Agronomy specialist says canola progressing quickly after delayed start

Manitoba's canola crop is progressing quickly.

Angela Brackenreed is an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada.

"A later seeded canola crop than we are used to in much of Manitoba. With that, we've got a crop that's moving along relatively quickly. It came out of the ground within a week in a lot of cases. A lot of crop that's pushing out two, three leaves at this point. However, with that said, still much of the crop in cotyledons first leaf stage."

Brackenreed commented on the high flea beetle levels.

"No surprise. For the past number of years, we've seen pretty intense flea beetle pressure in our canola. No surprise that we're seeing that again this year. I think there was some hope that the silver lining of later seeding would have meant we might have dodged some of this flea beetle pressure but unfortunately I think the season was just kind of delayed and so the emergence of those flea beetles was also delayed and corresponded with when our crop was coming up out of the ground."

She notes there has been some foliar insecticide happening and in limited cases there has also been some reseeding.

Brackenreed recommends that farmers scout for flea beetles everyday as the situation can change quickly