Nitrogen fertilizer to wheat and canola is one of the major input costs for growers and there has been continuous effort to improve N use efficiency for higher yield and seed quality.

4R Nutrient Stewardship is a tremendous success story of a decision support framework that has been widely adopted among Canadian Prairie farmers as an easily understood tool to optimize agricultural productivity through judicious fertilizer use and subsequently manage risk.

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the safety and sustainability of agricultural production practices. In response, many corporations now require suppliers to demonstrate the sustainability of their products and practices.

In 2018, Health Canada proposed to phase out all agricultural uses of thiamethoxam and clothianidin neonicotinoids which are the most used insecticides for canola protection against flea beetles in the Canadian prairies.

Pollen beetles were susceptible to three of four insecticides tested. Yield reductions was detected at 7-9 beetles per plant but not at four beetles per ten sweep. Pollen beetles were not detected in the Prairies provinces and no native parasitoids were found attacking pollen beetle larvae in Atlantic Canada.

Crop residues supply critically needed carbon (C) and nutrients to the soil. These residue-derived resources support plant growth and the formation of soil organic matter, a cornerstone of soil health.

Prairie crop producers have been seeking effective approaches to increase crop yields, improve resource use efficiencies or minimize input costs, enhance agroecosystem resiliency and the whole-farm economics, and decrease the negative impact of farming on the environment while protecting the soil resource. To achieve those multiple goals simultaneously, a systems approach must be taken where Best Management Practices (BMPs) are integrated together for the entire farm.

Surveillance of crop health issues provides growers, extension staff, researchers, government agencies, and industry stakeholders with information that enables informed decision making with respect to integrated pest management, setting research/funding priorities, product placement, and pest distribution and severity.

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.

Ultimately, this research will contribute to the momentum of canola nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) research that is aimed to inform and incorporate NUE traits into commercial canola breeding programs.

This project will examine the soil, rhizosphere, and root microorganisms that are recruited by canola plants under stress conditions. It will also result in the isolation by culture of microbes (or groups of microbes) that could help plants adapt to the changing conditions currently being experienced on the Canadian Prairies.

This study will provide canola farmers with the information required to determine when a two-pass program is warranted and economically viable.

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.