Industry leaders and provincial experts are taking steps to mitigate the spread of clubroot around Swan River, Man.
Clubroot galls were discovered on canola roots in a field near Swan River in September.
Anastasia Kubinec, Manitoba Agriculture’s oilseed specialist, said there are plans for a grower meeting in the Swan River area, possibly in November, to inform producers about clubroot risk management.
“I know Stephanie (Jersak, Manitoba Agriculture rep in Swan River,) has been talking to some of the retailers about getting a joint meeting,” Kubinec said. “And bringing up myself, our plant pathologist and the Canola Council (of Canada), if they’re available.”
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Manitoba Agriculture employees have also been speaking directly to Swan River producers who are concerned about the disease.
Clubroot is a soil borne disease that causes swellings, or galls, to form on the roots of canola plants. The galls cause the plants to die prematurely.
The disease spreads when contaminated soil or plant debris is transported from field to field.
Ryan Immerkar, an agronomist who owns RSI Agri-Coaching in Swan River, was called out to a canola field this fall to diagnose a production problem.
Immerkar’s client noticed, while combining canola in September, that a sizable piece within a field was generating poor yields.
The yield monitor showed that most of the field was around 50 bushels per acre, but a 10 to 15 acre patch was yielding 10 bu. per acre.
Immerkar dug up the roots of canola plants in the low yielding area following harvest and found galls the size of quarters on the roots.
He suspected it was clubroot but sent tissue samples to a lab.
“It came back positive,” said Immerkar, who is affiliated with Agri-Trend. “There’s more than one field now (on the affected farm) where it’s showing up.”
Immerkar said the producer doesn’t know how clubroot ended up on his land.
Manitoba Agriculture confirmed the presence of clubroot symptoms on plants in two canola fields in the fall of 2013. Scientists had previously found clubroot spores in soil samples taken in Manitoba.
A Manitoba Agriculture clubroot distribution map indicates that two municipalities, Louise and Westlake-Gladstone, have fields with high levels of soil spores or cases with confirmed plant symptoms.
“We are finding it at low concentrations throughout the province. That’s strictly through our soil samples…. We have been telling producers since 2012, you have to assume it’s probably within 50 kilometres of your farm,” Kubinec said. “There may be more cases that are reported this fall…. Lots of guys seem to find it when they’re swathing or combining. There is a patch that just isn’t yielding.”
Clubroot has been in central Alberta for more than a decade, and producers have adjusted by seeding varieties with resistance to the disease and growing canola less frequently, typically one crop in three or four years.
Growers around Swan River, particularly those near the infected farm, may need to adopt similar practices to prevent its spread.
“Be aware of it and be proactive. Don’t pretend like it didn’t happen,” Immerkar said.
