As we move into August, canola growers should be watching for bertha army worm.
Sask Oilseeds agronomist Ian Epp says the bertha army worm will impact a larger area than last year.
"If we're following the Sask Ministry (of Agriculture's) bertha reports, we're going to see that we are looking towards a bit of a Bertha outbreak this year again," said Epp. "That map is changing fairly rapidly, so growers should definitely be on the lookout for Bertha armyworms."
A map of cumulative bertha army worm counts as of July 15, shows pockets of red with the heaviest amount, yellow with a moderate amount, and green or light green with the least amount of army worms.
Epp notes the Delisle and Outlook areas have the potential for an army worm outbreak but noted there hasn't been a major outbreak "for a lot of years" and the "map will continue to change."
"There should be another map coming out this week that'll tell us a bit more, so in the next day or two, there'll be another update, and I expect to see quite a bit more higher risk areas join the province."
Bertha army worm has natural enemies, but it's hard to say now what impact they will have.
"It's really hard to predict at this point. We don't really have the resolution of data to be able to say what role the virus is going to play in knocking down the numbers." he said.
Moving from insects to disease, sclerotinia has been an issue in areas with plenty of moisture.
"The key thing there is if growers got their application done at the right timing earlier in the window, that 20 to 50% bloom, that's the key window for sclerotinia. That's when the sclerotinia is going to cause the biggest yield loss, so hopefully we got our fungicide on there – we've avoided the biggest yield loss."
As for blackleg, it has popped up in some areas but it's too early to say how bad it is, he said.
It has been a hot July for the most part and those 30 plus temperatures have had an impact.
" For canola that's in the first two weeks of flowering, that really can hit yield. We'll see flowers aborting. For canola that's in the back half of flowering or into potting, it's not as significant, but definitely it's not a plus for the canola." said Epp.
He adds cooler overnight temperatures helps canola recover a bit and the moisture received earlier in the season will limit some of the downside of the heat.
There is also a wide range of canola development depending on when the crop was seeded.
(With files from Neil Billinger, CJWW)
