A three-year study was conducted to evaluate the resistance and tolerance of mustard, rapeseed and canola lines to the crucifer flea beetle, Phyllotreta cruciferae, and identify lines with superior agronomic attributes including seedling establishment, plant growth and seed yield.

As Canada’s total canola crush increased from an average of 1.3 million tonnes in the late 1980s to 2.6 million tonnes in the mid 1990s, so did the opportunities for use of canola by-products such as canola screenings, for the livestock industry.

An analysis of yield trends in Saskatchewan for various major crops have shown that although yields of barley and flax have been continuously increasing from the 1960’s through to 1999, canola yields have remained stagnant between 1991 and 1999.

Crucifer root maggots are an economic pest of canola production. However, the extent of root maggot injury to canola across the prairies was not known.

Researchers at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Station in Swift Current wanted to determine the adaptability of B. juncea genotypes to the agroclimatic conditions in the semiarid prairie.

The Scott Research Farm began to reevaluate fall seeding in 1993 after the introduction of herbicide tolerant canola cultivars. Numerous studies were conducted at Scott from 1996 to 1998 to evaluate the effect of fall and early spring seeding of herbicide tolerant canola.

In central and northern Alberta, yield reductions from root maggot infestations can reach 52% in crops of Brassica rapa (Polish canola) and 20% in Brassica napus (Argentine canola).

In western Canada, alternaria black spot is caused mainly by Alternaria brassicae and to a lesser extent by A. raphani. It is most damaging on spring sown Polish canola (Brassica rapa).

In western Canada, one of the more widely available by-product livestock feeds is canola screenings (CS). Researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge initiated a two-year study in 1997 to determine the feed value of commercial canola screenings in feeding trials with lambs, calves and finishing cattle.

Researchers conducted a field study in 1995 near Star City, Saskatchewan in the Gray soil zone, which compared the effectiveness of different sulfur forms added as sources of fertilizer sulfur for canola.

The amount of UV-B radiation reaching the Earth’s surface is increasing yearly, and UV-B radiation, in sufficient doses, harms sensitive plants and reduces yields.

Nitrogen fertilizer is one of the most important external inputs for improving crop growth and yields. Researchers were interested in finding biological alternatives that could optimize and/or replace N-fertilizers, and in 1996 a three-year project was initiated at the University of Saskatchewan to isolate rhizobacteria able to fix atmospheric nitrogen for canola.

Blackleg is an extremely important disease of canola and all of the control measures used have their drawbacks. Because the blackleg fungus survives only in the plant residues, researchers wanted to find out if it was possible that the incidence of the disease could be reduced if the rate of straw decomposition could be increased.

In central Alberta, infestations of root maggots (Delia spp.) and flea beetles (Phyllotreta spp.) cause substantial economic losses in canola.

A field research trial to evaluate the performance of five bolt-on side band openers in crop establishment and final yield and quality was conducted at 10 locations in Saskatchewan in 1995 and 1996.

Research at the University of Saskatchewan in 1995 tested the effects of N, P, and K rates on the percentage emergence of canola, peas and wheat grown in five different soil types.

By the mid 1990s, many farmers on the Canadian prairies were changing from conventional farming to direct or one-pass seeding systems.

Lygus bugs can be important pests of canola in western Canada. At the time of this study in 1994, researchers had developed control strategies, but lacked an efficient sampling method.

Herbicides must be applied in a carrier, usually water, to ensure distribution onto plant surfaces. However, the water may contain bicarbonate ions, which can reduce the activity of clethodim (Select) and sethoxydim (Poast).

A group of compounds known as triazoles, which exhibit varying degrees of both plant growth regulating and fungicidal activity, have been shown to increase the hardiness of plants to many types of environmental stresses.