Protecting your canola yields

Feb 09, 2021

Evaluating levels of disease risk for sclerotinia, fusarium and white mold with Q-protect

Do you struggle to see disease in your crops? Do you know how to evaluate the level of a disease before it’s too late? Are you losing yield across your field because of your indecision to spray?

These questions were asked by Kirsty McCormack, Technical Sales Manager at Quantum Genetix, to attendees of the 2020 Farms.com Virtual Precision Agriculture Conference & Ag Technology Showcase.

Her presentation ‘Q-protect Your Crop – a Tactic to Tackling Sclerotinia, Fusarium & White Mold’ was delivered with Quantum Genetix General Manager, Heather Deobald.

“Q-protect is a tool for the farming community. To help increase timing and decision confidence based on knowledge of spore presence, we aim to take the guess work out of spraying and provide you with the power to better manage your disease level,” said McCormack.

She discusses the disease triangle, a model with three components: the host crop, which with over 20 million acres of canola planted in Canada annually, there is an abundance of host crops; the environment, which is dictated by weather, rain events, moisture, humidity, and heat units; and lastly, pathogen.

“The one unknown element that we cannot visually see until it is already doing damage is our pathogen. This is the value of Q-Protect, to be able to determine the amount of pathogen that is present, allowing you to increase your accuracy in predicting disease risk and impact,” said McCormack.

She explained that as yields, price volatility and the cost of production rises, farmers need to be more efficient and sustainable in every growing decision.

“Being able to better monitor and predict these diseases, can have a large impact on your canola and soybean yields. Knowing the cost of your decision is crucial,” added McCormack.

So how does Q-protect work?

Each Q-protect kit comes with 40 sampling tubes, a set of tweezers for collection, as well as a submission form. Armed with a single kit, farmers can test up to 320 acres.

“When we are collecting our petals, we want to take a sample from the top of the plant, the middle and the bottom, then we will repeat this eight times at the five different sites within a field,” said Deobald. “Once you have your sample collection complete, you package everything back up send it to the lab. Within 24 hours we will send you a result sheet showing what levels of spore infection you have in your field.”

To learn more about Quantum Genetix’s Q-protect, watch the below video with McCormack and Deobald.

Video: Our Own On-Farm Research Is the Best Source - Managing White Mold in Northeast Nebraska

If you assumed Nebraska was too hot and dry for white mold to be a problem in soybeans, think again.

This week we're featuring Galen Samuelson, a farmer and dealer from Wakefield, Nebraska, who knows all too well how devastating white mold can be.

"We don't have it consistently every year, but with our temperature and humidity, it can hurt us quite bad," Samuelson says. Looking for alternatives, he explains, "What I like about Heads Up is that it's non-harmful to the beneficial fungal colonies in the soil." Galen has been using Heads Up for several years now, after first hearing about it through a small ad in a regional newspaper. Watch below to hear about his journey.

When asked to write about Samuelson Seed, Galen said the following:

"Samuelson Seed is a 4th-generation, family-based company. It started with my grandfather, and I'm now starting to pass the torch to my son, Caleb."

"In the early 1990s, I started working with a company whose focus was on plant and soil health before those benefits were widely known. I've continued to keep plant and soil health the main focus in our farming operation decisions."