What’s the toughest part of trying out a new crop? Once you get the equipment set up sorted out at seeding and harvest, it’s on to crop diagnostics. Mother Nature tends to give farmers a bit of a break when it comes to disease and insect pressure in the first years of growing a crop, but it’s rare that a crop has zero pests to worry about it. Agronomic advice is often based of out-of-region research, too, which complicates scouting and spray decisions.
For farmers growing soybeans, Manitoba Pulse Growers have created a made-in-Manitoba disease and insect scouting calendar (Click here for the PDF) to help farmers stay focused on the biggest threats to the crop in a western Canadian context.
In this Soybean School episode, Kristen Podolsky, production specialist with Manitoba Pulse Growers, discusses the threat of wireworm and cutworm to the soybean crop, and describes the root rot symptoms farmers should be looking for early on in the year.