THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2014
VOL. 92 | NO. 27 | $4.25
CONSERVATION SUMMIT | P 14,15
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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WWW.PRODUCER.COM
BRANDED BEEF
CWB | POOL DELIVERIES
Rail delivery delays take toll on CWB BY BRIAN CROSS SASKATOON NEWSROOM
Dwight Hill helps hold the calf while Aggie Schmidt and Alice James vaccinate and insert ear tags. It was one of 160 calves vaccinated, branded, castrated and tagged on the Schmidt ranch near Falun, Alta. | MARY MACARTHUR PHOTO
The CWB’s pool programs have been hit hard by this year’s transportation delays. The delays might also affect CWB’s ability to attract new pool business in 2014-15, a company official said. Vice-president Gord Flaten said delivery opportunities for grain contracted through CWB pool programs have been limited. “Like everybody else, we’ve had lots of issues getting deliveries as scheduled this year so we are behind in some of our early delivery contracts,” he said. “What we have been focusing on, and what most farmers who have those contracts have been focusing on, is just trying to find any delivery opportunity.” Some farmers who contracted grain under CWB pool programs are withdrawing from the pools and selling grain to competing elevator companies that offer immediate delivery. SEE RAIL DELIVERY DELAYS, PAGE 2
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CANOLA | CLUBROOT
New clubroot pathotype | Agronomists discovered the resistant strain in central Alberta last year BY SEAN PRATT SASKATOON NEWSROOM
It didn’t take long for clubroot to overcome the resistance bred into canola varieties. A new pathotype has been found near Edmonton that can attack all the resistant lines that have been sold in Canada since the first one hit the market in 2009. “I don’t think it’s widespread yet,” said Stephen Strelkov, professor of plant pathology at the University of Alberta. “We’ve only found it at the core of the clubroot outbreak in central Alberta.” The Canola Council of Canada will be co-ordinating a survey in the Edmonton region to get a better read on the pathogen’s prevalence and distribution in the area. Strelkov said the new pathotype was probably residing in the soil at low levels and then became more
pronounced with the increased use of resistant varieties. “In some ways, it’s not surprising that the first cases are here in central Alberta, where the clubroot infestation is the heaviest and where there has probably been resistant varieties grown for the longest amount of time,” he said. Dave Harwood, technical services manager for DuPont Pioneer Canada, said growers can count on the new strain to spread beyond the Edmonton area. Clubroot has been detected in more than 1,000 fields in Alberta since it was first discovered in a canola field in that province in 2003. It is expanding its reach at a rate of 20 to 25 kilometres per year. It has also appeared at low levels in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Harwood isn’t surprised that it took only five years for the resistance to break down based on what he has
witnessed with rust resistant wheat lines. “I have developed a healthy respect for plant pathogens,” said Harwood. The new strain was discovered when canola council agronomists noticed something unusual in an Edmonton field while conducting a disease survey last year. Disease levels were much higher than they should have been, given that the farmer was growing a resistant variety. Laboratory tests later confirmed that seven commercially available clubroot resistant cultivars were all susceptible. In some cases 80 to 90 percent of the plants were infected. Clubroot is a nasty disease that can cause up to 80 percent yield loss in an infected field. “Once you get an infestation in a field, it becomes a management issue in perpetuity,” said Strelkov.
“Other diseases come and go.” The canola council says growers now need to be extra vigilant in adhering to stewardship. “We are advising that growers practice good sanitation on their equipment, especially during spraying under wet conditions,” Curtis Rempel of the canola council, said in a news release. “This applies to equipment moving between all fields, not just those currently growing canola, since clubroot spores remain in the soil for years.” The level of required sanitation depends on the level of clubroot risk in the area, varying from knocking off clumps of soil to pressure washing and disinfecting equipment. Farmers in clubroot areas should plant canola only once every four years. SEE RESISTANT CANOLA, PAGE 2
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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv-:= JULY 3, 2014 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Stn. Main, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4 The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Corp. Publisher: Shaun Jessome Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240
Resistant canola … not resistant