From water-logged fields to problematic pests, wild weather and disease, Manitoba producers faced many hurdles in the 2024 growing season.
Manitoba Ag Days 2025 began on Jan. 21 and runs until Jan. 23 at Brandon’s Keystone Centre in the south of Brandon.
Part of the opening day speaking schedule, Manitoba Agriculture experts from across the province came together to share their insights on the last growing season and common issues faced in 2024 by producers.
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Canola yields were down in 2024 for a variety of reasons, said Sonia Wilson, an oilseeds specialist.
“I know some areas really had to push their seeding back with the moisture that we saw,” she said, pointing to the exceptionally wet conditions seen in Manitoba in the first half of the season.
Sonia Wilson, an oilseed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, reviewed the 2024 canola growing season, which was impacted by excess moisture in many parts of the province. Wilson gave her talk in the FCC Theatre at the Keystone Centre in Brandon on Jan. 21 as part of Manitoba Ag Days 2025. PHOTO: MIRANDA LEYBOURNE
Moisture conditions were so significant that many producers missed their preferred spray windows.
The difficult spring also did farmers no favours in the perennial battle with flea beetles.
Pulse and soybean specialist Dennis Lange said he was discouraged at how wet his soybean acres in southern Manitoba were looking around Canada Day. In the end, however, the field ended up with a yield of 50 bushels per acre.
“It was amazing, actually. Now, with that being said, if this had come after seeding, when the crop wasn’t established, the yield (wouldn’t have been) there,” Lange said.
Estimated yields for soybeans from 2024 are a record 45 bushels per acre, and were especially high in the Red River region.
Rotational concerns, however, remain an issue in the wider world of beans, with challenges including disease pressure and volunteer soybeans on dry bean fields.
The top 10 problematic pests that showed up in Manitoba fields last growing season included flea beetles, cutworms, army worms, Bertha armyworm, alfalfa weevils, grasshoppers, aphids – especially in field peas, soybeans and small grains – and lygus bugs.
Provincial entomologist John Gavloski talks about the problem of flea beetles for the 2024 growing season in Manitoba at Manitoba Ag Days 2025 in Brandon. PHOTO: MIRANDA LEYBOURNE
Provincial entomologist John Gavloski said flea beetles were particularly problematic.
Many canola fields needed a second or even third application of insecticide this year, and some acres needed to be reseeded because of flea beetle feeding. That was especially true central and northwest Manitoba.
That’s why early seeding is good advice, Gavloski said.
“Anything you can do to try to get that quick early season growth is going to help you reduce your risk of flea beetles.”
More Ag Days news, video and more can be found on our Manitoba Ag Days 2025 landing page.
