By: Wendy McDonald, MPSG Production Agronomist – West
Pulse and Soybean Crop Update for Western Manitoba field conditions up to Aug. 14, 2026
Wednesday, Aug. 5
Wendy and Terry enjoyed presenting at one of the morning stops on the Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre (MCDC) tour near Carberry. We talked about how you could think of each soybean variety like a rocket, and each variety is on a mission to the planet “Strong Yields and Agronomic Stability”. (Yes, I stole my daughter’s volleyball.) We suggested that the farmer is the “astronaut” who takes on all the risk. Agronomic decisions are made are like the “launch pad” which sets your soybean crop up for success.
Amir Farooq from Manitoba Agriculture talked about how proper seeding depth (.75 to 1.5 inches) and plant stand count (using your hula hoop, 10 to 16) improve your soybeans chances for their best yield potential. Terry talked about the importance of weed control. MCDC’s Haider Abbas spoke about irrigation and soybeans. In the picture above, the non irrigated soybeans are on the right and the irrigated soybeans are on the left. The irrigated soybean plots had only been irrigated three times this season due to adequate rainfall. The irrigated soybeans were only slightly taller.
The project showcased is evaluating 10 soybean varieties, including two checks, across eight locations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba under irrigated and dry land conditions. The overall goal is to identify soybean lines with strong yield and agronomic stability across diverse environments and to better understand how moisture stress and growing conditions influence soybean performance. Agronomic, soil, and climatic data is collected to help relate variety performance to different production environments. The analyze each harvest sample and are looking for trends and stability in protein content.
You can think of all of the researchers and technicians working on this project like “Mission Control”. They statistically evaluate and continuously monitor the performance and progress of these varieties, to provide as much information as possible for making key decisions during the mission.
It was so great to have a crowd of close to 150 people attending the tour.
Terry and I met with research agronomist Nicolas Nuñez Indart from Argentina and Sean Linstead of Elementa Foods. They’re very impressed with the yellow lupins growing in the demonstration plots at Carberry this year.
The yellow lupin variety Solid Gold is the middle of this picture (darkest green) with peas to the left (included as a guard), and sweet white lupins to the right. The lupins plots had a lot of standing water, especially the plot range at the north end.
Nicholas showed us what symptoms of anthracnose look like on the lupin pods (circular sunken lesions).
Anthracnose can cause the lupin plants to wilt.
Monday, Aug. 10
While surveying fields for the Manitoba soybean disease survey, in a field near Ochre River I saw a few dead plants with the leaves still attached.
The roots came out very easily when tugged and these samples will be sent to AAFC Morden for confirmation of suspected phytophthora root rot.
I did find a few soybean aphids on certain plants, but not at every location sampled. This picture shows the size difference that soybeans aphids can have.
I was happy to also see lady beetle larvae present, which are natural predators of soybean aphids.
These upper leaves were showing early symptoms of bacterial blight.
This was a strange leaf that I came across, with markings that were a reddish colour and resembled a blood smear. It was only present on one leaf and only on the underside of the leaf (the top of the leaf was green and unaffected).
It seems this is the result of a leaf abrasion on the tender underside of the leaf. The leaves were flipping in the heat and rubbing against each other in the wind. Underneath the green chlorophyll are red and pink anthocyanin pigments.
This field had fantastic nodulation.
In this soybean field near Arden, there were holes chewed in the centre of some leaves.
I did spot some grasshoppers in action.
I also found a few leaves with evidence that thistle caterpillars had been there too. Larvae make a web of silk that holds leaves together to form a protected nest where they eat and leave dark, pellet-like waste. These pellets are called frass (caterpillar poop). The adults are called painted lady butterfly.
This soybean field, near Plumas, had areas of the field which appeared white-ish from the road.
Walking into the spots, it was only areas of the field that are experiencing more drought stress and are flipping up their top leaves in response.
I also found curled leaves with evidence of frass left behind, where the thistle caterpillars had been chilling out.
From Ochre River to Plumas, I did see peas, oats and forage grasses being harvested!
In this soybean field, near Gladstone, I did find a plant that had more than 250 soybean aphids. It’s important to scout repeatedly and at many field locations, as other areas of this field were not at threshold aphid numbers yet. Some of the whitish flecks are actually cast skins (aphids shed their skin as they grow).
It was encouraging to see lady beetle larvae in this field. Thanks Mother Nature for providing soybean aphid control.
Tuesday, Aug. 11
Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers held their Dry Bean Research tour at AAFC Morden. A fantastic crowd was in attendance.
Everyone’s favorite part of the tour was when they were allowed to wander through the plots, to have a first hand look at each dry bean variety and market class, seeded in narrow and wide rows.
Wednesday, Aug. 12
In this field, near Gilbert Plains, the stickiness on the leaves and on this pod (soil was stuck to pod) was a sign that soybean aphids were present.
Check out this lady beetle larvae in action, hungrily hunting for more soybean aphids to eat.
Sandier spots and ridges in this field were also showing up, with plants with flipped leaves.
I did find one leaf with symptoms of what appears to be frog eyed leaf spot.
This lush soybean field, near Dauphin, was showing some symptoms of bacterial blight in the upper canopy.
The discolouration on this leaf is merely a genetic mutation and not a disease.
It was exciting to see peas being harvested near Dauphin too.