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October 2013

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OCTOBER 2013

page

Secrets to their success

4

New find in genetic resistance

9

Market outlook

10

Will it, or won’t it?

14

Redefine weed management

18

Hard decisions

20

Attack on seedling diseases

24

Manitoba reaches million acres

28

#Pest Patrol

30

A MORE DIFFICULT DECISION

F

or the past five years, the choice has been simple. Overall, there has been good money both in grains and oilseeds, so on most farms, ordinary rotation planning has represented a reasonable risk-management strategy.

In the wake of 2013, however, acreage question will be much more difficult, no matter where you farm. Soybeans and corn are growing more decoupled than they have been for a generation, and this looks likely to continue.

Heading into early winter, as Philip Shaw writes, soys have the lead. But as Shaw also says, we haven’t fully emerged from the 2012 drought market. Stocks have started to rebuild, but any hint that yields will be either above or below expectation will be enough to induce market jitters.

Indeed, Shaw says he expects the market at times to be “violent,” and it’s worth paying attention to his word choice. We know he made it with some care.

In this context, it continues to frustrate us that it is so difficult for farmers to evaluate the effectiveness of their own marketing. It’s bewildering, and it adds up to even more proof that farm economic research is being woefully underfunded by governments, industry, and most especially by farm groups.

The fallout will prove fateful on many individual farms, even though farmers are doing their share. They’re devoting more hours than ever before to marketing, but it remains almost

Soybean Guide, October 2013

impossible for them to scientifically monitor, analyze, and improve their performance.

Yes, farmers can add up the bushels they’ve sold, and the prices they’ve sold them for, and calculate their average prices.

They can also compare their soybean averages against published numbers out of Chicago. Or they can compare their results against the traffic on Twitter, at the elevator or the local diner Yet if we’re heading into a prolonged bear market, as some are suggesting, we will begin to see that the most important story of the past five years hasn’t been the highs that the market has hit, but the difference among farmers in their ability to capture those highs.

Land prices are amazingly democratic by comparison. They raise all boats.

But crop prices have created myriad, invisible classes among farmers. Maybe everyone is driving a new pickup, but some have used their superior marketing success to climb into a much more competitive position. If margins get a little thinner, those differences will come even more to the fore.

At this point, marketing research has only reached the sophistication of a weed control plot that merely compares weeded versus weedy checks. It needs to do much better, starting in soybeans.

Tom Button, CG Editor tom.button@fbcpublishing.com 3

SOYGUIDE

Secrets to their success E These growers are

succeeding because of

how they’re managing their crops, not because they rely on technology to do that job for them

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

very soybean producer can agree on one thing. Corn is the crop that most Corn Belt farmers think of as king. It’s tall, it has the biggest yields, and based on the Chicago Board of Trade, it’s the barometer of agricultural success.

And then there’s the soybean.

In Ontario, soybeans have had a history of being the what-have-you-done-for-melately companion to corn. In the mid- to late 1990s, when corn yields took off with the launch of Bt hybrids, soybeans were basking in the commercial release of Roundup Ready. But that was a technology which initially only saved growers money and time on weed control. At least Bt corn put more bushels in the bin!

Yet the soybean has come a long way in 18 years. It has had to answer to the lack of a yield boost and it has had to overcome Group 2 herbicide resistance, not to mention soybean aphids, Asian soybean rust, and soybean cyst nematode, plus a host of other issues including drought in 2012.

Through it all, the genetics have improved, and with them, growers have paid more attention to their soybeans.

In order to learn more about their particular on-farm practices, COUNTRY GUIDE asked three growers for their insights on how they manage soybeans on their farms.

We asked them seven basic questions, from the size of their operation to their particular thoughts on early planting, seed treatments and row spacing, plus their “specialty.”

As you’ll see, these growers have their own takes on how to grow a great crop.

MATT BEISCHLAG — HAGERSVILLE, ONT. At a time when corn is considered the king of crops, Matt Beischlag bucks the trend. He doesn’t grow corn at all on his farm. Instead, he grows two years of soybeans and one year of wheat, and as another hallmark of an innovator, he uses fungicides and manure extensively on his farm.

Spring performance is important to Beischlag, so he gets his soybean plants off to the best start possible, including his reliance on certified seed. He also uses a full complement of seed treatments.

“We’ve done side by side w ith CruiserMaxx and it pays for itself, easily,” Beischlag says. “We’ve also compared CruiserMaxx with ApronMaxx, and there’s a notable difference.”

Early planting is also part of the strategy each spring, a plan that’s easier to implement without corn “getting in the way,” Beischlag says. That aids in Beischlag’s goal of getting the soybean plants to start flowering as early as possible, and to keep on flowering all the way to pod fill. A longtime air drill user, Beischlag bought a new Case IH 1240 15-inch row planter unit in 2013.

Working with Kevin Van Netten of South Coast Agronomy in Simcoe, Beischlag reduced his seeding rate from 220,000 seeds per acre down to 180,000 this growing season.

“And next year, Kevin thinks we can try it a little bit lower yet because the results are pretty good so far, that we’ve seen,” Beischlag adds.

As for his fertility program, like Markus,

Continued on page 6

4

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Beischlag benefits from available manure.

He has a 65,000 broiler unit on his farm, with a history that dates back 50 years. It’s almost to the point where it’s all he uses.

“We strictly use our own manure, with straw bedding,” says Beischlag.

“Once in a while we’ll use a commercial fertilizer, for a little bit of plowdown or maybe a little bit of lime, but we’re strictly manure. And we find we don’t need any other fertilizer.”

The big secret to Beischlag’s success is the use of fungicides on his soybeans, a trend that’s only recently developed, and largely in the wake of similar success in corn. Generally during the course of a growing season, he applies fungicide at flowering and again at pod fill, and he has seen sufficient success to make fungicide applications an automatic procedure on his soybeans.

“We’ve been using fungicides now for seven years, and the worst we’ve ever done is that it paid for the product,” Beischlag says. “Other than that, over the past few years using the weigh wagon, we’re getting an average of 5-1/2-bushel-per-acre

increase, and six-bushel-per-acre increase is our tops. At $13 per bushel and $78 per acre, that adds up pretty quick.”

Now there has been concern in the U.S. that the use of fungicides, over and above disease control and protection, is causing some level of resistance to certain diseases. Last year, soybean tissue samples in the northeastern states were found to be resistant to frog-eye leaf spot. Although the findings have been spotty, the concern regarding resistance is still there. However, Beischlag is aware of the resistance situation, and knows that Van Netten is watching any progress in resistance development.

Beischlag also believes that unlike herbicides and herbicide-tolerant technologies, the lineup of fungicides in the research pipeline has a ways to go before it’s at risk of running out of new products.

“On our farms, with the manure management that we’ve had on it — with producing chickens for 50 years — and the amount of manure and the health of our soils, we are using these fungicides instead of supplemental fertilizer,” says Beischlag.

“Where a lot of guys put a little bit of

Beischlag‘s goal is to get his crop flowering early, and to keep it flowering all the way to pod-fill starter fertilizer with their beans, we find our money is better spent on the fungicide applications versus putting down a starter fertilizer, or an in-crop foliar fertilizer, because we don’t really need it.”

Says Beischlag: “Fungicide is just the ‘next step’ as part of the total-system approach on growing beans in our area.”

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wheat rotation, and for planting soybeans, they are straight no tillers, using a Turbo Till coulter unit on the front of a Great Plains drill. In fact, it’s this drill and its coulter configuration, plus his seeding rate and row spacing (160,000 seeds per acre and 15-inch rows) and some planting dos and don’ts that he considers to be the keys to success in soybeans, yielding 66 bu./ac. in 2010, 68 in 2011 and 58 bu./ac. in 2012.

“As much as possible, we only plant on warm afternoons, and never in front of cold rains,” says Markus. “We also try to plant early, at or just after the time we start planting corn. We try to end up planting corn and soybeans at the same time. This year, we started planting corn on a Friday, and didn’t get done for two weeks, and we were planting corn within a week of the time we were planting soybeans. As long as we can get the help, we’re actually towards the end of corn when we’re already planting soybeans, and I think that’s becoming more normal among more producers, pushing that planting date on soybeans forward into when you’d be planting corn.”

Corn is billed as a heavy feeder, but Markus finds carefully managed manure can drive his soy yields Markus also makes use of full seed treatments on all of his soybeans, and always selects the top indexing soybean for his farm. The focus on his selection is on maximizing yield: he is not loyal to one brand name over another.

Another difference on the Markus operation is that he does on-farm trials with Headline and Headline with foliar K, along with a trial on a new product that could compete against Headline.

“We do these trials on our farm, just to see if we get a response, and if we get a response this year, we could change what we do as well,” says Markus. “But that’s becoming standard in Ontario, where guys are doing small-scale trials just to see what happens on their farms.”

Continued on page 8

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Jonathan Markus — Woodstock, Ont. There’s an accepted notion in Ontario agriculture that farmers can do little wrong when planting into the soils of Oxford County. Yet Jonathan Markus is unwilling to leave much to chance.

Farming with his father, his uncle and his brother in a unique family setting, Markus is a student of farming. He makes full use of available manure from his father’s 600 finishing hogs, and he also takes whatever dairy manure he can from his brother’s operation and that of his uncle. They also purchase manure from three different hog operations in their general vicinity. Plus they monitor the impact on their soils, conducting active soil tests on their land every three years.

“Our operation is probably somewhat different than others in Ontario, in that we have a lot of manure,” Markus says, adding that he adds commercial P and K to his soils at times. “But probably we rely more on manure, and I would say half to two-thirds of our land gets manure every time we’re going into corn.”

As for soybean management, Markus and his family have a standard corn-soy-

Continued from page 7

Kevin Marriott — Petrolia, ONT. The term “management” generates enough stress even under normal circumstances in farming. Paying attention to planting dates, seeding rates, weed, pest and disease conditions, fertility and overall in-field conditions can be difficult enough. But when you’re also a delegate with the Grain Farmers of Ontario and a municipal mayor, it pushes the issue of management — especially where time is concerned — into a different realm altogether.

Welcome to Kevin Marriott’s world.

Marriott farms on 1,100 acres and has adopted a corn-soybean-wheat-soybean rotation, which can vary depending on the weather from year to year. Once in a while, he might get stuck with a second year of soybeans.

“Soybean is my biggest crop so it always follows corn or wheat,” says Marriott, who grows IP beans as a rule. “For me, I have a few other factors, like the markets, where I try to figure out what the next year is going to be, market-wise, and I may grow less of one crop. But then in the last five years, that hasn’t been an issue.”

On the subject of seed treatments, Marriott differs considerably from Markus and Beischlag. Up until 2013, he would normally treat about half of his seed. But this year, he decided to experiment, opting not to treat it at all.

“My side by sides in the last two years showed no benefit,” says Marriott, adding that he attended a local Soil and Crop Improvement Association meeting in mid-August, and came away thinking he shouldn’t say much about his own on-farm practices. “But I didn’t replant a thing this past spring where a lot of people were replanting. The first year I used CruiserMaxx in April and I definitely saw a yield increase, but I’ve never seen an increase since that. So I decided to try going back to using no seed treatments.”

Although Marriott agrees with those who insist that every wheat seed be treated, he’s convinced that seed treatments on soybeans are a little more hit and miss, and despite the notion that maybe he’s talking out of turn, he can’t argue with his results. The other aspect of relying on seed treatments, for better or for worse, and in spite of current research into their use, is any potential impact of neonicotinoids on bee populations. In effect, it’s as much an economic decision as it is an environmental one for Marriott.

“So seed treatments on soys, for me, aren’t so cut and dried when it comes to return on investment,” Marriott says. “The biggest factor is weather, of course, and the second factor is soil types. The sandier soils have a bigger problem with cutworm and wireworm, as opposed to my heavier clay.”

The only time he might reconsider opting out of seed treatments is when faced with heavy corn stover. He cites the 160-bushel-peracre mark as a tipping point of sorts, where beyond that level a farmer has to do more to manage increasing amounts of residue.

“That’s when I decided I need to do something with the corn stover,” says Marriott, referring to the 180 bu./ac. mark. “It no longer allowed me to no-till beans after corn, especially once we were getting above that 200-bushel-per-acre mark in corn.”

Others may be able to get by with residues of that amount, but Marriott finds it difficult to manage on his own farm, particularly when higher residue levels can lead to higher numbers of slugs.

Even with chopping and incorporating, he finds it’s difficult to continue with no-till soybeans.

His soil fertility program usually favours P and K levels that fall 8

into a higher rating in the medium category from his soil tests. He applies his P and K in the fall, and incorporates it into the corn stover. Instead of blending his MAP with some N and adding in his K, Marriott splits his applications, and he also never applies in the spring, given his clay soils and the risk of compaction.

Planting dates can vary, again according to the weather.

Marriott’s location near the southern end of Lake Huron puts him in line for late-season snowstorms from the north and earlyspring thunderstorms from southern Michigan, so those variables can slow his plans. As a rule, he won’t plant if he sees what he calls a “hard rain” coming within 24 to 36 hours, and if he can work it, he likes to have the seeds in the ground one to two days before the next rain event. In 2013, he also saw a problem regarding planting to moisture versus planting to depth. Some growers followed the latter practice, and between dry conditions coming out of the drought in 2012 and crusting issues, many had to replant because they didn’t plant to available moisture.

In terms of row spacing, Marriott has run from 15-inch rows to 20, then down to 7-1/2-inch rows, and he’s back to 15s. He calls the 15-inch spacing a happy medium, one that helps him steer clear of white mould. He also points to the depth control on a unit planter as the key, particularly this past growing season where many of the soybeans planted with a drill couldn’t break through the crust that formed in a lot of fields.

In fact, it’s his use of a unit planter with its seed opener and down pressure providing better seed rate accuracy compared to a drill that Marriott believes to be his secret to growing a good crop of soybeans on his farm. Although he’s found he can’t go narrower than 15 inches, he can still get a good early canopy, plus he can drop his seeding rate to 175,000.

“I could go lower on population, and I have gone as low as 120,000, but I like that little extra insurance,” says Marriott. He still likes to use a drill for wheat, adding that he’s never had a problem with emergence. “But in beans, using a planter is more precise, so with the costs, I have to make sure the population is controlled.” SG Soybean Guide, October 2013

Soyguide

New find in genetic resistance With phytophthora resistance breaking down in the U.S. and Canada, this tool may be just in time

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

P

hytophthora root rot is a familiar soybean disease that keeps showing up when conditions are right, with the potential to drastically affect yields. It is also slowly but surely chipping away at our current options for genetic resistance.

With resistance built into soybean varieties, phytophthora has been one of those “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” diseases, much the same as soybean cyst nematode. That may be about to change.

The potential threat is undeniable. In the U.S., phytophthora is capable of reducing yield by eight to 15 per cent during a normal growing season.

As with any of the soil-borne seedling diseases, it is also at its worst during cool wet springs, and the disease can move up from the soil where it damages the roots and into the stem, where it can kill off the entire soybean plant.

Phytophthora spores are also very long lasting, remaining dormant over winter until spring weather provides the right environment for them to grow.

If identification in the field is a challenge, what makes phytophthora a greater threat is the fact that the current options for genetic resistance, including the Rps1c, Rps1k and Rps6 genes, have been around for years.

In many fields, these genes are beginning to lose their efficacy.

Serendipity again The good news is that Teresa Hughes and Jianxin Ma, researchers at Purdue University have identified two new genes in Indonesian soybeans that show resistance to all the predominant races of the pathogen. The two genes are tentatively called RpsUN1 and RpsUN2.

“We need to transfer the genes from the landrace to elite soybean cultivars to facilitate the use of the genes for soybean protection,” says Ma, an associate professor of agronomy at Purdue.

Soybean Guide, October 2013

Ma adds that it could still take a few years for that transfer, although the team knows it is working against the clock to get the genes to farmers before existing genes become ineffective.

“I can see right now that RPS1c lost a lot of its efficacy about 10 years ago, although there are still some people who can plant (the cultivar) and get away with it,” adds Hughes, a plant pathologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an anjunct assistant professor at Purdue.

“RPS1k has been one of our better genes,” adds Hughes. “It’s been very effective for a very long time, but it’s definitely becoming ineffective now.”

and Hughes have established molecular markers to help plant breeder be sure the genes have survived in their crosses.

“The process for selection can automatically shorten the time needed for soybean cultivar development,” says Ma, noting that it is a non-transgenic process in transferring the genes. “These markers also can allow rapid pairing of multiple resistance genes into a single cultivar, to boost the effectiveness of resistance and last longer.”

It’s actually a simple process of transferring both genes to a cultivar — no more difficult than transferring a single gene. Ma is also finding that they can stack multiple genes into a single cultivar, thanks again to the establishment of the molecular markers.

Two new genes from Indonesian soybeans may protect Canadian crops from phytophthora, if we get them in time

Not the same old story To farmers, it can seem to take all too long to go from discovery to having the genes in commercially available varieties.

But Hughes is quick to point out that the process of identifying the sources of resistance is all but complete.

Now, the researchers are at the stage where they’ve established the molecular markers and are actively engaged in crossing the genes into elite soybean lines. And although the timeline is still five to seven years long to get this development into farmers’ hands, they know that what they’ve found works.

It turns out the researchers weren’t actually looking for phytophthora resistance when they made their discovery.

Instead, they were looking for genetics to prevent Asian soybean rust.

“When we were all worried about Asian rust coming in to the U.S. there were a lot of projects going on trying to figure out whether there’s resistance in our germplasm,” Hughes says. “This was one of those lines that had good Asian rust resistance. But at the same time, it was planted in fields that we knew had a really high phytophthora problem, and they were doing really well.”

About five years later, the two genes were identified and the researchers began the work to characterize them and to start the process of crossing them into more advanced lines. Along the way, Ma

The Canadian view Albert Tenuta shares the researchers’ concerns about phytophthora root rot, and he also shares their optimism about these new sources of resistance.

“Phytophthora has the ability to develop new races and to break down these genetic resistance sites,” says Tenuta, field crops pathologist with the Ontario Ministr y of Agriculture and Food (OMAF). “We’re always on the lookout for new sources of resistance.” SG 9

Soyguide

Market outlook

W Weather markets are fickle by nature, and always violent

By Philip Shaw

10

hen it comes to soybeans, it can be a long and winding road. Appearances are deceptive. Sometimes the soybeans will look tremendous going into late summer, and sometimes not so much. But based on timely late-summer rains — or the absence of those rains — the tables can flip completely, with a struggling crop producing surprisingly strong yields, and the great looking crop ending up all show and no go.

Timely late-summer rains usually determine soybean yields, and 2013 is no different that way. The hard part of course is getting those timely rains in the critical pod-filling timeframe. In Ontario in 2012, producers benefited from almost a perfect yield, with Statistics Canada calling the provincial average at 46.5 bushels per acre.

For 2013, we can only hope that the weather is going to turn out to have been so kind. But only the combine can tell for sure.

Meanwhile, the U.S. crop has also been defying easy prediction. For those of us north of the border, we’d like another taste of 2012, when our soybeans flourished while our American friends were going through one of their worst droughts in memory, pushing prices to historic levels.

Yet as I’ll discuss below, 2013 is clearly a different year.

In Ontario in particular, yield projections have been in flux, and are likely to continue that way until the very last fields come off. According to Statistics Canada there has been a reduction in acreage for Ontario soybeans this year down to 2.5 million acres with a projected yield of 43 bushels per acre.

How accurate is that? Heavy spring rains damaged much of the soybean crop

in southwestern Ontario and the yield projections reflect some of that damage.

On the other hand, different parts of the province avoided many of those problems, so the end result is hard to call.

Prices, however, did retreat into the summer, falling from their all-time high of $17.89 a bushel on September 4, 2012.

The 2013 soybean complex looks much different than a year ago. South American producers responded to the higher prices by planting and harvesting record crops earlier in 2013. Brazilian production was approximately 83.5 MMT (million metric tonnes) and Argentinian production was approximately 53.5 MMT. Both of these huge crops in South America contributed to prices moving lower from the record values last year. The November 2013 soybean futures had retreated to $11.94 a bushel by July 1, 2013.

With the benign weather in early to mid 2013 production season in the U.S., the headlines shouted about “the biggest crop ever!” For instance, in July the U.S. corn crop was headed toward 14 billion bushels and U.S. soybean production was headed toward 3.42 billion bushels. With that as a backdrop and with the South American crop being loaded onto ships in the Southern Hemisphere, the bears were taking charge of the market.

As we know, however, agriculture is never that simple. In the western Corn Belt of the United States, dry weather was creeping into production fields. By early September, the question was how dry is dry, and how much damage has the dry weather done to soybeans that were in the critical pod-filling stage?

Like a rocket going off, soybean Continued on page 12

Soybean Guide, October 2013

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Continued from page 10

futures prices responded to the upside.

The late-summer drought hit hard going into September. Where prices had dipped to $11.94 on the November contract on July 1st, they reached $13.86 on September 3.

Hot, dry weather with no rain in the forecast always causes a lot of sizzle.

The question was, how durable would those prices prove to be?

By the time you read this column, you’ll know a bit more of the answer.

But the big point is that you will still only know part of it.

It’s all about price volatility.

Weather markets that impact supply are always like that. They are fickle by nature, and always violent.

For producers, that fickleness created a late-summer market opportunity, but it also created just as much or even more uncertainty.

The USDA in their early September report had actually reduced the average soybean yield to 41.2 bushels per acre from their 44.5-bushel estimate in July. However, many analysts believe the U.S. soybean yield will drop below 40. This will be extremely impactful on world soybean numbers, and will make the market much more volatile-looking ahead.

With the recent price spike in soybeans, the implications for South America are obvious. How many more soybeans will the South Americans plant in the fall of 2013?

Interest rates have been rising in Brazil and the country’s exchange rate has been dropping, so many observers had expected no increase in planting.

However, the September price spike has sent a signal to South America to plant more beans, and some analysts are expecting a rise of six per cent rise in soybean plantings.

This will be the next big market factor for the soybean complex to absorb.

Will South America respond with even bigger soybean crops going into the ground this fall?

The focus of the market will then turn to the condition of the soybean crops in Brazil and Argentina as they

12

It may not seem right to farmers, but when you are as dominant a player as China, you get to dictate the flow of soybeans around the world

grow. Will they match last year’s yields?

How will weather during the growing season impact the crop?

It certainly will not be a smooth road, and it’s reasonable to expect weather scares to infuse the soybean complex with the ups and downs of the South American crop.

A key factor for soybean producers here will be the value of the Canadian dollar. Ontario soybeans are bought by end-users in U.S. dollars so the foreign exchange is a huge factor in Ontario basis levels. The Canadian dollar was at par with the U.S. dollar in January of 2013. As of September 3 the Canadian dollar was valued at .9488 US. Taking into consideration the Canadian dollar, basis levels have actually become positive. If the Canadian dollar resumes a downward slope, it will be positive for Canadian cash soybean values.

Producers need to keep a very close watch of this going forward.

Supply is one thing, but demand is another. We are all aware of the production potential in the United States and South America. China remains the dominant importer of soybeans in this world. For 2013-14 the USDA is projecting 78.93 MMT of soybeans. This is an increase from 75.83 MMT last year and 72.07 MMT the year before.

Typically, U.S. soybeans are imported after the U.S. harvest while South American soybeans get imported after the South American harvest in our early spring. With China’s demand for soybeans almost insatiable, it is a very good thing for growing supplies.

Still, it is not unusual for China to cancel contracts and take advantage of lower prices. This might not seem right to farmers, but when you are as dominant a player as China, you get to dictate the flow of soybeans around the world.

Last year the South American harvest was so huge, lineups of over 40 miles were common into Brazil ports. This even backed up into China, so some U.S. beans had to be bought to replace Brazilian beans stuck in the lineup.

Needless to say, South American soybeans are vital to Chinese interests.

The health of the greater Chinese economy always reverberates within the soybean complex.

Looking ahead it will be important for Canadian soybean producers to measure where all of these market factors fit into their marketing goals. Soybean prices are buoyant at the moment and are much higher than corn in a relative sense.

Corn fundamentals have changed drastically since last year with price at a much lower level. To some extent, the big corn fundamentals have been holding soybeans back. With no particular corn supply issues, this is likely to weigh on soybeans throughout the fall and winter. We can expect harvest and winter lows, but after that, when the South American crop is planted, all bets are off.

Non-commercial investment demand getting back into the soybean complex may surely add to soybean price volatility. While they grew tired of agricultural commodities in mid2013, soybeans have brought them back to some extent. This will be key to future price direction into the fall and winter.

The challenge for the Canadian soybean farmer is to manage their marketing within all these market factors. It may also be a time to look at addedvalue opportunities. Demand for nonGMO soybeans remains robust. With more herbicide-resistant soybeans soon coming to market, a myriad of choices will exist. Marketing opportunities will too. SG

Soybean Guide, October 2013

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Soyguide

Will it, or won’t it?

Is Palmer amaranth bound to become Canada’s biggest weed headache in decades?

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

I

n 2010, Palmer amaranth was still largely unknown to producers in Ontario and across Canada. That seems about to change. A member of the pigweed family, this is a weed that as recently as three years ago was mainly confined to the southeastern and mid-south regions of the U.S. But now it is spreading, and it is also developing resistance to glyphosate, all at a rate that is a surprise to even the most seasoned weed watchers.

Each spike of a mature Palmer amaranth can spread an explosive half-million seeds.

14

In July of 2010, a tour organized by Bayer CropScience gathered dozens of crop advisers, scientists and journalists in Memphis, Tennessee. Part of the tour included a visit to a farm near Widener, Arkansas for a first-hand look at this pernicious weed. In a soybean check plot on the farm, glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth grew to heights of four to five feet, with some plants boasting three or four branches off the main stem, each containing a seed head.

According to University of Arkansas specialists and other advisers, each seed head had the potential to produce up to half a million seeds.

What made the weed all the more difficult to combat was a combination of the non-sustainable use of available herbicide technologies, a lack of residue-management practices in cotton production, and the proximity of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which were used to feed channels and ditches for rice production.

All of these factors created the perfect environment for Palmer amaranth not just to survive and to adapt to the Roundup Ready soybeans and cotton grown in the area, but to spread explosively.

By the end of 2011, the weed had spread through Missouri and into southern Illinois. That same year, it was found in Michigan, and in July 2013 it was confirmed in Indiana.

All of those finds were confirmed as glyphosate resistant.

The identification of the weed in Michigan is particularly troubling, for two reasons. It’s now that much closer to Ontario (although it was also confirmed in Ohio in 2010), and its transmission is thought to have been vectored along transportation routes, not via natural migration.

Some sources suggest the weed seed entered on trucks or else accompanied northbound shipments of cotton seed or cotton residues to dairy and beef cattle producers. Regardless, its arrival means glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth could conceivably gain a Canadian toe-hold under favourable conditions.

Cautiously optimistic For all the pessimism the weed has created on its way north, Francois Tardif isn’t automatically buying into the notion that Palmer amaranth will spread like wildfire into Ontario. Tardif, associate professor of weed science at the University of Guelph, agrees Palmer amaranth (or Palmer pigweed, as it’s also known) would be a threat if it were to establish across the province.

But in Tardif’s view, that’s a big “if.”

“There’s a reason why Palmer pigweed is not a big issue in Canada, and that’s because it’s not adapted to our conditions,” says Tardif. “Even if you were to take a few seeds that are resisSoybean Guide, October 2013

tant to glyphosate and plant them here, they may establish, but I’m not sure they’d be so adapted that they’d out-compete the weeds that are already present. The other weeds that are resistant to glyphosate are already well-established and they have a huge seed bank.”

A similar scenario unfolded in the province in 2000 when waterhemp was found in three sites in Ontario. At the time, it was greeted with widespread concern, given waterhemp’s proven ability to spread rapidly across the U.S. Worse still, waterhemp had developed resistance, not just to glyphosate, but to four other modes of action as well, including triazines, PPO inhibitors, ALSinhibitors and 2,4-D. Yet 13 years later, waterhemp in Canada has barely spread beyond the original sites where it was found in 2000.

“Whether that was because growers were able to knock it down early or because it couldn’t out-compete the other pigweeds — the green pigweed and the redroot pigweed — that are already present, I don’t know,” says Tardif.

In fact, his primary concern is that the novelty of a new weed species might lead growers to take their eyes off the relatively mundane task of dealing with current weed-management issues.

“If Palmer amaranth comes here,” Tardif says, “it might become localized and may attract a lot of focus and attention, and it might distract from the current weeds that are resistant.”

Hear the hoofbeats?

Another parallel to this situation and that of waterhemp was the arrival of Asian soybean rust spores in late 2004. The confirmation that Asian rust was riding tropical storms from Colombia late that year sparked widespread concern. Guides and brochures were hurriedly sent to printers to help growers and agronomists identify the disease and understand its ability to defoliate whole fields, and also to arm growers with recommendations for the use of the few control options that were available. Yet Asian rust has now been part of the Ontario soybean sector since 2007, and always as a late-season arrival, with little or no impact on maturing soybeans. And since the spores cannot survive Canadian winters, no matter how mild our winters may seem, and since there is no viable host plant species to harbor the disease over winter, rust is causing less and less concern.

In the health-care sector, there’s a commonly used phrase that underscores the need for straightforward thinking instead of trying to diagnose exotic or rare illnesses: if you hear hoofbeats, most of the time it’s just horses, not zebras. It’s another way of saying that, all other things being equal, the correct answer is usually the simplest one.

Most times, agrees Tardif, the weed species that are present are the ones that have been well-established. In Western Canada, it’s wild oats and kochia, and in Australia, it’s rye grass and wild radish.

“These weeds are already very abundant, and they’re the No. 1 and No. 2 targets on the list, and they’ve become resistant,” says Tardif. “It’s hard to think of a weed that’s very low on the totem pole that becomes resistant and then suddenly takes over because of that resistance.”

Just because a weed like Palmer amaranth is glyphosate resis-

By the numbers — Stratus Research

E

arly in 2013, Stratus Agri-Marketing conducted a research poll of 1,533 growers in Western Canada and 495 in the East, and

asked for their opinions about glyphosate resistance, and herbicide resistance in general. It was noted at the time that Canada fleabane, kochia, giant ragweed and volunteer canola were the four main species of concern. (Common ragweed has joined that list, although it wasn’t listed in time to be included in the survey.)

In their report, the study’s authors noted that the problem in Michigan with glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth had reached the point where in 2012, only one per cent of farms reported finding the weed but that those farms covered four per cent of the farming area of the state. Overall, all species of glyphosateresistant weeds were a concern to 25 per cent of farms (compared to 12.5 per cent on Ontario farms).

Keep in mind, this study was carried out between Feb. 1 and March 13, 2013. Conditions in Michigan and Ontario have undoubtedly changed during this growing season, but the results do provide a benchmark going forward.

Some of the study’s other findings relating to Canadian conditions include: • 41.9 per cent of Canadian farmers surveyed said they are “very concerned” about glyphosate resistance in weed species.

• Quebec showed the highest level of concern at 49.3 per cent. The lowest levels of concern are in the Atlantic provinces, with 23.8 per cent.

• In Western Canada, kochia resistance is found on 1.3 per cent of the acres in Saskatchewan.

Continued on page 16

Soybean Guide, October 2013

15

Continued from page 15

tant doesn’t mean it acquires some sort of super power, says Tardif. It won’t automatically spread prolifically. Very often, in fact, there’s a cost associated with developing resistance, so the weed may be even slower to spread, and once it arrives, it may be less of a threat.

STAY IN THE HERE AND NOW As proactive as he wants to be, Tardif doesn’t want the distraction concerning Palmer amaranth to override what growers are facing today, including Canada fleabane (which now shows resistance to multiple modes of action in some counties) and giant ragweed among many others. So while Tardif has done presentations on Palmer amaranth’s potential, including dramatic photos of how one plant can occupy an entire pickup’s box, he doesn’t want farmers to be so focused on Palmer amaranth that they ignore lamb’s quarters, Eastern nightshade, green pigweed or other weed species on their farms.

“And maybe I’ll be wrong (about Palmer amaranth coming into Ontario),”

Tardif says, again harkening back to the situation with waterhemp in Ontario in 2000. “I’m very careful about predicting invasions, and if it’s found, if it’s true that it’s here, we should be taking steps to make sure it doesn’t spread.”

Tardif has heard comments from other weed specialists who often point to Canada’s diversity as some sort of saving grace against herbicide resistance. Much has been made by researchers from other countries of Canada’s canola industry, and how Western Canadian growers rely on four technologies (Roundup Ready, Liberty Link, InVigor/Nexera and Clearfield). But as Tardif points out, diversity is not a national or even province-wide phenomenon. It’s farm-byfarm, and for the most part, growers these days are opting for what appears to be the easiest course of action.

Tardif has read of cases where a U.S. grower who has glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth might switch to spraying glufosinate exclusively. That’s not an example of spraying responsibly or efficiently, or with diversity.

When it comes to Palmer amaranth becoming the scourge that it is in the U.S.,

Peter Sikkema agrees with Tardif’s assessment from the weed competition perspective. But through the years, and in light of the waterhemp situation in 2000 and the Asian soybean rust scare in 2005, Sikkema has also learned that expectations don’t always become reality.

NEVER SAY NEVER “I’ve been at this game for a long time, and things that were predicted that were going to be devastating didn’t occur,” says Sikkema, a professor of field crop weed management at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus. “The flip side — and I’m still shocked at this — is how rapidly glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane has spread across southwestern Ontario. So I’ve had experiences on both sides, and even after 25 years, I’ve had surprises at both ends: one where I thought it would be worse than what it turned out to be — and I’m thinking of waterhemp — and another where I didn’t think it would be as bad as it is, and I’m thinking of glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane. And I was wrong on both counts.”

For Sikkema, the important qualifier is that resistant Palmer amaranth seed

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Soybean Guide, October 2013

would have to land here and adapt to the environmental conditions that exist in Canada, including colder winters than Georgia where it was originally detected.

But as Sikkema points out, the biotype in Michigan has managed to survive under conditions that are closer to those found in Ontario than in the southern U.S. “That would make me think that there’s a distinct possibility that there are biotypes that are adapted to our weather conditions in Ontario,” says Sikkema.

“And if, for some unfortunate reason, it does get introduced into the province, then there is the possibility that it will become established and could be a major challenge for Ontario growers.”

SLOW AND STEADY One theory says the right way to control glyphosate resistance — or resistance to any herbicide — comes from treating all weeds as though they are already herbicide resistant. Yet Sikkema doesn’t believe that such an extreme measure is necessary. Instead, he cites the need for diverse crop rotations, with diverse weed management strategies over a longer period of time.

“I think they have to put more than one

herbicide mode of action on every single acre, every single year,” Sikkema. “I would tell growers, if you want to maximize farm profitability, what you want to do is start clean and stay clean all summer. The way you do that is with an excellent soil-applied herbicide that controls both the predominant grasses and broadleaves on your farm.

Then if you have weed escapes, you can clean up with glyphosate. If you do that, you’re going to have excellent weed control, you’re going to maximize crop yield, you’re going to maximize profitability, and you’ll have reduced the selection intensity for glyphosate-resistant weeds dramatically.”

If there’s one last message to convey about glyphosate resistance in weed species, some might compare Ontario to points in the U.S. and say we’ve done a fair job of avoiding the issues facing American growers, both in numbers and intensity. But as Sikkema points out, given how Ontario weather conditions can be an equalizer of sorts, a “better them than us” notion might not be as valid as some would like to believe. Plus, the days of the simplicity of using one-pass technology and a single mode of action herbicide have to be considered a thing of the past.

“And I include myself in this, where I

think we mismanaged Roundup Ready crops,” concedes Sikkema. He adds that he believes Roundup Ready technology was a fantastic development, and remains so today. “But the reality is that we just had an overreliance on glyphosate, and I think all of us bear a portion of that responsibility. Whether it’s the herbicide manufacturers, the seed producers or the government weed scientists like myself, and the growers — I think all of us bear a portion of that responsibility.”

When he looks back to 2005, Sikkema concedes that he didn’t hold that same outlook, and in retrospect, he wishes he would have been more proactive in encouraging growers to use greater diversity in their weed management programs.

“In all honesty, I thought our diverse crop rotations in Ontario were going to save us, and I was simply wrong,” says Sikkema.

“I thought because we have corn, soybeans and wheat, and wheat’s not a Roundup Ready crop, we had multiple herbicide modes of action over time, and that would delay or reduce the selection intensity for glyphosate-resistant weeds, and I think it has,” Sikkema says. “But that in itself is not good enough.” SG

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Soyguide

Redefine weed management There’s no guarantee that new herbicide tolerant systems will last

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

18

W

eed resistance is leaving soybean growers fewer weedmanagement options. Even with the pending arrival of two new herbicide-tolerant technologies, the days of “plant — spray — harvest” need to be considered a thing of the past. Growers can no longer afford to believe otherwise.

That’s why it’s refreshing to hear of at least one seed company that is following that exact mindset.

During recent dealer meetings, Pride Seeds sales and technical staff were urged to meet with their customers and help them develop long-term weed management programs. Dan Foster, market development agronomist with Pride Seeds, says the directive simply acknowledges how weed species are changing in the field.

“As an industry, I think we did a fantastic job with corn but we’ve done a poor job with soybeans,” Foster says.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve run into resistant weeds.”

Foster likens the developing situation with glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane and giant ragweed to the 1990s when Group 2 resistance began showing up. The problem is that with the advent of Xtend (dicamba-tolerant) and Enlist (2,4-D-tolerant) technologies, growers are tending to focus on what’s new instead of concerning themselves with what’s really out there. That sets up the possibility of growers getting complaisant about glyphosate resistance, not to mention the Group 2-resistant issue that remains to this day.

“We have to make sure we’re not pushing ‘plant it, spray it and harvest it,’” says Foster, “We have to be doing a lot more, especially down here in Essex, Kent and Lambton, dealing with giant ragweed and fleabane just in the last five years. Our LibertyLink (glufosinate-tolerant) beans that we’ve been selling have done well to control it, but of course, you’re looking at zero control versus some control, so it’s not perfect, but it’s what’s out there right now that growers can use.”

Yet even the strategy of alternating LibertyLink and Roundup Ready is unsustainable.

Xtend and Enlist are coming to market, but as many weed scientists and specialists have stated, North American growers have managed to overuse the glyphosate-resistant technology, so now they’ve moved on to the glufosinate-tolerant system. And many are predicting growers will do the same with dicambaand 2,4-D-tolerant systems once they’re available. Once those four technologies have been rendered obsolete, there’s nothing left in the research pipeline.

“In Canada, using Roundup Ready corn for example, when it was launched in the U.S., growers were advised to ‘Just spray Roundup — nothing else’,” says Foster. “And Monsanto did an excellent job in Canada, saying, ‘You need to put Marksman with it, you need to put atrazine with it, you need to put PrimExtra down and come back with Roundup — and make sure you’re using two modes of action’. Whereas when we brought out soybeans, the approach (in the U.S. and Canada) was, ‘Go spray Roundup and if that doesn’t work, spray it again!’”

So the dealers must adjust their approach to weed control. But for Foster, the issue is even more pressing given his location in Ontario’s extreme southwest.

“It’s not nice to say, but as an industry, we’ve almost become lazy,” Foster says. “Nobody remembers how to spray something at 20 gallons that could drift on you, because we haven’t had to. With our tighter rotations and early adoption here in the southwest, we’ve helped to expedite the problems that could spread to the rest of Ontario, and this is why, as an industry, we need to work hard to provide new tools in the toolbox and train growers how to use them.”

In terms of the use of glyphosate, at least, the word has to get out that it’s no longer the single solution, if it ever really was. SG Soybean Guide, October 2013

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Hard decisions Coaxing growers back to IP soybeans is a tough job, despite booming demand

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

P

remiums for IP soybeans as high as $6.50? Does that grab your attention? It’s only anecdotal, but that’s the offer that seems to have been floated by some seed dealers during the 2013 London Farm Show. At the time, the price of soybeans was in the $12.50 to $13 range, meaning a field of identitypreserved, food-grade soybeans would have fetched you nearly $20 per bushel.

Were such big premiums really there for the taking as early as the March show?

Maybe not. But even if they weren’t, and even if they were more rumour than fact, they were a sign that something was brewing in the IP market.

Nor were they the only sign, because dealers were also meeting stony silence when they called growers offering premiums of $2 and $3, which explains why some elevators decided to test just how much they’d have to put on the table to get growers to nibble.

Even at $6.50, though, they were hearing a lot of negativity.

Historically, the ability of seed dealers and processors to sell contracts for IP soybeans has been based on an indirect relationship. When soybean prices are high, the attraction for IP contracts is low. By contrast, when prices are low, contract demand trends higher. The common mind-set is that a $2 premium looks better on $8 beans than at $12.

Yet something else has happened, and it’s taken shape irrespective of global and even domestic demand for food-grade soybeans. Japanese demand is stable, as is European, and now the growing demand for soy-food products across North America is pushing total needs even higher. Add to that the reputation Canadian growers have for quality in IP production, and attracting growers to take on contracts should be a simple decision to make.

20

But it isn’t, and it’s a big concern among those in the seed trade, as well as buyers, processors and manufacturers.

Harder to grow It turns out the retreat from the IP market also has a lot to do with another abbreviation in soybeans: GMO. Glyphosatetolerant or Roundup Ready soybeans have brought a convenience factor that the IP trade simply can’t fight. It’s just easier to grow GMO soybeans.

There’s a generational shift too. Older farmers want something less stressful to manage in their fields. Or maybe it has something to do with the coffee shop talk about IP growers not making grade, yet “being poured into the same truck as the neighbour’s soybeans that did make grade.”

The move to GMO soybean varieties is likely the largest concern, be it short- or long-term, both for end-use buyers and for the dealers who offer IP contracts to growers. Martin Vanderloo, president of Huron Commodities in Clinton, Ont., says the IP sector is facing a convergence of several factors, all of which are causing a tightening of supply in spite of growing demand. For starters, the number of farmers is getting smaller, yet farms are getting bigger. That contrasting trend may be doing as much to dampen GMO’s popularity as the pricing issues. And it’s led to an evolution in dealing with farmers in an attempt to encourage them back to the IP side.

“It has to be a partnership that works well for the farmer, or it won’t work longterm,” says Vanderloo, who is also a director with the Canadian Soybean Export Association. “But the biggest challenge that we face today is not the sales of IP, it’s the origination of the commodities and the varieties that we need to get to market. I want to say that we — and that’s ‘we’ as an industry — have done a good job Soybean Guide, October 2013

chasing down the markets and the end users and the people to sell to — in other words, our customers.”

Yet in spite of this sales job and partnering with growers, there’s still this decline in IP contracts.

The numbers from across the country bear that out. From 2010 to 2012, soybean production in Canada increased from 4.3 million tonnes to 4.9 million.

That’s for Ontario, Manitoba (which will harvest about a million acres of soybeans in 2013), Quebec and P.E.I. At the same time — and as part of the same overall production picture — the numbers for IP soybeans have declined from 1.5 million tonnes in 2010 to about a million tonnes in 2012.

It’s to the point now that Vanderloo is questioning the organizing of trade missions to attract overseas buyers. Any surplus the sector may have had in the past is long gone, and the trend remains down when it comes to attracting growers back to growing IP soybeans.

It’s clear why the export association is questioning the value of trade shows, says Vanderloo. “We’re overbooked.”

But there’s another side, he says. “The growth for non-GMO demand is not waning, that much we see. What is changing is the move from the growers’ point of view, to go to the GMO varieties and away from non-GMO varieties.”

Vanderloo is reluctant to say too much that’s negative, yet at the same time, it’s hard to ignore the trends taking shape right in front of him. It’s to the point where he’s finding there’s very little down time in a year now, a point he illustrates by noting that he’s already working on planning for 2015, including new varieties and new programs, and analysis of what his end-users are looking for and the logistics to get them what they want.

Demand is rising The shortage of growers and IP contracts in Canada, and particularly in Ontario, is especially troubling given some of the influences outside of this country.

Vanderloo refers to the last U.S. federal election, in which California asked its voters to decide on a GMO food labelling proposition, which was ultimately defeated. Yet since that election, one of the processors he works with in Zeeland, Michigan, reports it has never been busier.

It’s now processing food-grade soybean Continued on page 22

Soybean Guide, October 2013

21

Continued from page 21

products for a market that wants that level of differentiation, to the point where the processor is also changing its specs for many of its products to non-GMO. “The premiums for non-GMO beans in the U.S. have basically kept in step with what we see here, and of course, the Americans are competing with us in overseas markets,” says Vanderloo. “But if they happen to realize a bigger demand domestically, that will certainly bode well for us from an export point of view, and we’ll see Americans become less of a threat to us.”

Another looming shift in global demand is coming from China and its peripheral customers. According to Vanderloo, China is now showing more interest in non-GMO beans, a change that has come as part of that country’s expanding middle class and its desire to spend more of its increasing disposable income on higher-quality food. As a result, however, China has been hoarding more of its own agricultural production, and the countries that formerly purchased products from China are being pushed out onto the global market.

Those are two of the short-term developments that add some further lustre to the potential for IP soybeans in Canada.

And there’s more of the same to come in the years ahead. As growers in Brazil and Argentina continue to take advantage of climatic conditions to double-crop soybeans with corn (and vice-versa), it means more volume-based production will enter the world market, in addition to what’s grown in the U.S. To complicate matters further, there are estimates of as many as 80 million acres of uncultivated land in Ukraine, described by many as the best quality soil in the world, just waiting to be brought into production.

The challenges in both of these regions amounts to one of infrastructure: yes, Brazil and Argentina are pushing more soybeans in to the world’s export market, but the wait times for unloading at port can reach 60 days.

Bringing Ukraine’s prime agricultural land into production is also fraught with political and economic barriers, and could take as long as 10 years to solve.

But those are the longer-term, developing production issues.

As Martin Harry points out, Ontario — and Canada in general — simply cannot compete on a volume basis. So it only makes sense to build on that IP market potential.

22

“There is the demand, on a world basis, and there’s no question that we are looked at as the premier growers of IP soybeans,” says Harry, current chair of the Canadian Soybean Expor ters Association, and SeCan’s marketing manager for Eastern Canada. “Certainly we have a reputation in Canada which is foremost, and one that we don’t want to lose. But in a big-picture perspective, we’re nothing in terms of soybean acres and production (globally), so we have to have the value-added of IP soybeans. If we don’t specialize in something different, we’re just a commodity.”

A generational shift The growing popularity of GMO soybean varieties has arguably turned this cycle into a trend, and Harry believes it might also be a generational issue, one that may be about to shift, depending on commodity prices and their direction in the next two years. If commodity prices begin to drop, and if land prices follow, some growers will undoubtedly look to find some value-added opportunities to help them pay the mortgage or just compensate for declining commodity prices.

“I think that new and younger growers, who are coming back to the farm these last four or five years, they didn’t need to do anything extra,” says Harry. “Things haven’t become tight for them yet.”

But as their fathers and uncles begin to look towards succeeding the family farm, some of the appeal of the ease and convenience of GMO varieties may begin to wane, especially for young, eager farmers who are looking to diversify.

That diversity angle is something Sue Robert has noticed as well. In her position in sales and marketing w ith Thompson’s Ltd., in Blenheim, Ont., Robert has worked to provide as much incentive to growers and promote the benefits of the IP market, organizing presentations at seminars and meetings such as Southwest Ag Conference and FarmSmart.

“We saw that there was interest from growers attending those sessions, and learning a little bit more about our market and why we place value on them,” says Robert.

“And I’ve seen a few of those younger farmers come back to the farm, and say that they want to diversify. Especially where they have more than one farm and they choose to grow the easy GMO varieties on one and put IPs on another.”

But change is slow, and at present, the only thing that’s going to change the

momentum towards IP soybean contracts may be the commodity market, although no one wants to see commodity prices tumble back to late-1990 levels.

Robert agrees with Harry and Vanderloo about the overall demand for IP soybeans — it’s not declining. And she agrees with Harry’s assertion that overseas demand is growing over and above traditional customers.

“We’re seeing a bit from other European countries looking for nonGMOs, and other Southeast Asian countries are also looking for a secure supply,” says Robert. She adds her voice to those who say pricing has had a significant impact, but that the ease and availability of GMO varieties has cemented the trend. “When I talk with growers, that’s one of the first things that they all say: ‘it’s easy.’ There’s also a geographic make-up (to the IP sector) and the Roundup Ready 2s are much stronger here in southwestern Ontario than what they are currently around Hensall, Mitchell and Granton. But that’s also a factor of variety development, maybe more so than personal choice.”

Looking across the country On a national basis, Ontario growers certainly have the clear advantage when it comes to IP production. According to Harry, roughly 99 per cent of Manitoba’s soybean production relies on GMO varieties. In Ontario, 35 per cent used to be the standard for IP soybean production, but with the convenience and abundance of GMO varieties and the grading issues, that number has slipped below 25 per cent.

Still, there is room for optimism: in the fall of 2013, the Grain Farmers of Ontario, the Canadian Soybean Council and the Canadian Soybean Exporters Association will gather for meetings aimed at creating an all-encompassing organization, similar to Pulse Canada or the Canola Council of Canada. Sure, Manitoba growers favour GMO varieties, and that P.E.I. growers look to soybeans more as a rotation crop for potatoes (although that is changing), but the new council will look beyond production issues to include industry stakeholders and consumers.

It takes that partnership approach that Vanderloo talks about one big step further, attempting to bridge gaps and build new communications and marketing channels. That certainly has to bode well for future dealings for the IP sector and its growers. SG Soybean Guide, October 2013

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2013-09-20 11:09 AM

SOYGUIDE

Researchers are gaining the upper hand in a battle that is much more complex than anyone expected

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

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ATTACK ON SEEDLING DISEASES W hen it comes to production problems in soybeans, growers have grown used to hearing that with soybean cyst nematode, once you’ve got it, it’s in your fields to stay. Only diverse rotations and SCNresistant varieties can reduce the damage to future crops.

But nematodes are far from the only threat. Surveys in the U.S. have estimated the lost yield due to seedling diseases in American soybean fields at 37 million bushels a year.

There are at least four different seedling diseases in this complex, including phytophthora, pythium, fusarium and rhizoctonia. But it’s the first two that are the focus of research now being conducted in the U.S. Times are changing for in-depth disease research, so the battle with seedling diseases can benefit from more detailed surveys as well as from new technological tools to help determine the presence of different species of phytophthora and pythium.

Martin Chilvers, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, is part of a team of researchers across 12 soy-

bean-growing states and Ontario, looking to build a more detailed analysis of the disease pathogens involved, including what effect they can have on soybean seedlings and roots.

The funding in the U.S. comes from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, with matching funds from the United Soybean Board and the Nor th Cent r al Soybean Research Program, while Canadian research was funded primarily by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Adaptation Council and the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

“Up until now, we haven’t had a national survey to figure out what species are out there, and we haven’t really had the molecular tools that we have now, either,” says Chilvers, who is originally from Australia and has studied disease pathogens around the world.

“We now have a pretty good snapshot of what pythium species are actually out there and in soybeans in particular.

With the isolates that we’ve collected, we’re now trying to determine which ones are pathogenic and are truly causing disease.”

Soybean Guide, October 2013

It’s one thing to isolate an organism in the soil environment, and to determine whether it is infecting a plant or is associated with the disease in seedlings.

It’s quite another to prove that it’s the cause of the disease. And that’s what Chilvers and others in the U.S. Midwest and Ontario are trying to understand.

As with any research into plant diseases, the more they can understand about the species that are present, including their activity and their disease transmission capabilities, the more researchers can target suitable responses, be it improved seed treatments or fungicide applications, or passing along the information to plant breeders for enhanced germplasm and improved varieties.

There’s also the notion that phytophthora and pythium, like soybean cyst nematode, have been a part of the soybean disease landscape in the Midwest and in Ontario for years, if not decades.

And with pythium in particular, a surprise turned up when scientists tallied the number of different species that were collected in this regional survey.

In 2011, 55 species of pythium were identified, plus 40 more in 2012. The same survey identified only two phytophthora species in 2011 and two more in 2012.

What also turned up in the research was the possibility that environmental conditions including temperature, precipitation and soil texture might play a role in this developing story.

“The study has opened our eyes to the number of pythium species that are out there,” says Chilvers, acknowledging the importance of phytophthora, which is already recognized as a significant cause of disease. “But with pythium, it’s much more difficult for these seedling diseases, in terms of identification. If you bring in a diseased seedling, it’s very difficult for me to tell you exactly what’s causing that disease because the symptoms on the plant are hard to distinguish. You often can’t differentiate pythium, phytophthora, fusarium and rhizoctonia from each other — they just produce very similar symptoms.”

In addition to identifying the species, Chilvers and the other researchers are trying to develop molecular tools to speed the identification process.

That way, growers will be able to get quicker diagnosis, with improved identification leading to more precise recommendations to combat the disease, Soybean Guide, October 2013

High-powered science is helping researchers plug the gaps in our disease defence.

including better targeted fungicide seed treatments.

The benefit of this type of research also includes the long-term potential to build some sort of diagnostic tool that helps a plant breeder incorporate this information for the purpose of improving new or existing germplasm. Chilvers is quick to point out that although he can come up with newer diagnostic tools based on his work to identify the specific causes, incorporating this information into new soybean varieties is not an overnight development.

“That’s a difficult process, where incorporating different resistance genes is concerned, but they’re going to be able to combine different resistances much more quickly than what they have in the past,” says Chilvers.

Here in Canada From Albert Tenuta’s perspective, the seedling disease complex is second only to soybean cyst nematodes in Canada.

Continued on page 26

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”We‘re seeing more of what I call nibbling… a little bit more every year.“ — Albert Tenuta

Continued from page 25

“We’re seeing the same thing in Ontario,” says Tenuta, the field crops pathologist for Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF). “We’re seeing shifts in populations, particularly when you look at pythium.”

Tenuta says disease watchers are also seeing pythium species with more diversity, and some are becoming better able to adapt to the changing environmental conditions. That’s a concern because, while pythium is usually considered a cool-weather, early spring problem, there’s evidence that some pythium species can tolerate warmer temperatures and hurt crops further into the season.

The impact of that shift cannot be ignored, and Tenuta adds that these trends are occurring in the U.S. just as they are in Ontario, which is why he’s helping out in the survey and is part of the process of developing a regional distribution map of the pathogens that are out there. That makes it much more beneficial for public and private breeding programs as well, because there is now the capacity to target genetics to the specific issues profiled in various regions. If Ontario finds that there’s a unique situation with pythium or phytophthora, there is the opportunity to breed varieties for those specific needs in the different regions.

“It’s a challenge, because we’ve been 26

breeding soybeans for how long?” says Tenuta. “And other than phytophthora, where we have good race resistance and race-specific resistance as well as partial resistance, when we think of fusarium, rhizoctonia and pythium, we don’t have the same level of genetic resistance or tolerance in a commercial variety. So we’re dependent on things such as seed treatments and management to reduce the risk to producers from these diseases. The result is that we’re seeing more of what I call ‘nibbling’ — a little bit more every year of these diseases. And some years more so than others, a lot of it will depend on the environmental conditions early on in the spring.”

So in a year such as 2013, with a cool, wet spring, there was a substantial increase in pythium, phytophthora, rhizoctonia and fusarium seedling disease injury in Ontario in areas that are more prone to them, such as the heavy clay soils, or areas that had saturated soil conditions. And just as Chilvers cautions against making too many conclusions based on current research, Tenuta notes that under cur rent conditions in Ontario, there is still considerable work to be done to determine the specific capabilities of the pathogens involved.

Finding and identifying a species doesn’t mean it’s the cause of the disease.

“One of the evolutionary strategies of any of the best disease-causing pathogens is their ability to find a little niche

or a little opening or a crack in our wall of protection,” Tenuta says. “And when they find that little crack, they’re able to then get in and start to do their thing.”

What Tenuta sees is the development of resistance by some pythium species against the current fungicide treatments that are based on metalaxyl. It isn’t that the products have lost their efficacy completely — they haven’t, says Tenuta.

But using this information could lead to the incorporation of other seed treatment fungicides to compensate for these new developing soybean issues.

“Now, you’re going to see at least one, maybe two new products that are targeting the oomycetes for pythium and phytophthora,” adds Tenuta. “So by combining the two actives, you’re able to manage both groups of oomycetesthat are maybe becoming less sensitive to the metalaxyl, but the new active in these new seed treatment fungicides can control them.”

Again, the word of caution is that these developments take time. It’s one thing to identify the species and how they can affect your soybean crop. That’s the stage at which Chilvers and Tenuta are working. But it’s another branch of science that figures out how a new seed treatment is developed, or how a new variety is bred. And typically, that process can take between five and 10 years.

Stay tuned! SG Soybean Guide, October 2013

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2013-09-12 1:32 PM

Soyguide

A good 2013 harvest will drive acreage even higher next spring

By Angela Lovell

Manitoba reaches million acres

S

oybeans are becoming more popular with Manitoba growers, who defied early expectations and planted one million acres in 2013, up from 832,000 acres in 2012 and 580,000 in 2011.

“This year there was some concern in some of the western areas of the province, which were experiencing cool, wet spring conditions, that some growers would be backing off on soybean acres,” says Dennis Lange, farm production adviser with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives. “But growers had selected the right early-maturing varieties to start with, and plantings didn’t end up changing as much as we initially thought.”

Manitoba’s soybean acres have been steadily trending upwards over the last decade, and the province now accounts for between 10 and 18 per cent of Canada’s total soybean production.

Importantly, it isn’t just new acres that are making the switch to soybeans. It’s new growers too.

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Between 2006 and 2011 the number of Manitoba soybean farms increased from just over 1,300 to 1,858, and those farms are spreading out from the traditional soybean-growing areas in the Red River Valley to northern and western regions of the province, largely thanks to the introduction of earlier-maturing varieties that are better suited to the shorter growing season in these areas.

Strong prices and the ease of production are other factors that are driving interest in soybeans.

“Soybeans are not a challenging crop to grow,” says Lange. “Once they are inoculated they don’t require additional nitrogen to be applied, which is a benefit in terms of cost and time savings.”

Droughty swaths across the U.S. Midwest in August also helped end Manitoba’s 2013 on a high note, driving Chicago prices up and intensifying Manitoba’s belief that it has a role as a consistent producer of quality beans.

Soybean Guide, October 2013

It isn’t just the acreage that’s increasing. There’s big growth in the number of Manitoba farmers who are planting soybeans too Success in the field is still vital to the industry’s hopes for the province.

Record yields of 36 bu./ac. in 2012 played a role in encouraging more soybean acres across Manitoba this past spring.

“The provincial average yield for soybeans over the last five years has been around 31 bu./ac.,” says Lange. “The higher yields that we saw last year surprised many growers, who thought the hot, dry conditions over last summer would maybe reduce yields.

But we ended up at 36 bu./ac. pretty much province wide.”

The outlook for 2013 is lower, but given reasonable conditions through to the end of harvest, Lange was predicting a provincial average of around 30 bu./ac., more or less on pace with long-term results.

Crop stands generally looked good through August, and good yield potential seemed to be locked in, but there has been an increase in the incidence of root rot diseases such as phytophthora in some soybean fields this year, says Lange, who urges growers, especially those new to soybeans, to practice good rotation to prevent disease pressure from building.

“Don’t have soybeans too often on the same field,” Lange advises. “Soybeans are such an easy crop to grow that some growers can be lulled into a false sense of security and be tempted to grow them consecutively on the same field in the first couple of years. But if they take a break from soybeans in the third year and then come back to them in the fourth year, suddenly they have grown the same crop three out of four years and that can significantly increase disease pressure.”

Crop acreage in 2014 will depend largely on the outcome of this year’s harvest, says Lange. “Until we see what the quality and final yields are like after harvest it’s hard to predict acres for next year, but if everything goes well this fall and yields are decent I can see the acres increasing again next year.”

Adds Lange: “It will also depend on what the prices do through the winter months, but there is certainly still room for expansion of soybean acres in Manitoba.”

Soybean Guide, October 2013

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soyguide

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAF and MRA

Are there residual effects when I stop using residual herbicides?

By Mike Cowbrough

T

hese photos are from two soybean fields on my farm. A laneway is the only thing that separates them, and both have been managed identically.

Yet one is significantly weedier. Why? It’s all about last year’s corn.

Normally, I’m a fan of adding residual herbicides to glyphosate in a tolerant corn crop. It can be a tough sell when glyphosate is so cheap and most residual herbi-

My much cleaner soybean field where I had applied a residual herbicide to glyphosate-tolerant corn the previous year (2012). (photos by Mike Cowbrough, OMAF/MRA).

The much weedier soybean field where last year I chose not to add a residual herbicide in the corn crop and pigweed germinated after the eight-leaf stage.

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cides cost twice as much. However, adding an effective residual herbicide will: 1. Provide better weed control and fewer weed seeds, 2. Reduce the chance of selecting for herbicide-resistant weed populations, 3. Increase grain yields by two to five per cent (due to better weed control).

Yet last year in 2012, I faltered and only bought enough residual herbicide to do the one field. And with a huge list of other jobs to get done, I found it easy to justify spraying the second field without a residual herbicide, since weather conditions were perfect, weeds were small and corn was at the beginning of the critical weed-free period (three-leaf stage).

Both herbicide treatments provided great weed control when I scouted at the eight-leaf stage of corn. However, a week later there was a light flush of newly germinated pigweed in the field that had been sprayed without a residual herbicide. With the crop canopy closing, and with the knowledge that these late germinators would not impact grain yield, I decided to take my chances and leave the field alone.

But the new batch of pigweed did produce seed, and noticeably more pigweed germinated this spring.

A friend asked what herbicide program was applied to the weedier soybean field, and they were surprised to hear that it was the same one as the clean one.

Naturally the weedier field is along the road for everyone one to see, while its cleaner counterpoint is hidden.

I write this story not to imply that all your fields need a residual herbicide. For me, it was my scouting, note-taking and photographs that documented the journey of my decision-making and these now provide me with experience that I can use to make better decisions for my farm. SG Have a question you want answered?

Hashtag #PestPatrol on twitter.com to @cowbrough or email Mike at mike. cowbrough@ontario.ca.

Soybean Guide, October 2013

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