Assiniboine Community College To Receive Over $83,000 For White Mould Research

Assiniboine Community College (ACC) in Brandon will receive $41,850 from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) Ag Action Manitoba Program with matching funding from the Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers (MPSG) for a total of $83,700.

 

The funding, to come in April 2021, will support research focused on managing white mould in dry beans grown in Manitoba’s climate.

 

“White mould is a serious threat to many Manitoba crops, including dry beans,” said Dr. Baljeet Singh, researcher at Assiniboine, who is the principle investigator on the project. “To prevent crop losses to white mould, we will work to provide real-time disease risk warnings for Manitoba growers.”

 

The project, officially titled “Weather Based Fungicide Application Decision Support Tool (FADST) for Managing White Mould in Dry Beans in Manitoba” will be carried out in three phases over two years, starting with optimizing a disease severity model, then developing and releasing a weather-based FADST that Manitoba producers can use to manage white mould in dry beans.

 

The FADST will combine information surrounding weather data, white mould severity and agronomic practices to assist Manitoba producers in making informed fungicide application decisions.

 

“Dry beans represent an important, growing market in Manitoba,” said Dr. Daryl Domitruk, Executive Director of Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers (MPSG). “Research partnerships such as the one MPSG has with Assiniboine Community College to tackle the issue of white mould are vital to ensuring our farmers are as supported as possible and vital to establishing dry beans as a viable crop option in multiple regions of Manitoba.“

 

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s Ag Action Manitoba Program supports industry-driven applied research.

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.