Canola School: Dry weather? Weed scouting still pays

(Kara Oosterhuis/RealAgriculture)

An unusually cool and dry spring across Manitoba has caused some difficulties when it comes to weed pressure in canola.

Angela Brackenreed, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, tells Kara Oosterhuis in this Canola School episode that the annual weed pressure especially has been low. However, a change in moisture and temperature means they are coming, which means you need to get scouting.

“Producers shouldn’t be fooled into thinking there’s nothing there. We have seen some challenging perennial weeds —  dandelions, Canada thistle — that we are having to try to manage as best as we can in-crop. With the falls that we had, there just wasn’t a lot of fall herbicide applications done,” she notes. “I think for a lot of producers they aren’t used to that. Most producers target a fall herbicide application for those stubborn perennials. It’s a little disconcerting to see them poking up through the crop, and then you realize how hard it is to try to get control of them.”

As Brackenreed acknowledges, most of the winter annual weeds should be dealt with at this point in the season, but there are certain weeds that are making big appearances across Manitoba.

“We are now seeing annual cleavers come up, and we want to make sure we get those cleavers early on. Now we have another option with quinclorac,” she explains. “I think that’s one that’s really gotten away from a lot of producers as it’s very challenging to manage. It’s really great that we’ve got further options to control them.”

To learn more about weed management in your canola crop, check out the canola school video below, filmed in Carman, Manitoba:

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