Laura Austin Ferrier A year in review Insights from the growing season Another year is coming to a close, and with it, the end of another crop season. ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER AGRONOMY 10 After what seemed like a never-ending winter, with plenty of snow accumulation in many areas and water flooding and ponding in others, spring arrived. Once the snow melted and the fields saw water receding, a common sight was snow mould and winter wheat encased in ice, leaving dead or weakened plants behind. Cold weather lasted into May, with some anxiousness to get into the fields to plant corn, soybeans and spring cereals. But, as is often the case with planting, a huge number of acres go in over a very short window of time, and this year was no different for most. Although planting did seem to stop and stutter a few times throughout the spring, most of the crop went into excellent ground conditions. Due to wet, cool conditions in the spring, the winter wheat crop was scouted for several diseases—powdery mildew, septoria, and leaf and stripe rust, to name a few were identified in fields, with leaf and stripe rust identified in the province by mid-May. Both rust strains are concerning because they rob yield; however, stripe rust was particularly concerning. Stripe rust can cause more than 70 per cent yield loss in susceptible varieties if left untreated, and was of concern this year as it appeared that the disease may have overwintered in some regions. The disease's ability to overwinter enabled earlier infection of the host from adjacent winter wheat crops. In some cases, due to earlier disease infections and the rapid spread of the disease, multiple generations of disease spore production occurred, leading to faster spread across the province. In the future, selecting a more tolerant variety (ratings can be found at GoCrops.ca), scouting and proper identification, and taking decisive action, especially if the variety is susceptible, are just a few things to keep in mind when dealing with stripe rust. WATER WORRIES As spring edged towards summer, water worries became the topic of conversation in several areas of the province. Many are still experiencing moderate to extreme drought conditions at the time of writing. The drought began during the late vegetative and into the reproductive stages of plant growth and impacted the yields of corn and soybeans. Winter wheat and spring cereals, while not completely immune to drought impacts, flowered when moisture was not overly limited and achieved average yields in most areas.
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