BRANDON — If Manitoba farmers required any proof that they need to reduce the risk of clubroot and verticillium wilt through rotation and sanitation, they’re getting it now from cross-province soil testing.
Manitoba Canola Growers’ soil testing laboratory is finding clubroot spores almost everywhere it looks.
However, rather than being a terrifying finding, it’s simply evidence that rotations have to be respected, said Chuck Fossay, a MCGA executive member and Starbuck farmer.
“While there’s clubroot in most of these soil samples, they’re at such very, very low levels that it’s not really a production risk at this point as long as you’re observing a proper rotation,” Fossay said.
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The soil-testing laboratory, set up a year ago, is hoping to test at least one sample from each of Manitoba’s 300 townships and ranges, with about 100 now completed.
Recently, anxieties about clubroot have combined with worries about verticillium wilt, a new disease to North American canola that was found last year in one field in Manitoba.
Fossay said he expects farmers to become more interested in testing their soil because of the growing concern.
However, he hopes they now decide that adequate rotations are essential to stop these diseases from becoming problems.
If clubroot is already present in the soil, it shows that it can be managed because it hasn’t been a problem to this point.
However, it also shows that farmers shouldn’t push canola rotations, as some have done, to once-in-two-years or even canola-on-canola. Kept to one-in-four years, most clubroot and probably verticillium wilt risk is minimized.
Fossay also said he hopes farmers will take the chance now to reassess everything they’re doing to stop more clubroot and other disease particles coming onto their farms.
“I think farmers are going to start looking much more towards their biosecurity protocols, or if they don’t have them, developing one so they can reduce their exposure,” said Fossay.
