BRANDON – Manitoba farmers could face a worse situation than those in Alberta if clubroot gets into the Red River Valley.
An Agriculture Canada researcher told farmers attending Manitoba Ag Days that weather conditions in the Winnipeg area are more conducive to clubroot than those in the Edmonton area.
“We have quite a bit of potential,” Debbie McLaren said.
“If we (get infected by clubroot), based on the computer simulated model that we’re using, there is an area around the eastern Interlake and central Manitoba that could have more of the disease, and it’s because it has the environmental conditions.”
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However, McLaren said more research is needed on the clubroot threat before the true risk is known.
Many factors could affect how virulent the disease becomes and few of those are understood.
Clubroot, which ravages canola, has been found in more than 460 fields in Alberta since it was first detected in 2003. The infection was found in 49 fields last year.
Saskatchewan had one proven infestation in 2008, but none were found last year, McLaren said.
Manitoba had one case in 2005 but none since. The field where the infection was found no longer shows signs of the disease.
A wide area of central Alberta has experienced clubroot infections, but they have been most intense around Edmonton.
McLaren said Alberta research is suggesting the warm, moist conditions in that area help clubroot to thrive and spread.
Those are precisely the conditions that exist in Manitoba’s Red River Valley, which is moister and warmer than the Edmonton area.
McLaren said the disease would be particularly damaging in the Red River Valley in years of heavy rainfall.
“We hope that we don’t get it, and if we do that we don’t get a lot of extra rainfall,” McLaren said.
Soil acidity is one of the factors affecting clubroot that is not yet well understood, but because the Red River Valley has a significantly different level of acidity than the Edmonton area, it would be good to know if that is offering Manitoba farmers extra protection.
“That is somewhat of an advantage,” McLaren said. “How much all of these factors need to be considered (remains to be discovered) and there needs to be more research.”
