Identifying the biggest yield robbers for canola in 2024

2024 will go down as the year of canola disease.

That is according to Curtis Rempel, Vice President of Crop Production and Innovation with the Canola Council of Canada. Rempel says diseases were primarily root and lower stem. He notes this was partially due to the wet and cool conditions felt in large parts of the Prairies.

"For a lot of stubble-borne fungi, which are primarily disease-causing organisms, they are all fungal-related," explains Rempel. "The cool, damp conditions really allow the fungus to take off."

Rempel says for large parts of the Prairies, the tap turned off in late summer and conditions turned hot and dry. Rempel says water goes up from the root to the top of the plant and so when you have fungus that invades the root, it causes a severe "plumbing" issue as it chokes off all of the movement of water from the root up into the developing seed pod. 

"And so, no water can get through and the plant subsequently has a real challenge filling the seed," he adds. 

As a result, Rempel says early indications are that in terms of root diseases, Verticillium stripe was the big root or plumbing disease across most of the Prairies this past year. He notes that was followed closely by Sclerotinia and Blackleg.

As far as insect concerns, Rempel says there were pockets of insects robbing yields, such as Lygus bugs in parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. However, he points out that for the most part, where there were economic thresholds, growers were able to get on top of the problem with help from their agronomist. Rempel says there really was not a lot of yield loss other than isolated fields or small geographic areas. 

In terms of weather-related factors, other than the wet conditions in spring, Rempel says for a large portion of the Prairies it was very hot during flowering. He notes canola is very sensitive to temperatures at flowering.

"Any temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius during the day and especially if the nights also remain fairly warm, you have the potential to suffer quite a bit of yield loss," he adds.

Meanwhile, looking ahead to 2025, Rempel warns that fungi like to complete their life cycle. For example, he says Blackleg will complete its life cycle on the stubble itself. He says after harvest and in early spring, growers and agronomists should scout fields to determine if they can see any Blackleg spores forming, which is a good indication that disease could be showing up next growing season. He adds these spores can travel by wind and mist to neighbouring fields. 

Rempel says for next year they are again warning of the potential for Verticillium stripe, Sclerotinia, and Blackleg.

As for insects, he notes they are really concerned about flea beetles, though Rempel says it is difficult to predict where they will show up in a given year. 

"We're already telling producers, agronomists to start thinking about flea beetles for next year and what kind of seed treatment packages they are going to choose with their seed then based on the fact that we could have a lot of flea beetle pressure," adds Rempel.