Clubroot coming to a farm near you

[hobbyfrmr]

There was a couple of farmers visiting last night at a social event. One fairly pragmatic rancher farmer in the area described the now common practice of large progressive farms growing consecutive canola crops on the same (rented) land for 3 and 4 years.
I just realized that is a prejudiced statement because 2 smaller farmers planted all their acres to canola this year. I am ass uming they will rent out next year .
These farms pay top price for rent, most landlords inherited the land, live in the city and don't know/care as long as the money is good.
The farmer rancher brought up the rant about clubroot. He claims it is a soil borne spore which can travel on equipment, trucks, wind etc. Everyone knows the big farms' employees do not clean their stuff going from one field to another.
Is clubroot going to be a big problem or will new genetics/varieties and retail crop protection products discourage clubroot from ever being an environmental and economic (quarantine) problem?

[rockhound]

Hobby give me a break so sick of hearing how poor of farmers big producers are! Statement made out of jealousy plenty of bigger farms do an excellent job managing there agronomy. Clubroot is a problem for big or small farmers it can travel by air or water ways which no farmers can control. We need seed companies to keep moving forward on resistant to clubroot.

[blackpowder]

I could be wrong but... I think they count the spores by billions per gram? Or millions?
So.. if your conditions are suitable, your gonna get it. How badly remains to be seen. Hopefully science keeps up. Because for now, we have to grow canola.
In our area CR varieties mostly seeded. Havent heard results for expansion this year yet.

[bgmb]

Maybe instead of a pointless carbon tax we need a tax on continuous canola fields.

[4GFarms]

Now BGMB, that is just good agronomic farming practices!!! It will bite everyone around unless the companies can keep genetics ahead of it. We try to keep 3/4 years between canola but have gone 2. Never done canola on canola but I am always looking to try something new!!!

[Tucker]

Wait a sec bgmb. Wasn't too long ago continuous cropping wasn't an approved farming method. Where is all the summerfallow now?

[kANOLA]

I grew canola for 14 years straight. One of the issues that arose was a higher insect infestations ,but that was something we learned to deal with through extra monitoring and field scouting ourselves. We kept a close eye on nutrients (macro and micro) with no real surprises. Yields kept rising with very few issues. My understanding is that continuos canola is only a problem once clubroot is in your field or in your area. I am retired now, my land is rented out and rotation is still not an concern of mine. BGMB I did avoid the "the clubroot tax" , but did pay a little extra "income tax".

[Millertime]

Was having a beer with a cfia agent and she said straight up the biggest cause of club root being spread was the fact that they grow seed potatoes in the club root zones in Alberta for rotation and them ship them all over North America. Has anyone heard this why is this allowed ?

[Ache4Acres]

There are many strange examples of continuous cropping of the same crop actually producing best results. I hear folks say my durum on durum had less fuzz than the durum in a three year rotation. I think we are stil learning about how modern nutrient applications and pesticides can be used to successfully run continuous canola or any crop for that matter.

As for cleaning your drill etc between fields, I think that is a real waste of time. These pathogens are literally microscopic. To prevent any carry of disease you would literally have to soak your entire drill in bleach to have any impact.

[ajl]

I also doubt the potato theory. Potatoes in Edmonton area are mostly seed potatoes and they ship them to Idaho, Washington, and southern Alberta process growers. Club root has not been an issue among southern AB seed potato growers and it would be if it was found since many of them grow seed canola for Bayer, DeKalb, and Dow as a rotational crop between the potatoes. The potatoes the seed grower are using start life in a disease free nuclear greenhouse.