AAFC research site in Morden houses one of the largest groups of plant pathologists

Aug 29, 2022

The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research and Development Centre in Morden is 107 years old.

Early research focused on livestock and has now moved into pulses, oilseeds, and cereals with research being conducted on genetics and breeding.

Associate Director Scott Duguid explained how the data is used.

"The data that's collected is used in a couple of ways. One is that the data that comes out of here is used to recommend varieties for registration of bean varieties across Western Canada. That data gets then utilized by growers to see what particular varieties of beans would fit their area of production, their rotation, their area. The data that's generated for yield, disease resistance and the quality of seed goes into that decision of what the farmer is going to produce and market."

Duguid says one of the largest groups of plant pathologists in any one centre in Canada is located in Morden.

He notes they have a full section of land to grow crops and run trials.

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.

AAFC research site in Morden houses one of the largest groups of plant pathologists

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

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