The finding addresses a question that has surfaced in U.S. research and among Prairie growers managing high-pH soils: does choosing a low IDC score come at the cost of yield where chlorosis is not present?

“We didn’t know the answer to this question until just now,” U of M researcher Kristen MacMillan said during a recent presentation at Ag Days in Brandon.

WHY IT MATTERS: Understanding how variety selection affects yield helps farmers make more confident decisions in challenging soil conditions.

“It’s a highly visual condition,” said MacMillan, who is also Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers’ agronomist in residence.

“We’re choosing varieties based on their visual response, but what is the actual yield correlation to that?”

IDC is a common issue in calcareous, high-pH soils, where iron becomes chemically unavailable to the plant.

The condition causes yellowing between the veins of young soybean leaves, typically appearing in patches and lasting from mid-June into July. While symptoms may only persist for a few weeks, early-season stress can reduce yield potential.

How much yield does IDC cost?

To understand how IDC severity translates into yield loss, MacMillan collaborated with Manitoba Agriculture to analyze six years of data from single-row plots rated annually for IDC response near Winnipeg. Those plots were taken through to harvest to compare visual scores with final yield.

The analysis confirmed that yield declines as IDC scores increase in affected areas.

MacMillan reported a yield loss of roughly 1.5 to 2.8 bushels per acre for every one-point increase in IDC score. In practical terms, a two-point difference between varieties could mean a three- to six-bushel swing in IDC-prone zones.

Is there a yield trade-off?

The more pressing question, however, was whether selecting for low IDC scores sacrifices yield elsewhere in the field.

Many growers report IDC often affects only portions of a field, yet variety decisions are made for the entire field. Research in North Dakota and South Dakota has identified yield trade-offs in some soybean populations, where selecting for IDC tolerance reduced yield under non-IDC conditions.

To test whether that trade-off exists under Manitoba conditions, MacMillan established paired trials in IDC and non-IDC areas of the same field using identical varieties. She also identified a common set of varieties grown over three years to ensure consistency in comparisons.

“What we’re finding is that yield is also negatively correlated with IDC score or not related at all. So this is good news,” she said.

In other words, varieties with strong IDC tolerance performed well in affected areas without yielding less in unaffected parts of the field.

MacMillan also examined whether precision-planting different cultivars in IDC and non-IDC zones would provide an advantage.

Because no yield penalty was detected, splitting varieties within a field offered little benefit in most scenarios. Only in fields almost entirely affected by IDC did a particularly strong cultivar show a measurable advantage.

“If IDC is a constraint in your fields, continue choosing varieties with low IDC score and high yield,” she said.

For growers managing high-carbonate Prairie soils, the data reinforce current practice: selecting IDC-tolerant varieties remains the most reliable defence without sacrificing yield potential where chlorosis never appears.

The post Selecting IDC-tolerant soybeans doesn’t reduce yield, Manitoba study confirms appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That’s the basis of a University of Manitoba study looking at the wellness of producers themselves as one of many angles of farm sustainability.

“Nothing functions in isolation on the farm,” said Meagan King, an assistant professor in the University of Manitoba’s animal science department.

King spoke during the Sustainability of Canadian Agriculture 2025 virtual conference, held March 4-6. She’s one of several researchers leading the university’s Leveraging Ecosystems to transform Agriculture on the Prairies (LEAP) program.

WHY IT MATTERS: Farm sustainability includes the wellness of the farming family and its ability to sustain the farm over generations.

LEAP’s overarching goal is to explore agriculture intensification strategies and farming systems that use technology and nature-based tools to reduce emissions, capture carbon and help the ag sector mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, the project’s web page says.

King’s branch of the project, which she co-leads with professor Kyle Bobiwash, involves talking to farmers to gauge how farming practices affect them, animals and the land, and to get input on producer priorities.

It’s an identity many farmers claim for themselves. It includes production and economics, but also involves things like self-reliance, providing for one’s family, continuing the farm legacy and even relates to the tidiness of the farm.

“There’s a lot of pride that comes with being a good farmer, but there’s also a lot of pressure,” King said. “Feelings of failure can arise if a farmer is unable to manage every single degree of the farm to a certain standard that they’re holding themselves to.”

Perceived failures can feel like a threat to the farmer’s identity. Criticisms of how a farm does things or being forced to change can also threaten farmers’ concept of self.

“A lot of farmers see themselves as stewards of the land,” King said. “If the public is questioning their methods or even if a farmer is having an internal conflict of what they want to, versus what they actually can do, that can create problems.”

Succession and sustainability

Farm succession planning is another human-centred aspect of sustainability, King noted.

“There have been studies that have looked at having a person identified as the identified successor (which) has the ability to reduce the uncertainty for the current farmer,” King said. “It also increases that incentive to make changes, even if they’re laborious ones.”

This could include starting more sustainable farming practices.

Succession is a famously tricky topic. One in five Canadian farms have a transition plan in place, said Heather Watson, executive director of Farm Management Canada, during a talk on succession at the 2025 Ag in Motion farm show in Saskatchewan.

She also noted what she called the succession effect.

When a farm has identified a successor, “you think, ‘OK, all my blood, sweat and tears are going towards this person or these people,’” Watson said.

When a farm hasn’t identified a successor, “maybe you start to feel a little more tired, and you start to maybe not take as many risks because you don’t have that many years to make up for it if something goes awry,” she added.

Farmers care about soil health and water quality, but at the end of the day, investing in these can be expensive, King said in an interview.

Whether a farm is able to establish a succession plan can often come down to family dynamics. It can also be influenced by the farmer’s perceived level of self-efficacy — their belief in their own ability to do what needs to be done to get a desired outcome.

Under the LEAP program, graduate student Jess Goodwin is interviewing farmers about succession and self-efficacy.

Doctoral student Esther Adigun, meanwhile, will explore other areas like mental wellness, social networks and how farmers feel supported through their communities and families.

King said co-leader Bobiwash would also like to put some farmers directly in contact with policy makers.

“One of the roles we could play as researchers is, like, elevate the farmers’ voices and make sure that they are at the table,” King said. “Commodity groups are at the table, but it doesn’t hurt to have a few more … farmers who are being heard.”

To learn more about participating in LEAP program research, farmers can contact Meagan King at meagan.king@umanitoba.ca.

The post Farm sustainability means farmer wellness too appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That’s according to a delegation of students from the University of Manitoba’s agriculture diploma program. The students pitched a successful resolution during the Keystone Agricultural Producers annual meeting in Winnipeg Feb. 3.

The resolution called on the farm group to lobby government to expand Roads and Transportation Association of Canada (RTAC)-rated roads, particularly in high-production areas where heavy equipment and full loads cannot be moved year-round.

The diploma student group argued that gaps in RTAC-designated routes (which are rated for heavier traffic, even during conditions like the spring melt) increasingly limit farm efficiency, safety and competitiveness.

Bryce Visscher, Carter Driedger, David Pauls, David Wiebe and Francis Sundell made up the delegation.

WHY IT MATTERS: Limited RTAC road access can force longer hauls and partial loads, raising costs and safety risks for Manitoba farmers.

The students cited the yearly headache of seasonal weight restrictions. During that window, when normal hauling corridors are curbed, gaps in RTAC access often force farmers to haul partial loads or take longer routes. That means more fuel cost, more labour time eaten up and even increased safety worries during busy seasons, they argued.

Visscher and Pauls pointed to challenges moving grain and fertilizer during spring weight restrictions, while Driedger said the lack of continuous RTAC routes can mean travelling miles out of the way to reach approved roads. Wiebe described detours caused by weak or restricted bridges that prevent modern seeding and hauling equipment from using direct routes.

North-south routes lacking

Concerns about RTAC access, particularly on north-south routes, are not new. During spring flooding in 2022, the lack of unrestricted north-south corridors in parts of southwestern and central Manitoba forced loaded trucks into long detours, increased shipping costs and, in some cases, temporarily cut off practical access to export markets altogether while east-west routes were closed.

“Between Brandon and Portage, between Highways 1, 2 and 3, there’s nothing for north-south roads,” said Driedger.

Sundell said the problem will not be solved through one-off repairs or short funding cycles, arguing instead for a long-term infrastructure strategy.

“It’s not going to be one year of funding,” Sundell said. “It’ll be continuous funding to build roads in the future. You’re not going to build four or five RTAC roads in one year in Manitoba. It has to be a long-term plan.”

He added that, while upgrading roads to RTAC standards carries higher upfront costs, ongoing repairs, grading and patchwork maintenance on underbuilt roads can add up over time. Long-term investment is more cost-effective.

During discussion on the floor, delegates noted that Manitoba already has an RTAC network in place, but that gaps remain and that road designation and approved access can be as much a challenge as construction itself.

Speakers also cautioned that, without clear priorities, upgrades may not always occur in the areas most critical to agricultural hauling.

Young voices at KAP

The student presentation aligned with KAP’s broader emphasis on youth engagement and member-driven policy.

KAP leadership has pointed to increased student participation as part of efforts to connect long-term infrastructure and policy challenges with the next generation of producers and agricultural professionals.

The post Students push for Manitoba road upgrades appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That simple idea sparked a four-year research project at the University of Manitoba, where Yvonne Lawley, associate professor of plant science, and Alejandro Costamagna, professor of entomology, have been testing whether standing cover from fall rye or spring-seeded nurse crops can reduce early feeding.

The work was demonstrated publicly at a University of Manitoba field day in Carman this past July.

WHY IT MATTERS: Flea beetles remain one of the Prairie’s most frustrating canola pests, and early feeding damage can push growers toward costly in-season sprays.

The concept started with a social media thread.

Several farmers had accidentally left fall rye standing too long in spring, then noticed their canola seedlings seemed to suffer less defoliation. Rather than brush off the anecdote, after a gentle nudge from her grad students, Lawley dipped her toe into the discussion, then quickly became immersed.

“Agronomists and farmers were sharing their collective observations in the social media space about this effect,” she said.

Those discussions led to a formal study with support from Manitoba Canola Growers and funding from CARP (Canola Agronomic Research Program). The goal was to test whether a living cover could shield canola long enough for seedlings to outgrow their most vulnerable stages.

Small-plot findings

Graduate student Aleksander Zashev walked tour attendees through four seasons of small-plot trials comparing fall rye termination timings. Late termination — holding off until canola reached the two-leaf stage — consistently led to less defoliation and fewer flea beetles. However, those same treatments also posed the highest risk of yield loss. In two of the four years, tall rye shaded the canola enough to drag yields down.

A clear pattern was emerging: more biomass meant more protection, but the added competition risked greater yield losses.

Spring-seeded oats were also evaluated as a nurse crop because they pose far less agronomic risk than fall rye. Oats emerge later and grow shorter, so they are far less likely to shade canola seedlings. The oat treatments produced little change in defoliation or flea beetle numbers, except in one case at a higher seeding rate. The results were predictable, but still useful: they reinforced the pattern seen with rye — biomass is the main driver of the hiding effect.

Lawley said the challenge is finding the sweet spot between maximum hiding and minimal shading. Waiting until canola reaches the two-leaf stage offers the strongest hiding effect, but that same biomass can shade seedlings and slow early growth.

Data showed the most balanced option was terminating when canola was still at the cotyledon stage. Because glyphosate doesn’t kill the rye immediately, the standing plants provide a short window of protection before they die off.

“We have a seven-day window before that fall rye is terminated,” said Lawley.

Taking it to the field

Graduate student Raquel Chinchin Talavera presented the on-farm phase of the study. That phase was launched in 2024 with four co-operating growers in the south-central region of the Red River Valley. Full-field strips, 36 metres wide, were seeded with and without a cover crop to see whether the small-plot trends hold under real farm conditions.

Early observations show slightly more flea beetles in bare canola strips than in strips with a living nurse crop, though the wider spacing between monitoring traps means overall counts are lower than in the small plots. Yield data from the second season is still pending.

While the research has validated that standing cover can interrupt flea beetle activity, Lawley wants growers to be cautious in how they interpret the early results. There are still many unknowns. Row orientation, stand density and fertility management could all influence outcomes. And, significantly, the agronomic costs (yield hits from competition, shading, moisture use and possible nitrogen tie-up) are real.

So, would Lawley recommend this for large acres at this point?

“No, we’re still working on it,” she said. “I feel like it’s still a high-risk practice for canola at this point.”

Where it could lead

Despite the uncertainty, she sees potential. Growers already experimenting with fall rye or spring nurse crops for soil health or weed management may one day be able to layer flea beetle suppression into those systems. But before any of this becomes a recommendation, researchers need to fine-tune the agronomy enough to reduce the risk of yield penalties.

The project concludes its CARP-funded phase after the 2025 season, but Lawley has already seeded more fall rye to continue teasing apart the variables. She hopes future work can answer questions about seeding rate, termination timing, nitrogen management and how to optimize cover without compromising stand establishment. The biggest unknown remains how the flea beetle feeding process is disrupted.

“We still don’t understand the mechanism of how flea beetles are seeing, smelling, sensing the canola, and how having living cover interrupts it,” she said. “It would be worthwhile trying to understand that mechanism so we can optimize this practice.”

For now, the idea remains a promising possibility rather than a new tool — a reminder that Prairie innovation often starts with a farmer noticing something odd, and a curious researcher willing to follow the thread.

“We’ve validated the observation that cover crops can hide canola from flea beetles. Now we need to de-risk it.”

The post Cereal cover crops show mixed flea beetle protection for canola appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Manitoba corn growers have long relied on weed-management research from Ontario or the U.S. Midwest, even though growing conditions rarely match what farmers see in their own fields. A new set of trials by University of Manitoba researcher Loveleen Kaur Dhillon is set to change that.

WHY IT MATTERS: With most corn-based weed guidance borrowed from other regions, Manitoba growers need local research to fine-tune their spray timing.

Dhillon is in her first year as the University of Manitoba’s agronomist-in-residence (special crops), a five-year applied research role funded through the Manitoba Crop Alliance. Her position covers three “special crops” as defined by the program — corn, sunflower and flax — which are considered special because of their relatively low acres in the province today, despite their potential.

Coming into the role with agronomy and plant breeding training, Dhillon said aside from corn, which she had worked with during her master’s research in India, everything else was a fresh start.

She admitted she was nervous early on, but she settled in quickly once fieldwork began and she could see how producer-driven the program would be, allowing her to focus on basic, but essential agronomy questions.

“I get to work on all those fun projects,” she said.

That farmer-facing element is central to how she sees her role. Dhillon said the MCA partnership gives her a clear sense of grower priorities and helps her shape the work around what producers want studied.

Two corn studies across Manitoba

Among this year’s work were two corn studies, conducted at three Manitoba sites: Carman, Melita and Arborg. In the first study, Dhillon used three widely grown hybrids and planted them on different dates to see whether adjusting seeding windows might influence how corn fits into Manitoba’s shorter warm period.

The second study focused on the critical weed-free period — the window before early season competition starts to cut into yield. Dhillon wanted to see how U.S. and Ontario recommendations hold up under Manitoba conditions.

She divided the work into two complementary approaches: one that let weeds grow for set periods before removal, and one that held plots weed-free for set periods before allowing weeds back in.

She said the work is also meant to help growers spray only when it matters most, making weed control more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable over the long term.

A season of contrasts

The three sites offered three distinct pictures of the growing season. Melita had favourable weather, giving clean comparisons across weed-removal timings. Carman had heavy weed pressure, which made the contrasts more obvious, even visible from the field edge and in drone images. Arborg, however, was dry for much of the season, and the crop there looked very different from the other sites.

Weed density and species composition also shifted under drought, which changed how the competition played out. Dhillon said that although the conditions were challenging, the variation itself added value. Each site contributed a different piece of the puzzle, helping her understand how Manitoba’s range of environments might influence weed timing.

Early takeaways, with more to come

She hasn’t analyzed the data yet and won’t make recommendations until she has more site-years accumulated. Even so, based on differences seen in the field, Manitoba conditions don’t appear to mirror the conditions that U.S. and Ontario recommendations are based on.

Farmers who have managed corn here for years already know some of those discrepancies from experience; Dhillon’s first-year observations simply reinforce that Manitoba’s conditions deserve Manitoba-made research.

With more data coming next year, and with all three special crops under her long-term mandate, Dhillon said she hopes to give growers clear, locally grounded guidance they can use in their day-to-day decisions.

For now, she has something just as important: proof of concept that the province’s unique conditions behave differently enough to justify a made-in-Manitoba approach — and the beginnings of a program built to deliver it.

“The differences are quite clear,” said Dhillon. “The protocol and the design of the experiment really worked.”

The post Manitoba corn research looks for home-based weed control appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The trials at the Ian M. Morrison Research Station in Carman, Man., come at a critical time. BLS isn’t new to Canada, but infections are being reported with increasing regularity across the Prairies.

“Bacterial leaf streak has been detected in Canada since the 1920s but we are seeing the re-emergence of it. And it’s worsening rapidly,” said Shaheen Bibi, a plant pathologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba in Dilantha Fernando’s lab. Fernando and his BLS team lead the Carman trials.

WHY IT MATTERS: Bacterial leaf streak limits photosynthesis and, therefore, yield in cereal crops.

Fernando’s BLS team is running controlled trials with inoculated seed and irrigation to create conditions for infection. The aim is to better understand how much seed infestation translates into seedling infection, how moisture drives spread and whether genetic resistance is possible.

One project is characterizing Canadian isolates of the bacterium — collecting strains from different provinces to see how diverse they are and how that diversity affects disease severity. Another is mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs), regions of DNA linked to traits such as disease resistance that breeders might eventually use. The team is also testing biocontrols that have shown promise in the greenhouse.

Most notably, they’re looking at cereal genes already known to confer disease resistance. The Manitoba team is focusing on two in particular — Lr34 and Lr67 — named for the leaf rust (Lr) resistance they provide. Both are broad-spectrum, meaning they protect against more than one disease. Lr67, for example, has shown some resistance to fusarium head blight and is most effective in mature plants.

Early trial results suggest Lr67 lines may show more resistance than Lr34. It’s too early to call, but the work could point to varieties with at least partial protection against bacterial leaf streak.

“What we want to see is whether there are any lines showing resistance to BLS that could be used in breeding programs in the future,” said Bibi.

Hard to identify

BLS often goes unreported because it mimics other cereal leaf diseases. Farmers may mistake it for tan spot or, in later stages, confuse necrotic lesions with natural senescence. Accurate diagnosis often requires lab expertise or a trained eye. That diagnostic challenge makes scouting all the more important during the growing season.

The disease is caused by Xanthomonas translucens, a bacterium with two pathovars of concern in Prairie cereals: pv. undulosa, which infects both wheat and barley, and pv. translucens, which primarily infects barley.

On leaves, the disease shows up as long, translucent streaks — hence the name translucens — that begin as small water-soaked lesions. Under wet conditions, lesions may exude a milky or yellow ooze — a key diagnostic feature that separates BLS from fungal leaf spots such as tan spot. As lesions mature, leaves lose photosynthetic area, and the flag leaf in particular, the part of the plant that contributes the most to grain fill, can be severely damaged.

The potential for loss is especially high because damage peaks at the flag-leaf stage. Severe infections destroy photosynthetic tissue, and anecdotal reports suggest yield reductions of up to 50 per cent.

But yield isn’t the only economic concern. The same bacterium can also infect heads, causing a symptom known as black chaff, which can reduce marketability by downgrading grain due to discoloration. Infected seed may also carry the pathogen, creating problems for seed use and resale.

Black chaff appears as dark streaks or bands across glumes and awns, sometimes alternating with healthy green tissue in awned varieties. In severe cases, glumes may turn completely black, and exudates can give heads a water-soaked appearance.

Conditions matter

BLS thrives during warm days, cool nights and in moist environments. Wetter years tend to bring more problems than drier ones, and areas that are naturally arid are less prone to outbreaks.

Moisture also drives how the disease moves within fields. Rain splash, wind-driven rain, irrigation and even mechanical activities can help spread bacteria from plant to plant. On the Prairies, irrigation is a particular concern.

The bacterium is primarily seed-borne but can also survive in crop residue, volunteers and perennial grasses. Because it is bacterial, standard fungicides, whether seed treatments or foliar sprays, are ineffective.

With no resistant varieties thus far in Canada, and no chemical options, growers are left with cultural practices and careful scouting to reduce risk. A group of Prairie cereal organizations, including SaskWheat, SaskBarley, Alberta Wheat, Alberta Barley and the Manitoba Crop Alliance, released a joint fact sheet in 2023 outlining key practices and scouting strategies to reduce inoculum levels and slow the spread of BLS.

Start with clean seed. Infected seed is the main source of inoculum. If BLS is suspected in a field, especially when black chaff is visible, harvested grain should not be used for seed. Certified seed is not routinely screened for Xanthomonas translucens in Canada, so growers are encouraged to ask about testing or send samples to independent labs.

Stretch the rotation. Extending the break between cereal crops to more than two years helps reduce inoculum in residue. Volunteers and grassy weeds should be controlled to cut down on secondary hosts.

Scout carefully. Begin at herbicide timing and continue through senescence, with extra passes after storms that might wound plants. The best time to distinguish BLS is at the flag-leaf stage, when translucent streaks are most visible. Avoid walking fields in wet conditions, since the disease can spread on boots and clothing.

Manage irrigation. In irrigated areas, water management can reduce risk. Practices such as irrigating in the evening when the canopy is already wet with dew, letting the canopy dry between sets, and avoiding unnecessary irrigation can shorten the hours of leaf wetness that favour bacterial spread.

Assume susceptibility. No Prairie varieties are currently rated for resistance to BLS. Some U.S. wheats (Glenn, Faller, Prosper, Bolles) and barleys (AAC Connect, AAC Synergy) have shown partial resistance, but local screening is still underway. For now, farmers should plan as though their chosen variety is susceptible.

The post Researchers chase resistance to bacterial leaf streak appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That was one message from this year’s Fields on Wheels Conference, hosted by the University of Manitoba and the Transport Institute on Oct. 8.

WHY IT MATTERS: Investment is a hard sell when markets and trade policies sit on unstable ground, and the earth underpinning Canadian agriculture and agri-food business decisions has been rocking hard all year.

Both tariffs and protectionism are reshaping Canada’s agricultural landscape, particularly with the country’s two most critical export markets, the United States and China. If historical patterns hold, current uncertainty levels could trigger a 25 per cent drop in business investment and push unemployment up one percentage point, according to Trevor Tombe, an economics professor at the University of Calgary.

“By far the larger shock that Canada’s been experiencing, and many sectors have been experiencing, is the uncertainty shock,” Tombe said. “We’re one tweet away from the fundamental economic relationship being completely upended between Canada and the United States.”

Market barriers hit

That uncertainty is already taking a toll. Cam Dahl, general manager of Manitoba Pork, said the sector should be seeing major investments in new facilities during this phase of the production cycle, but money has dried up.

“A new hog barn, it’s not $10,000, it’s $15 million to $20 million,” Dahl said. “We should be seeing investment in additional processing, but that investment is not happening. And the significant reason that that is not happening is because of global and trade uncertainty, in particular with the United States.”

Manitoba’s pork sector produces eight to 8.5 million pigs annually and exports 90 per cent of production, either as pork products or live animals. The industry supports 22,000 jobs and contributes $2.3 billion to provincial GDP, Dahl said.

For canola, the challenges are multiplying. China, which has historically been the top buyer of Canadian canola seed, imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of 75.8 per cent last August, on top of retaliatory tariffs on pork, canola oil and meal, peas and fish announced back in March.

There’s also the recent changes to U.S. biofuel policy, which speakers noted have temporarily reduced canola oil’s competitiveness in the renewable fuel market, though there are some positive policy signals emerging, according to Brittany Wood, senior manager of trade and transport policy with the Canadian Canola Growers Association.

North of the border, the federal government promised $370 million to biofuel production incentives in the wake of canola’s difficulties, part of a support measures package that was welcomed by biofuel producers, although the cash advance changes that were part of the same announcement, and which be of more immediate impact to canola producers, failed to gain traction with growers.

Domestic biofuel production has potential for growth, Wood said, with new renewable diesel facilities in Canada creating significant new demand for canola oil.

A facility producing one billion litres of renewable fuel requires one million metric tonnes of canola oil, attendees heard, equivalent to Canada’s second and third-largest seed export markets combined.

“That is like a whole new market,” Wood said.

U.S. market importance

Both Dahl and Wood agree that, while market diversification is important, it cannot replace the U.S. market for Canadian agriculture. The U.S. market accounted for $7.7 billion of Canada’s $14.4 billion in agricultural exports in 2024.

Dahl warned that protectionism predates recent political changes and is appearing in multiple forms beyond traditional tariffs. He pointed to California’s Proposition 12, which extends state animal welfare regulations across North America, forcing Manitoba farmers to comply with California rules. The pork sector has long argued that such measures threaten to throw a wrench into the harmonized U.S.-Canada market.

“We didn’t negotiate a trade agreement with individual states. We negotiated it with the United States of America,” Dahl said. “So, this extrajudicial reach of sub-national governments is something that does need to be addressed.”

CUSMA review looms large

The coming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) represents a critical juncture, speakers said. Agriculture needs a unified strategy before negotiations intensify, Dahl believes.

“If you’re a trade negotiator or you’re the federal minister of agriculture, and you have 400 different opinions, you can do whatever you want, or you can do nothing,” he said. “Agriculture needs to get together and have a strategic plan, and we probably should have done that two years ago.”

Building U.S. alliances key

Dahl urged Canadian producers to build stronger relationships with U.S. farm organizations and state governments. He believes that senators are more likely to listen to voices from their home states than to Canadian officials.

“We need to be reaching out to our partners in the United States,” he said. “Senators aren’t going to listen to the Canadian agriculture organization. Two senators from Iowa are going to listen when the president of the Iowa Farm Bureau calls.”

The post Shaky trade ground threatens efforts to build Canadian agriculture appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

This is why researchers at the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are examining the role arthropods play in anaplasmosis, as well as designing better tests.

“There’s a potential that it exists in cattle herds in certain parts of the country. So we want to get an idea of that, because until we have an understanding of some of those baseline risks, we don’t know maybe where to go, or if it’s really important to spend much time looking at this disease,” says Shaun Dergousoff, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

WHY IT MATTERS: The scope of treatment tools available for farmers to manage parasites, including ticks, and biting insects in their herds has changed compared to decades past.

Anaplasmosis is caused by a bacterial parasite called Anaplasma marginale, which attacks the red blood cells. It affects cattle, sheep, goats and deer, but in Canada, it is more commonly seen in cattle.

Clinical signs of anaplasmosis include fever, anemia, weakness, weight loss and issues with breathing. It is rare for it to affect calves under six months of age and symptoms will be mild in calves younger than a year. It is rarely fatal for animals under two years old. In animals older than two years that have shown signs of illness, mortalities can range from 29 to 49 per cent.

Anaplasmosis is usually treated with an antibiotic, which helps with the symptoms but won’t get rid of the disease.

“Once an animal’s infected, it pretty much always stays infected, even if they’re not sick. But then the problem is they could become a source now of transmitting and moving that bacteria to other animals,” Dergousoff says.

Anaplasmosis is transmitted by anything that can spread infected blood, such as needles, dehorning tools, castration tools, etc. Biting pests also spread anaplasmosis. Arthropods well known for spreading anaplasmosis include the Rocky Mountain wood tick and the American dog tick.

Ticks and flies

Kateryn Rochon is an entomologist at the University of Manitoba and is working alongside Dergousoff on this project. She is focused on the insect side of the research, looking specifically at ticks and flies.

When it comes to ticks and flies spreading anaplasmosis, it is not really known how often it is transmitted from those sources, and how often from livestock management practices. That is part of Rochon’s work.

While ticks are known biological vectors, biting flies are not. However, they could still transmit the disease as a mechanical vector, which means the bacteria does not multiply inside them, but might be passed on from the blood around the fly’s mouth parts after feeding on an animal.

The question is whether they are transmitting the disease this way.

“We might not be able to find it in the ticks or the flies, but we’re looking because we’re trying to determine what role they play,” Rochon says. “For me, as an entomologist, there’s the interest of just what’s going on out there.”

To conduct this research, Rochon would collect ticks and flies in producers’ pastures. She’d collect ticks by dragging a white piece of flannel through the grass. This attracts the ticks because of something they do called questing, which is when they climb to the top of the grass and wave their claws in the air to latch on more easily. The light colour of the flannel attracts them.

Fly traps

They used two different types of fly traps for biting flies: horse fly traps and a Manitoba trap.

The Manitoba trap is an inverted canopy trap with a black yoga ball dangling below the canopy, and a container of some sort at the top. The ball attracts the flies into the trap because the colour and the gleam trick them into thinking it’s an animal. They then fly up, are caught within the canopy, crawl into the container and are trapped.

Rochon says this trap has been very successful, but sometimes, not even necessary.

“There’s some places where we go, there’s so many horseflies, we can just catch them with a net.”

During the summer of 2024, they caught over 1,300 flies at two different locations in Manitoba. After the insects were collected, they were taken back to the lab to be frozen and identified.

Then, after identification, each fly was dissected so their gut could be tested for the bacteria that causes bovine anaplasmosis. Since only females bite, they examine the flies’ ovaries to find out how many batches of eggs each female fly has laid. This is because each batch of eggs requires a blood meal. So, the researchers can see which species bite more, are more likely to spread diseases among cattle and at what point in the season.

This study will end in 2027.

A new anaplasmosis test

Alongside this research, another project is underway to create a reliable anaplasmosis test.

Currently, the diagnostic tests used for anaplasmosis are Giemsa-stained blood smears and serologic tests, according to Merck Animal Health. The bovine blood smear tests blood samples from the animal for the bacterial parasite that causes anaplasmosis.

Serologic tests are used to identify antibodies against Anaplasma marginale in cattle, which suggests past or present infection. These tests can help diagnose carrier animals who may be spreading the disease and not showing clinical symptoms, but it is not very accurate. The tests often misdiagnose anaplasmosis because the bacteria are similar to those from other diseases. This is why Dergousoff wants to make a more reliable, accurate test.

“A rapid test would be very beneficial, but also because some tests have had the problem where they’ve said that animals are infected with Anaplasma marginale, but it really was something else or not at all,” he says. “So they’re not perfect, and no test is, but we’re looking for an improvement.”

Dergousoff is working with beef producers and their veterinarians to take blood samples from their herd and test them for the presence of Anaplasma marginale. This will determine which animals are infected, even if they are not showing clinical signs of infection.

To create the new test, Dergousoff says they have to look closely at the molecules present and at the Anaplasma marginale bacteria.

Then, they will develop a method for testing and preparing the blood and start making a prototype for a device for blood testing. The goal is to create a device that can be used by producers so they can determine the health of their animals while doing other things, such as branding or vaccinating.

“It could potentially be simple enough for anybody to use and quick enough so that it can just be that chute-side rapid test,” he says.

They are working in areas of the country with the highest risk: Manitoba and south-central B.C. Manitoba was picked because of the historical context of the disease in the province. Southern B.C. was selected because they have seen misdiagnosed cases there.

“We don’t necessarily suspect that there will be Anaplasma marginale there,” Dergousoff says. “You can always be surprised, but they may be very useful samples to use in the development of our test if there’s a bacteria present there that’s very similar that we want to exclude from the test.”

The timeline for this project is less concrete — there are many things to accomplish before it can become commercially available. Dergousoff says he hopes to have a prototype in the next few years.

Anaplasmosis impact

Though anaplasmosis is a disease not many think about and was removed in 2014 from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s list of federally reportable diseases, it should still be on people’s radar.

“Sometimes the risk might be low, but also those things change over time. We’re seeing changes in the distribution of the ticks that can transmit this,” Dergousoff says.

Factors such as the number of ticks and flies are subject to change, which is why research like this is important.

Knowing about this issue is also important because that knowledge can help with prevention.

“Awareness is a big issue, because then we could take measures to maybe prevent these things before they become a big issue,” Dergousoff says. “So if we understand these things ahead of time, especially if we have a good, even better test … those kinds of things will help things from becoming a much larger issue over time.”

Rochon says while anaplasmosis isn’t currently an issue, that doesn’t mean producers shouldn’t be aware of what it is and what the effect might be.

“These little things can have an impact. And the little decisions sometimes can lead to problems that you don’t necessarily notice right away. And so I think being aware that this is something that is in Canada and might be becoming more prevalent, we don’t know.”

Dergousoff says they are currently looking for more producers in Manitoba and in southern B.C. to get involved in their research, to look at the risk and potential presence of anaplasmosis in the area. Data from B.C., specifically, would help them determine what other bacteria are confusing current diagnostic tests and eliminate them from their tests. There is financial compensation for involvement in the study.

If there is a positive test on an operation, researchers will notify the local vet and chief veterinary officer for the province. After a case of anaplasmosis is reported, the chief veterinary officer usually doesn’t require disease control measures. However, they may provide information and diagnostic support to help herd owners manage the infection and reduce the risk of spreading to other herds.

“It’s important to recognize these cases so we know what’s going on. But it’s also important to support the producers,” Dergousoff says.

The post Manitoba tick study focuses on testing, other carriers for anaplasmosis appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Speaking at a July 29 field day in Carman, university research agronomist Kristen MacMillan said she’s in the final year of a study examining how much nitrogen dry beans can fix from the atmosphere through nodulation and whether lower fertilizer rates could be viable for Prairie conditions.

“We’re still waiting for the final results of this study, but almost 50 per cent reduction in the nitrogen rate would have really important economic benefits for farmers,” said MacMillan.

WHY IT MATTERS: Compared to other pulse crops, dry beans are considered relatively poor nitrogen fixers. That’s traditionally meant more reliance on nitrogen fertilizer to make up the difference.

That finding could come at an ideal time. Manitoba farmers planted a record 207,000 acres of dry beans in 2025 — including a record-high 123,000 acres of pintos — the highest dry bean acreage in two decades.

Dry beans are in the same legume family as peas and soybeans, well known for fixing their own nitrogen out of the atmosphere. Dry beans, though, are worse at it.

“The main reason is that it’s non-selective as a host, so it’s fairly promiscuous with the rhizobia in the soil, and that reduces its efficiency in fixing nitrogen,” said MacMillan.

That reputation has led to full fertilizer programs as standard practice. But MacMillan’s current trials aim to test whether modern cultivars — grown in Manitoba soils that have seen decades of pulse production — might be capable of fixing more nitrogen than previously thought.

Two earlier studies that MacMillan worked on — including nitrogen rate trials completed in 2022 at Carman, Portage la Prairie and Melita — showed that dry beans did respond to fertilizer, but not at economically optimal levels. MacMillan’s earlier work also looked at inoculants, which varied by product.

A summary of dry bean nitrogen and nodulation on-farm trials from the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean growers, which cites MacMillan as one contributor, said that yield increased in small plot pinto and navy beans (located at Carman and Portage la Prairie from 2017-2019) at high nitrogen rates of 140 pounds per acre. “When considering the return on investment, it was statistically the same for all rates of N application, meaning the economic optimum rate was to not apply any N fertilizer at all,” the summary noted.

It also cited black and pinto bean trials at Brandon, Melita and Carberry from 2021-2022, which found no yield change with different fertilizer rates, with the exception of uninoculated black beans in Melita in 2022.

The same resource noted that fertilizer had an inverse relationship with nodulation. The more fertilizer they put on, the less nodulation they saw.

Plants “become ‘lazy’ and rely on soil nitrogen alone,” the grower group said.

Measuring nodulation

MacMillan’s team has rated nodulation. Until now though, it wasn’t clear how much nitrogen those nodules were actually providing.

That’s the focus of her current research: how much atmospheric nitrogen dry beans are fixing under Manitoba conditions, and whether that amount changes depending on nitrogen rate and inoculation.

One set of plots at the University of Manitoba’s Ian N. Morrison Research Farm is measuring nitrogen fixation across 12 popular dry bean cultivars using a method called “natural abundance,” which tracks nitrogen isotopes. A second trial is testing nitrogen fixation under different fertilizer rates, with or without inoculant.

“The hypothesis that’s being tested is whether we can move from a full rate of N fertilizer down to a low rate and still maximize yield,” she said.

Dry beans in Manitoba typically yield around 2,000 pounds per acre, which translates to about 90 pounds of nitrogen. MacMillan said literature suggests N fixation could provide up to 20 to 40 per cent of that requirement — a meaningful contribution, especially when combined with residual nitrogen already in the soil.

In addition to saving farmers money, the less nitrogen applied also means less nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, is released into the atmosphere.

“Environmentally, this could lead to less nitrogen-intensive cropping systems when it comes to growing dry beans,” she said.

The post Cutting nitrogen in dry beans could pay off for farmers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The day included tours of field plots and technology displays of current research in crop development, crop management, remote sensing, and digital agriculture.

Here are a few snapshots of the work showcased at the event:

Nurse crops to deter flea beetle feeding in canola

“Our research question is to see whether or not we can use cover crops or nurse crops like fall rye or spring oats to hide canola seedlings from flea beetles when they’re feeding during that critical period following emergence in spring,” said Yvonne Lawley, associate professor with the department of plant science.

Optimal herbicide timing for weed control in corn

“We basically want to know what is the most critical window to control weeds in corn before they begin disrupting yields. When does that period start and when does it end so that farmers really know when to spray their crop … so it’s most effective,” said Loveleen Khaur Dhillon, agronomist-in-residence for special crops with the department.

Nitrogen uptake of high-protein canola varieties

“What we’re looking at is how these high-protein varieties utilize nitrogen and where it’s allocated in the plant. We’re hoping to find a nitrogen dose response curve showing a difference in usage between low-protein and high-protein canola varieties,” said doctoral student James Cluff.

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