Field sanitation protocol in place to continue to manage clubroot and other soil-borne diseases

We are updating you on a new situation: Clubroot was confirmed in August 2017 within the Peace River region (in Big Lakes County). Refer to Alberta Agriculture and Forestry's website for more information on clubroot. 

The IPM Program has, since 2004, used booties and sterilized field equipment using bleach and ethyl alcohol but we have now updated and implemented increased our sanitation methods for every field as of August 31, 2017:

* AAFC Staff continue to operate marked vehicles when visiting fields to identify ourselves.

* AAFC Vehicles continue to park on the road OR on pull-ins – we NEVER drive into a field!

* NEW -  We will reduce field work on rainy days to avoid tracking mud.

* NEW – We are using Virkon (2%), a disinfectant tested and routinely used by Albertan pathologists to manage clubroot, to sanitize both AT and BETWEEN each field.

* NEW – Rubber boots are worn and sterilized using Virkon both AT and BETWEEN each field.

* Disposable booties are worn over sterilized rubber boots prior to exiting the vehicle.

* All booties are bagged then sterilized using an autoclave.

* NEW – Vehicle tires, wheels, and wheel-wells are sanitized using Virkon both AT and BETWEEN each field.

* Any equipment in contact with the soil (eg trowels, soil samplers) is sanitized using Virkon following usage.

* All field equipment (e.g., spades, trowels, soil core samplers) are soaked in Virkon after use in each field.

* NEW – We are purchasing multiples of our equipment to allow for soaking in Virkon and/or sterilization using an autoclave.

* NEW – AAFC vehicles will be washed intermittently at commercial car washes to prevent introduction of clubroot onto our research field plots at Beaverlodge AB.

Please let us know if you have questions or concerns!  If you wish to personally see our sanitization efforts in action, please let us know so we can arrange it!  You can reach us by e-mail at Amanda.Jorgensen@canada.ca or Jennifer.Otani@agr.gc.ca. 

We appreciate the value of all agricultural fields and thank our growers for allowing us to conduct  research in their fields. We appreciate their ongoing support and commitment to pest management.  We also want the agricultural industry to be aware and confident that we continue to do our utmost to ensure every field is protected now and for the future. 

Project 200: Growing towards 2117!

Beaverlodge Research Farm celebrates its Centennial year in 2017 and it's CANADA 150!

PROJECT 200: Growing Towards 2117!  This is a school-aged event that took place June 13-15, 2017.  Students visited the Farm, toured field plots, searched for weeds, learned about trees, viewed honeybees, collected insects and more!  Check out what happened....

Project 200 was supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Alberta Canola Producers Commission, Peace Region Forage Seed Association, Alberta Wheat Commission, Alberta Pulse Growers and Elite Steam & Vac.

Learning about crops grown in the Peace River region (G. Semach).

Learning about agriculture from a grower's perspective (G. Sears).

Hands-on training as future entomologists take their first sweeps!

Several events are taking place at the Farm this summer including:
   June 13-15, 2017    PROJECT 200: Growing Towards 2117!
   July 14, 2017         CENTENNIAL AND CANADA 150 OPEN HOUSE!
   July 25, 2017         CANCELLED (Insufficient Registrants): PRE-HARVEST GRAIN GRADING WORKSHOP! 

Find out more....

Cutworm and Wireworm Information

Growers are hopefully scouting their fields both BEFORE, AS and AFTER they seed!  

Bare patches or slow to grow areas should be investigated and especially within the 5-10 days following seeding.  Cutworms and wireworms are often the first insect pests of the season so don't be afraid to dig in that top 3-4 cm of the soil near the base of emerging plants OR within the seed row.  You could find cutworms or wireworms and here's more information to help:

1.  NEW Cutworm Guide - a free downloadable full-colour guide to cutworm identification, biology and management in field crops grown across the Canadian prairies. A screen shot is provided below but the guide is available in both English and French.

2.  Wireworm pages from recent Insect Field Guide - below you can download ONLY the wireworm pages from this guide published in 2015 which is available in both English and French.

Seeding underway at Beaverlodge!

The first research field plots of 2017 started to go into the ground at AAFC-Beaverlodge today!  The Agronomy and Crop Adaptation Program seeded their first agronomic field plot experiment (Fig. 1) of the year at the Beaverlodge Research Farm.

Figure 1. Research field plots being seeded using the Conserva-Pak seeder (9" row spacing) at AAFC-Beaverlodge (N55° by W119°) on May 10, 2017.

Despite wet spring conditions, this area of the research farm was fairly dry today.  The forecast is for more rain soon so the Agronomy and Crop Adaptation Program is doing their utmost to get the many agronomic trials and breeding plots into the ground.  They also manage and farm the interplot areas plus past and future research plot areas by maintaining them in rotation.  All the many experiments and plant breeding lines that are sown annually at the Beaverlodge Research Farm represent critical data because it arises from Canada's most northerly Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada site.  

It's also a very special year at the Beaverlodge Research Farm - it's our Centennial which means we mark 100 years of field plot data and all the effort and intellect that continues to make it all happen!

Watch for more as the growing season progresses!  Also mark your calendar for July 14, 2017, when the Beaverlodge Research Farm celebrates the Centennial year with an Open House for the general public to come join us!

Meet our students: Welcome back Jadin!

Hello! My name is Jadin, and I am back for another busy summer at the Beaverlodge Research Farm!

I recently completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Alberta. This will be my fourth summer working in the IPM lab. Despite not being too comfortable around insects when I first started, I quickly developed a new appreciation for our little friends (Figure 1). Last July, during the annual Peace Canola Survey, I was able to travel to Fort Vermilion (Figure 2) and witness many interesting things such as aerial spraying!

Figure 1. Jadin (Left) holding a grasshopper nymph while Kaitlin looks on.

Figure 2. Jadin sweep-net surveying in canola near Fort Vermilion AB in 2016.

My first week back has been spent gearing up to start monitoring again this field season and introducing our new students (Charlotte, Cameron and Rebecca) to many of the projects we have going on in our lab. During my time at the Farm, I have had the opportunity to learn an immense amount of information about different insects and the crops grown in the Peace River region. I am excited to see what this summer has in store!

Meet our students - Welcome back Kaitlin!

Hi, my name is Kaitlin Freeman and this is my fourth summer returning to work at the Beaverlodge Research Farm! 

I just completed my second year of my Bachelor of Science in Registered Nursing at Grande Prairie Regional College. I am very excited to be involved with the Integrated Pest Management program once again this summer, and I am looking forward to expanding my existing knowledge on some of the common pests we monitor in the Peace River Northern Alberta region such as; Flea beetles, Diamondback Moths, Bertha Armyworm, Wheat Mmidge, and Red Clover Casebearers. 

This week has been all about preparing for the upcoming collecting season and teaching our new students about the different projects that will be taking place in our lab this summer (Figure 1). 

Figure 1.  Kaitlin supervising pheromone trap set up near Beaverlodge AB in 2017.

Meet our students - Welcome back Amanda!

This is Amanda –I’m back for another field season (i.e., my fifth here at the Beaverlodge Research Farm)! 

I will be continuing my M.Sc. degree studying wheat midge monitoring this year. I have another field season of data to collect. If you don’t remember how I started last field season, you can read that post here. 

I’ve been busy even though I’ve been away from the Farm for the past few months. A graduate student’s life is full of data analysis, writing reports and taking classes when we’re not out in the field but sometimes we get to do something fun. I recently participated in the finals of the 3 minute thesis competition at the University of Alberta. If you are interested in learning a bit more about wheat midge research you can watch it here:





I’m looking forward to another field season here at the Farm researching wheat midge monitoring!

Figure 1. Enjoying some of Alberta's great views during my down time (Photo: S. Dufton).

Meeting our students - Welcome back Shelby!

Hello again!  My name is Shelby Dufton and I am currently completing my Master’s degree at the University of Lethbridge. This will be my fourth summer at the Beaverlodge Research Farm.  I am very excited to be back for the second field season of my project.

I’ve been away in Lethbridge for the last 8 months processing some of the data I collected in 2016, completing my coursework, and giving presentations.  The bulk of my winter work has been to identify the beetles I collected from my plot trial last summer.  In total, we collected approximately 8,200 beetles, over half of which were ground beetles.  This is great to see observe because many ground beetles are known to be predators of insect pests.  This includes the pest insect that my project focuses on, the wheat midge.  If you’d like to learn more about ground beetles or wheat midge click here and here.

Figure 1. Shelby visits AAFC-Saskatoon in March 2017.

Figure 2.  Shelby taking a break somewhere in Alberta.

Meet our students - Introducing Charlotte!

Hello! My name is Charlotte and this will be my first summer working in the IPM lab at the Beaverlodge Research Farm. I’m currently completing my Bachelor of Science degree in Health Studies at the University of Waterloo. Because I’m in the university’s co-op program, I have been alternating between four months of school and four months in a job placement since my second year. I’m mid-way through my B.Sc. now. I’m hoping this summer will allow me to utilize some of the skills I’ve acquired through past work terms and allow plenty of opportunities for me to learn lots of new things. 

Although we have only been at the Farm for a week, there has been lots of new information thrown at us and work to be done. For example, myself and some of the other students set up weekly monitoring sites for flea beetle and diamondback moth traps at two locations on the Beaverlodge Research Farm (Figure 1). At each of our sites, a transect of five sticky cards (each 25m apart) were deployed. Each sticky card is positioned a few centimetres above the soil surface using a small wooden stake pounded into the ground. We also set up two diamondback moth pheromone traps (50m apart) positioned ~1m above soil surface using a wooden stake.  What makes these traps extra special is the pheromone lure hung inside the trap designed to release a species-specific pheromone plume into the air to attract males. From this point on, we will retrieve and deploy need traps on a weekly basis to determine the seasonal activity levels of both flea beetles and diamondback moth. 

I also had the opportunity to go out with one of my fellow coworkers, Amanda, and help her collect soil cores for the wheat midge project. Amanda has worked quite a few summers at the Farm and was able to offer a lot of pointers to a newbie like me. Most importantly, she talked about the importance of wearing Tyvek boot covers over my shoes. This is especially important with the cooperator-growers’ fields as we must protect all fields from plant pathogens in the soil (i.e., to prevent the spread of clubroot). Upon arrival at any grower’s field, we don new boot covers as we emerge from the vehicle.  These same booties are carefully removed as we return to the vehicle to depart.  

Overall, I had a very enjoyable first week in the IPM lab! I have already been exposed to a lot of new information and I’m excited to learn more as the summer progresses. 

Figure 1. Rebecca, Cameron and Charlotte (L to R) setting up diamondback moth pheromone traps near Beaverlodge AB in May 2017.

Meet our students - Introducing Cameron!

Hi! My name is Cameron and I am one of the new IPM students this year at the Beaverlodge Research Farm. I am currently studying Environmental Science at the University of Guelph, majoring in resource management. I am going into my second year in September, but taking a women’s studies course over the summer, just out of personal interest. I started out my university career in the Arts and Science program where you pick two minors - one in the Arts and one in the Sciences. I do have a very strong interest in the Humanities as well as the Sciences but I finally decided I wanted to specialize more in the sciences, and here I am!

This week we set up flea beetle and diamondback moth traps. The flea beetle traps are bright yellow sticky cards twist-tied onto little stake. 5 of them are set up, 25 meters apart, along the edge of a field. The diamondback moth traps are triangular-folded cardboard traps tied to the top of a wooden stake hammered into the ground. Two of these pheromone traps are set up in each field, 50 m apart. When we set up the pheromone traps, we tie a little grey rubber septum containing pheromones, a semio-chemical intra-species attractant for male moths. They follow the pheromone plume released by the rubber septum then the males get trapped on the sticky card positioned inside the triangular trap.  The sticky card is then removed on a weekly basis in order for us to count and record their relative numbers. 

We also helped Shelby with her natural enemies of wheat midge project.  We sieved soil containing overwintered wheat midge cocoons then looked through a dissection microscope to pull out both live and dead larvae and count them. I really enjoy looking through the microscope, I find it very meditative. We also learned a lot about clubroot. I went and did some research on my own to bring back to the other IPM students.  In terms of this cruciferous disease, the main management practices include sanitation of tools and wearing Tyvek booties to prevent its spread. 

All in all, I am very happy with how my first week went, and I look forward to the coming ones. 

Figure 1. Cameron processing overwintered wheat midge cocoons in the IPM lab at Beaverlodge AB in May 2017.

Meet our students - Introducing Rebecca!

Hi everyone! My name is Rebecca and this is my first summer working at the Beaverlodge Research Farm in the Integrated Pest Management Lab. 

I just finished my 4th year at the University of Alberta where I am pursuing a Bachelors of Science degree with a major in Biological Science and a minor in Earth and Atmospheric Science. Growing up in a small farming town nearby called, I have found an interest in agriculture, animals and working outdoors. Having worked with an applied research association before, I enjoy field work very much and am familiar with some of the work we do at the Farm. 

In the first week, we assembled and deployed traps for diamond black moths and flea beetles. The diamond black moth traps consist of a card covered in a sticky substance called tanglefoot and a lure that contains a pheromone designed to attract male moths. Flea beetle traps consist of a yellow sticky card that is set just about the ground level. Within the next few weeks, we will be deploying more traps for a variety of field crop insects.

I look forward to gaining more experience and learning a lot of new things this summer. I am very excited to be working on the Farm and am ready for a busy summer ahead!

Figure 1. Rebecca hunting for overwintered insects near Falher AB in May 2017.

Prairie Pest Monitoring Network 2017 Risk and Forecast Maps

The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network has posted the 2017 Risk and Forecast Maps for insect pests monitored throughout the Canadian prairies.  Link here to access the Post and to view the downloadable maps.

European skipper information

European skipper (Lepidoptera: Thymelicus lineola) was introduced to North America several decades ago and has been moving west and north in its distribution.  Specimens confirmed as T. lineola were collected in 2016 near Valleyview, Donnelly and High Prairie (2017 Otani and Schmidt, pers. comm.).

There is one generation per year and the five larval instar stages cause damage associated with defoliation of the upper leaves of timothy.  In 2015, European skipper larvae were observed feeding in the flag leaves of winter wheat near Mayerthorpe (2015 Meers, pers. comm.).  

A pdf copy of the European skipper pages has been extracted from the 2009 Alberta Forage Manual for printing and a screenshot is included below so growers and agrologists can familiarize themselves with the larval stage, the damage to the upper leaves of timothy (which can resemble grasshopper damage), and the larva's habit of tying the sides of a leaf together.


You can link to Insects of Alberta where R. Bercha has posted a wonderful photo of an adult!

Cereal leaf beetle information

Information related to Cereal leaf beetle (Coleoptera: Oulema melanopus) has been posted below so growers and agrologists can print or view during the 2017 growing season.  
Cereal leaf beetle overwinters as an adult and the larval stages can cause economic losses owing to feeding damage on the leaves of cereals although the species has a broad host plant range (i.e., includes oats, wheat, barley, rye, corn but also wild oats, quackgrass, timothy, canary grass, reed canary grass, annual and perennial ryegrass, foxtail, orchard grass, wild rye, smooth brome and fescues).  There is one generation per year.

Extensive Cereal leaf beetle information for the Canadian prairies is posted and updated on the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network's Blog (click to link to an example including biology and monitoring tips).

Fact sheets for cereal leaf beetle are published by the province of Alberta and available from the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network. Also access the Oulema melanopus page from the new "Field crop and forage pests and their natural enemies in western Canada - Identification and management field guide".  A screen shot of the page is below for reference.

Cereal leaf beetle is attacked by an effective biological control agent, Tetrastichus julis, which is a small wasp that selectively seeks out and parasitizes the larval stages of its host.  Dr. Hector Carcamo (AAFC-Lethbridge) recently prepared a description of T. julis and its impact on cereal leaf beetle in Canada.  A screen shot is below for reference or hyperlink to the document.

During the growing season, be sure to check out the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network's Blog for the Weekly Updates.  Bioclimatic modelling is used, together with current environmental data from across the prairies, to predict the occurrence of the various developmental stages of Cereal leaf beetle larvae to aid scouting efforts.  Because the weather changes, the bioclimatic model outputs are updated weekly through the growing season and particularly in the spring.  Additionally, bioclimatic modelling is used to help predict when the biological control agent, T. julis, will be active and to help predict its development within its host (cereal leaf beetle larvae) through the growing season.