Producers dodge soybean rust in Ontario

Friday, August 15, 2008

by GEOFF DALE

But that doesn’t mean the Ontario Soybean Growers (OSG), along with provincial and federal government officials have been anything less than vigilant with their regular monitoring of crops throughout the province.

OSG chair Leo Guilbeault says they have invested significant grower dollars in Ontario Soybean Rust Coalition initiatives to help protect the industry against a possible rust outbreak.

“We’ve been working closely with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Agriculture & Agri-food Canada (AAFC) and the coalition to ensure the monitoring system is working effectively,” he adds.

While no signs of the rust have turned up in Ontario, there were concerns earlier in the summer when provincial and federal government researchers detected some rust spores in rainfall samples from Manitoba to Eastern Ontario.

Although Guilbeault and Crosby Devitt, OSG manager of research and innovation, agree spores do not mean the presence of soybean rust, they say continuous monitoring will continue throughout the season.

“The good news is we are at a low risk,” says Devitt. “In fact, we’ve never had an outbreak in Ontario. However, growers in the southern U.S. – states like Florida, Texas, Georgia and Louisiana are learning to manage it as a regular occurrence so whave to be on the lookout.”

First detected in those southern sectors in the fall of 2004, Devitt says the fact the disease is relatively new in North America is precisely why grower organizations like OSG are so vigilant with their research and monitoring.

“We just don’t want to be surprised by anything,” he adds. “So we’ve adopted a proactive, rather than a reactive approach to a potential problem.”

Guilbeault, who grows in Essex County, says if an outbreak did occur in late season – from early September to October – the likelihood of any major damage to the crop yield would be minimal.

However, if rust was found earlier when the beans are flowering, the negative impact on the crop could be significant, he adds.

In Oxford County, OMAFRA crop specialist Chris Brown says the only real damage detected throughout Southwestern Ontario soybean fields this summer appear to be signs of rot due to the frequent and often heavy rainfalls.

Both Devitt and Guilbeault say, in addition to monitoring, it’s important to keep an eye on developing weather patterns.

“The disease begins in the southern U.S. where milder weather lets it over-winter and then move on,” explains Devitt. “What happens early in the season translates into what kind of risk we could face. 

“Spores in the south can be aided by unstable weather like hurricanes and other air masses moving north, which could potentially drop them down on our soil.”

He says Ontario growers have been lucky this year because the southern states experienced dry conditions in late spring and early summer which inhibited the disease’s growth.

Established in 1949, the OSG represents 25,000 growers in Ontario. Soybean Rust Coalition members come from OSG, OMAFRA, AAFC, the University of Guelph and other crop protection and equipment companies.