Twenty-five percent of canola fields in Alberta’s Leduc County have tested positive for clubroot and the district is taking a hard line to control the problem.
Clubroot is a fungus that cripples canola and mustard production.
Rick Thomas of Leduc County’s agricultural services division said the potential of the disease can’t be ignored.
“We’re a yellow county. Canola has been important to the success of farmers in this part of Alberta and our council has chosen to try to stop the spread of this disease,” said Thomas.
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It is estimated the county has about 350 fields of canola this year and each is being inspected for clubroot.
“We are a little behind, but we’re up to about 200, with 50 showing visual signs of infection (wilting, stunted crop and yellowed leaves) and 25 being confirmed for the disease so far,” he said.
Clubroot was first identified in the region in 2005 and has been monitored by Alberta Agriculture since.
Clubroot spores can live for 20 years because of their tough cell walls and ability to delay germination until a susceptible plant grows nearby. Serious infections can reduce a crop by up to 50 percent, according to agrologists.
Canola crops in the Edmonton area commonly exceed 40 bushels per acre. When yields are combined with $400 per tonne canola, clubroot could cost the area’s canola producers more than $180 per acre in severely infected fields.
In May, the disease was designated an official pest in Alberta, similar to the Norway rat and the crop disease blackleg. The status means producers are required to respect government control initiatives.
In Leduc County, that means no canola can be grown for up to five years on any ground where the fungus is found.
Thomas said so far producers have responded positively.
The county held producer information meetings about clubroot in the fall of 2006, but poor attendance prompted other measures to ensure control.
Thomas said producers have had few profitable crop choices for years, so many seeded canola back to back or with only a single season of cereal between the canola crops.
The heavy black soil in the Edmonton area and good moisture conditions have been ideal for the fungus. With regular supplies of host plants, clubroot has thrived in the region.
Jason Tolsma, an agrologist at nearby Millet, Alta., said he hasn’t yet had a customer report the disease, but it is a serious concern for local custom operators.
“It’s a tough spore. If you are seeding for somebody and they have clubroot, how do you get all the soil and the spores off the machine so you don’t spread it to other farms?
“It’s hard to ensure that you aren’t carrying the spores in any operation. So custom operators and people that are renting land for the first few seasons don’t know what they might be spreading. The custom folks begin to worry about liability if they infect another client,” Tolsma said.
Stony Plain, Alta., agrologist Lynette Steuber there is concern in her area about pipeline companies spreading the fungus.
“Those operators aren’t likely going to be washing off all of their equipment between fields. And they will spread the disease from infected land to uninfected when they cross field boundaries,” she said.
Steuber said the disease is present in her area, but none of her clients have reported having clubroot.
“Most farmers that consult with agrologists on a regular basis already have strict crop rotation policies and they just don’t have the disease,” she said. “If they do get clubroot it comes from a custom operator, a new rental or purchased field or from someone like a pipeline (installer).
“Anybody that’s complaining about Leduc’s rules enforcement are likely the same farmers that weren’t rotating crops properly in the first place, (which is) the root of this problem.”
Producers found to have clubroot in Leduc County will have fields placed in an information system database. They will be notified by mail this fall of their infection and the prohibition of canola on that land.
Each field found to have clubroot this year will be inspected early in the 2008 growing season and if the field is growing canola again, the farmer will be ordered by the municipality to kill the crop.
Thomas expects to find little canola planted on infected soil next spring because there are other profitable crop choices.
