numbers to the program to have the credits counted.

For questions or additional information on this exam, please contact Jay Whetter at 807-466-3025 or whetterj@canolacouncil.org.

Section 2. Diseases, Weeds & Insects

This section has 10 questions on canola pest management, including agronomy tips for glyphosate-resistant kochia, blackleg, verticillium stripe and grasshoppers. People taking this section will learn about pest management issues that arose in canola in Western Canada in 2023, and find various resources to help them provide management advice to farmers in the future. Answers will be found in Canola Council of Canada agronomy content from 2023, including Canola Watch, Canola Digest and other sources.

Achieve a minimum score of 70 per cent (7 out of 10) to receive 1 continuing education credit (CEU) for Certified Crop Advisers (CCA) or Certified Crop Science Consultants (CCSC).

Specific credits for CCAs: 1.0 in integrated pest management.

CCA tracking number SS 57910.

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About you

1. REQUIRED - Your full name:

2. Your CCA number: (Leave blank if not applicable)

3. Your CCSC number: (Leave blank if not applicable.)

4. REQUIRED - Email address:

5. Phone number:

6. REQUIRED - What region best describes your work territory?

Manitoba

Saskatchewan

Alberta

Other Canadian province

Outside Canada

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Uncategorized

7. A January 2023 Canola Digest article, “Agronomists name herbicide resistant weeds as top threat,” highlighted results from a 2022 Canola Council of Canada (CCC) survey of agronomy providers. In the article, CCC agronomy specialists expressed surprise at the low ranking for what threat?

Harvest losses

Insects

Diseases

Nitrogen restrictions

8. In the March 2023 Canola Digest article, “Nasty weeds get an R rating,” Charles Geddes, weed research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, Alberta, described his recent published report. He reviewed 89 yield-loss estimates from various studies over the past 20 years and calculated that when weeds are not controlled, average canola yield loss was ____ per cent for Canada. (Fill in the blank.)

20

40

30

50

9. The CCC news post, “Flea beetles: How to improve spray results,” provides essential tips to improve efficacy for insecticide sprays. Here are a couple: Water volume of 10+ gallons per acre is important for coverage. So is nozzle type. Labels for most insecticides recommend which nozzle type?

Coarse

Fine

Medium

Extra coarse

10. Grasshoppers were a common pest in 2023, and the May 17 Canola Watch quiz was all about grasshopper babies. (Link takes you to the general quiz page. Scroll to find this one.) While growers don’t need to spray grasshoppers at the first instar nymph stage (when they’re about 5mm long), identifying nymphs and counting them may help growers and agronomy providers predict the potential risk. What species is shown in this photo? (NOTE: When you find the quiz, click submit to see the answers. Scroll to the bottom for scouting tips.)

Clear-winged (Camnula pellucida)

Migratory (Melanoplus sanguinipes)

Packard's (Melanoplus packardii)

Two-striped (Melanoplus bivittatus)

11. The July 26 Canola Watch quiz has an aster yellows theme. One question asked: University of Saskatchewan researchers Sean Prager and Berenice Romero made a recent discovery about aster yellows. What was the discovery?

That overwintering weeds can be a green bridge for the phytoplasma.

That aster yellows symptoms will be worse when canola is under stress from drought or excess heat.

That visual symptoms of aster yellows are worse in cereal crops.

That aster leafhoppers pick up the pathogen during early-season interaction with flea beetles.

12. The August 23 Canola Watch quiz asked: The yield risk from flea beetle feeding late in the season is low in most situations. Numbers have to be very high, perhaps ___ per plant, before economic losses occur. (Fill in the blank.)

100

10

500

50

13. The CCC news post, “Stop kochia from setting seed,” provides a few management tips, including this one: Use combine seed destroyers. Combine weed seed destroyers, mechanical hammer mills that pulverize all seeds in the chaff, can effectively destroy at least ___ per cent of kochia seeds, as long as harvest is not delayed to the point where major seed drop has begun. (Fill in the blank.)

90

95

80

85

14. The August 30 Canola Watch asked: What is turning canola grey/black? The answer was sooty moulds, a group of saprophytic fungi that grow on normal or prematurely ripened plants. The main sooty mould fungi are alternaria species and ________ species. (Fill in the blank.) Find the August 30 issue here. 

Verticillium

Cladosporium

Pythium

Hyaloperonospora

15. Canola cultivars do not yet have an identified trait for verticillium stripe resistance, but we may have a decent plan B. The September 20 Canola Watch quiz asked: While we don’t have known verticillium stripe resistance, which canola trait could possibly reduce the verticillium stripe risk?

Clubroot resistance

Pod shatter resistance

Lodging resistance

Blackleg resistance

16. Canola Watch Questions of the Month for November included an article about yield robbers. What was the top canola disease in 2023, according to provincial surveys? Find the November post here.

Sclerotinia stem rot

Clubroot

Verticillium stripe

Blackleg

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