Farmers Should Be Scouting Pulse Crops For Disease

Jul 21, 2020

Pulse crops across the province are looking good, but with the recent rains, we are seeing some signs of disease.

Sherrilyn Phelps, the Agronomy Manager with Sask Pulse recently toured pulse crops around the province.

"With the added moisture we're starting to see the root rots and the aphanomyces showing up in both the lentils and peas. It's not surprising anytime you add moisture to those crops, and in areas where they've been in long term rotations that's where we're starting to see the problems arise."

She says there's also reports of anthracnose showing up in lentils and some blighting showing up on the tips or tops of the shoots on chickpeas.

With the added moisture and lush canopy the next issue for producers will likely be mold - botritis and sclerotinia.

She says it's very important for producers to look at their fields and make sure they understand the risk.

"There's fungicide applications that would focus on those molding diseases, that will be something over the next little while. The big challenge is if you have a real heavy canopy, its really hard to get those fungicides down where they need to be."

Phelps recently spent time on the road checking pulse crops from Gravelbourg to Meadow Lake.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.