RealAg Radio: Protecting winter wheat, cutworm and flea beetles, and top bean yields Apr 6, 2026

Rhizozorb is redefining what growers expect from phosphate fertiliser. Backed by data and built for performance, Rhizozorb helps reduce phosphorus losses, improve uptake and boost ROI without increasing input costs. Join the next wave of growers switching to the next generation of phosphorus fertilisers by visiting phospholutions.com it's time for Real Egg Radio on rural radio, channel147 on SiriusX. Reel ag Radio and RealLifeCulture.com is your home for insight and analysis of the issues that are impacting your farm business. Let's get real and get connected with RealAg Radio. Hello, everyone and welcome to RealAg radio here on Real Radio, channel 147, Sirius XM. It is Monday, April 6th, and I am your host, Lindsay Smith. It is my dad's 78th birthday, so happy birthday to my dad. I will make him listen. This seems to be a new thing with me. If I give people a shout out, then I send them the show and let them know that they're now famous. People really appreciate it. Just so you know. Maybe, maybe not. You're welcome everybody, for your turn. It's coming up. Okay, we've got a great show for you today. Peter Johnson is not on today's show, but don't worry, guys, he's on we Pete's word every Wednesday. Go cheque that out. But don't worry, Pete will be back today though. I decided to put together. We've got some. I don't know how aware everybody is. It depends how long you've been a fan of real agriculture, if you're a YouTuber, if you head over to RealAgriculture.com but we have video series, agronomic video series. They're called our schools. We have several of them and they start well, they run all year. But we have a new season that starts every year and we tackle, you know, the most important agronomic questions that come up for each crop. We've got canola, corn, wheat, soy, edible beans. You name it, we got it. We've got a soil school for crying in my soup. Anyway, great content. They're fantastic videos and yes, they're visual. Yes, they're videos, but there's just fantastic conversations that happen in them. So I have pulled because we are heading into, gosh, I hope heading into an actual growing season. Spring is very slow to start here in the Ottawa Valley. I know you're probably sick of me complaining about it, but I just, I'm ready for green grass and we've got lambs coming in a month and so, yeah, I'm ready. Anyway, on today's show, I have collected some of our latest schools. I've got a Canola school that Amber Bell hosts. She's got Dr. Boyd Mori on to talk about cutworms and flea beetles in Canola. Bern will join us twice. I've grabbed two of the interviews he's done, one with Curtis Pilkington to talk about early wheat management. Super important. There's plenty to decide on and make decisions about on the winter wheat crop that is breaking dormancy or off to the races, depending on where you are right now. And then to round out the show, we've got an edible bean school again, Byrne hosting that one with Wade Bickel of Hensel Co Op and Dennis Lang out of Manitoba to talk about edible beans, dry beans. Depends what you call it, actually. Let me know what do you call it? Do you call them edible beans or do you call them dry beans? It sort of depends where you're from. So we got a great conversation there on what sort of ahead yield, potential, etc. And I mean, we know with all the things happening in the world and prices of inputs, etcetera, edible beans, dry beans can be a real money maker, but they also require a lot more management and so we unpack some of that as well. We've also got on today's show, Jeff Pleskach with Cargill is going to join me in our product spotlight. The new Cargill Crush plant in Regina that is taking canola, or will be soon, and how growers can get squared away and signed up to make sure that they can deliver canola to that plant, largely for the biofuel market, which again, I think that market in general, or at least that use for our crops befuddles some people in agriculture. But given all that is happening in the world right now, and it looks like this week is only going to get worse before it gets better. And we did hear of drone attacks in the Black Sea region as well. That may impact some cereal movement, some wheat movement. We knew a lot of that moves out of the Black Sea region. It does beg the question on what kind of energy programmes different countries have. And I say this, I know I'm on, you know, some thin ice here. When I mention either solar, wind, alternative fuels, including renewable diesel and ethanol, all of these add up to diversifying any sort of any country's energy stores. Of course, there are other. There's nuclear, there's hydrogen, there's all sorts of other things. Hydro as well. I'm from Manitoba, proud Manitoba. So hydro is a big deal, but it really does sort of change the dynamic of this conversation right now as to just what kind of mandates a government wants to put out there for different forms of energy, especially when we look at what is happening on the global, global scale and what it might mean going forward. So always an interesting topic and you can of course send your thoughts to me. Elle smithealagriculture.com okay, let's take a quick break and let's dig into the agronomy of Agronomic Monday right after this. Welcome to the Broadleaf Weed Museum. Of course, we need to start the tour by acknowledging our sponsor, Supreme Xe, the herbicide responsible for eliminating these troublesome broadleaf weeds from wheat and barley fields across the prairies. Many remember Supreme Xe for its two powerful modes of action and flexibility in choosing your preferred grassy tank mix partner. Now if you'll follow me from the perennial exhibit to the annual Zwing Supreme XC herbicide, get rid of your broadleaves for good. This is the first part, the future of Canola brought to you by Bear Crop Science Canada. Darrell Franzu, farmer from Glasland, Saskatchewan. What does innovation actually mean to you as the farmer? You know, a lot of western Canadian farms have been built on canola. If we don't have innovation, we can't take on new challenges. We need these companies to keep investing in the innovation aspects, keep it successful and keep it growing. Shaun Corneli is the North American canola and cereal lead for Bear Crop Science. What are some of those things that you think the future of Canola has to deliver on from an innovation perspective? Yeah, the foundation of canola really and the quality of oil, but also helping to deliver against the needs in this growing biofuel and bio based diesel sort of space. What happens in terms of the work that we're doing at a place like that, that innovation centre, when it's fully operational, it should and it will directly show up in the product that custom like Daryl are able to put out on their operations. We're in part one of our Future of Canola series brought to you by Bayer Crop Science Canada. Welcome back to Realight Radio here on Rural Radio Channel 147, SiriusXM. It is Agronomic Monday, April 6th. I am your host Lindsay Smith and this segment brought to you by MNP. With deep roots in agriculture, MMP's Ag Risk Management team helps producers protect their bottom line through smart proactive risk planning from Agristability and Agri invest to tailored private insurance strategies. MMP's Ag Risk Advisors simplify complex programmes and build customised plans that fit your farm. Strengthen your operation with confidence. Connect with MMP today at MMP ca. All right, we go now to this conversation between Bern Tobin and Curtis Pilkington. For those of you who've got winter wheat in the ground, especially in huge parts of Ontario, it is awake. It is potentially already growing. Now, where I am, it's barely awake, but it's always a great reminder to get out, get scouting as soon as that crop has broken dormancy and figure out what the plan is going to be for early management of this crop. And that's what this discussion is all about. Weed control is a potential issue. Of course, you've got to think about nitrogen. Maybe your sulphur is already on, maybe your nitrogen is already on, depending on where you are. But there's another point, and that is catching some of that disease pressure very early. And that's the discussion we go to now with Curtis Pilkington and Bern Tobin. Hi, I'm Bernard Tobin. Welcome to the Wheat School. Today I'm down just south of Woodstock, Ontario, catching up with bear agronomist Curtis Pilkington. Sir, how are you? How are you doing? Good morning. How you doing, Bern? We are back in the field. This is our first field shoot of the year, and, you know, a wheat field, and typically we're out here first doing some nitrogen, getting that first shot on. But you want to talk about fungicide application at T1? Tell us about it. Yeah, it's starting to feel like spring. We gotta start thinking about wheat management. You can see here, we're getting wheat that's greened up really nice. We're starting to see those tillers and before long we're gonna be out doing that fungicide application. So when we first think about our fungicides, we're thinking about that T1, T1 5 application. And often we've got a lot going on at this time, so we got to balance fungicide. We might be thinking herbicide, might be thinking pgr. So there's quite a bit we got to consider with this one. Why a T1 at this stage? What are you concerned with? Yeah, so T1 versus T1 5, I think is something to chat a little bit about. So the T1, this is right around now or short, a few weeks after rate what we're seeing in this field. So this is a great time to have that fungicide go down for early season protection. But then also have that herbicide in as well. In this field I can think of there's some chickweed and some dandelion I saw coming in. Those are two weeds that we want to catch when they're small and early for better control and to protect our yield. So that's where we might want to begin with that T1, the T1.5. When we think about that staging wise often that's when the nodes are formed. So I would say growth stage 31 to 33. What that means is first node is just. You can feel it above the soil surface up to that third node you can feel. And that's a great time if we're thinking about a fungicide with the pgr. So where we can reduce that plant height. Other advantage of the T1 5 that gives us a better chance to layer our fungicide so that residual from the T1 5 will go just about up to your T3 to give you a long range of protection from disease specific diseases. We've heard a lot of talk about stripe rust in the last couple of years. Is that at the top the of of the radar here? Yeah, that's one of my biggest concerns. So last year especially really unique circumstance for us in Ontario where striped rust actually overwintered for the first time that I'm aware of. And that led to very early season infection where by the time you got to T3 it was rampant throughout the field. And I walked a number of fields where T1 didn't go down and it was pretty bad. So this was a great case of why early season protection can really help us. It's not just stripe rust too. Another disease of concern that I'd say that T1, T1 5 really helps. Powdery mildew again, loves the cooler temperatures, really gets going early in the spring. Talk about T1 plus the T3 and the yield perspectives. So I think when we think about wheat, we're already putting so many products down, we're trying to find where we can cut costs for this crop a bit. So the temptation is just to wait till T3 and just do that T3 application. So at Bayer we've been doing small plot fungicide trials for a couple years where we looked at T1s T3s and I pooled last year and the year before together and found that that T1 application gave us a real four bushel yield bump in addition to having that T3. So having the two of them together really does help, especially if we end up in a field that has disease that Yield increase can be even larger. Hey, let's talk about how to manage this application. Got a lot of things in the tank you talked about, right? We got herbicide, we got a fungicide, we've got surfactants to think about. What do you need to do to sort of make sure we do it well? Yeah, so there's. There's a couple of things I'm going to consider there. The most important is water volume. So whenever we're looking at doing multiple products in the tank, I always want to see your water volume go up. That's going to decrease the chance of any injury to the crop. And kind of where I want to land is about 20 gallons. If we're doing, say, a fungicide plus herbicide or fungicide plus a PGR and herbicide in there. The other thing to consider, sometimes those products on their own will call for surfactant to be added in. That might not be necessary if we're doing multiple products in the tank. Those products all come with their own little bit of surfactant and that's going to add up. The last thing to keep in mind is it's always good to just make sure these products play well together. So double cheque with your chemical rep, maybe do a jar test just to make sure you're not going to see any adverse mixing reactions. You don't want to be making goop in your shoes. You don't want to see flashing and that type of thing. Right. Flashing is another thing too. So water volume is going to help reduce that flashing. The other thing though too is wheat's pretty hardy. If we look here, this nitrogen application, that's crisped up the top of the leaves a bit, we might see a little flashing if we're doing a complex tank mix, but wheat's gonna grow out of this just fine. I'm not really concerned with any yield loss from a little bit of tip burn. Let's talk about the weather. A beautiful day today. I think we've got 15 degrees. That is not going to continue. It is going to get cold. What's your advice on application and timing when it comes to the cold and what. What's the potential impact? Yeah, I wish it was going to be like this every day from this point onward, but we know cold temperatures are coming back and that's something we have to watch out for. So in these early spring applications, my rule of thumb is, if we can get it, I want the three days before application and three days after application to be above 3 degrees Celsius. Now, that's in a perfect world and we know the weather doesn't always cooperate with that, but that's a good principle to lean on. So essentially my main takeaway is you want it as warm as it can be. If you're getting a frost, especially wait at least 48 hours. And if you're doing a herbicide application, you're better to be ahead of the frost than after the frost. What it all comes down to is you want the plants to be actively growing when that application goes down, so they can take up that product, metabolise it. In the case of a herbicide, giving you the kill the fungicide, spreading it around the plant. Sometimes I hear people really simplify it as the rule of three. Tell me about that. Yeah, so that was the rule of three. So three days before and after application, it should be above 3 degrees Celsius. That's the basic go to that I would lean on. Final question, do we have to worry about loss of efficacy if we run into those cold temperatures? We do. And that's my main concern with cold temperatures, is not getting enough efficacy out of those products. So I'm always concerned about getting a good return on investment of these products going down. When we see colder temps, especially with the herbicides, they just don't work as well as those weeds get cold hardened off. So warmer temperatures, the ideal is above kind of 10 degrees Celsius or right around there is really good. That's going to help with better control the injury side of things. You can see more injury on colder temperatures too, but I'm a little bit less concerned with the impact there and impact on yield versus the potential for those products not working as well, efficacy wise. Well, sir, great day to start the wheat school for 2026. We're in the field on a nice day. Hopefully we're going to see more of that. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you very much, Bert. All right, we're going to take a quick break here on Reel Ag Radio and we'll be back with more of Agronomic Monday right after this. If you're farming, you're feeling it. Fuel costs climbing, fertiliser prices rising. The truth is, a lot of what you apply never reaches your crops. It leaches away, locks up in the soil and disappears. But you're paying for every bit. That's where Vantage Ag comes in. Our revolutionary quantum technology is engineered to stick, stay and absorb, take control and get more from every acre. Ask your independent dealer or find Vantage Ag online. Vantage Ag, a better way to grow it's now time for our Product Spotlight with Corteva. Where can biologicals fit in an integrated crop management programme on the farm? Not every product fits on every acre, but if you're looking at addressing stresses within your system, we have different products that help to fit different stresses. You're already investing in your genetics, you're already investing in your fertility. Biologicals are an opportunity to get in there and protect that investment. When do we need to start considering and thinking about the use and the purchase of making sure that a biological product is in our plan? I talked about our biological innovation managers and how they're important in this. I think the time is now to be starting to have those conversations with them. We have them across Western Canada and in Eastern Canada as well, and they're there to have those planning sessions to make sure that you know where the product fits so that you have the product available when you need it. Go to the Corteva website. There is a biological section there. And there's also the opportunity to find out who your biological innovation manager is and get that contact information. Welcome back to Real Life Radio here on rural radio channel 147, Sirius XM. I'm Lindsay Smith with Real Agriculture. It's time for today's Product Spotlight. Joining me now, I've got Jeff Plesketch with Cargill. Jeff, how are you doing today? Great, great. How are you? I'm doing well. Tell me, I've got here your title, Merchandising and Trading Group for Cargill Canada Ag and Trading. That's a heck of a handle. What do you do in a day for Cargill? Oh, gosh, guess depends on the day. But I mean, our job here based in Winnipeg is, you know, how do we most effectively and efficiently move grain from an area of access to an area of deficit around the world? So we're helping manage price risk management, trading derivatives to manage risk for our business through our supply chain of moving grain from the prairies to the west coast. Also in Eastern Canada through Ontario and Quebec, through the St. Lawrence as well. Okay, so that would be why we're talking today, because we're going to talk all about Cargill's new Regina Canola crush plant. Tell us a bit about this plant. What does it mean for the local canola growers around it? Yeah, we're so, you know, we're just so excited to have this almost up and running. Construction's completed, we're receiving grain, looking forward to being fully operational in the weeks ahead. It's not just any crush plants. A million tonne of annual canola processing capacity in a local market. Right. So there's no more trying to figure out what's happening in your local area, give or take a few hundred kilometres around Regina for an extra export bid. It's right there. You're keeping the processing local. Right. On the prairies. Keeps your crop close to home. Serves both biofuel and food markets, which is great news for farmers looking to diversify market options and reduce reliance on overseas exports all the time, which maybe now more than ever, really important. Now you mentioned, of course, exciting times just getting rolling. Growers who are interested, who of course are maybe waiting for plants like this to come online, how can they go about selling their canola to this Regina plant? Are there contracts already available? Yeah, absolutely. Bids and contracts. They're live right now. So you can log into your Cargill Ag account, navigate to the Regina bids section, and you'll find the available options. So if you're not on Cargillagon. Yeah. Signing up is straightforward. Of course, your local rep can help walk you through that process as well. And, you know, there's some nuances here. We'll talk a little bit more about this, but every delivery to Regina is, you know, needs to be enrolled in our new Cargill Power Canola programme. So you're going to want to make sure that you do that ahead of time as well. Okay, so that is actually a really key point. Tell me more about that. What is the Cargill Power Canola programme? Why is it a requirement for farmers who might want to deliver to this plant? Yes. So the goal we're trying to facilitate here is helping farmers maintain as many open markets as possible, specifically in that oilseed space. The programme is meant to synthesise a constantly evolving regulatory landscape, both domestically, around some of the fuel programmes, on an export front as well, whether that canola is destined for certain parts of the world like, like the EU and what those biofuel markets are trying to achieve. The goal there is to get everything in one place to make it as easy as possible for growers to access those markets. Right. The easier product can flow, the faster that we can continue to update and keep live information in the hands of growers. That's super important. Regina is going to primarily focus. The Regina Crush plant is going to primarily focus on the biofuel market. And that's where know the regulatory landscape is steepest. And this is our attempt to try and manage that so a grower can sign up on Cargillag ca. You can quickly and easily enrol in the Power Canola programme on cargillag? Ca. Enter a few pieces of information around specific fields and you're off to the races with respect to your eligibility criteria and the things that matter for you and your business. All right, so relatively straightforward. An online portal to go, sign up, get enrolled before you start looking into any contracts or bids, etc. Farmers who maybe want more information before they do that or maybe have a few questions, where could they go to get all up to speed on, of course, the Cargill Power Canola programme as well as the new plant in Regina. Yeah, good question. So, you know, there's always the ability to speak to your local Cargill grain rep, anybody at your local elevator and talk to them about Power Canola. There's always going to be the opportunity to have a face to face conversation about that. Really drill down to the details that matter to you. On top of that, you know, if you're looking to maybe find a few more details, you can go again to cargillag? Ca. I believe the entire site is cargillag? Ca. Cargillpowercanola. Everything you're going to want is right there. And look forward to folks asking more questions every day. Absolutely. Okay, Jeff, thank you so much for joining me here on the show. Really appreciate it. My pleasure. Have a great day, Lindsey, you as well. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back with more RealAg Radio right after this. As you look ahead to the next growing season, there's a lot to consider when it comes to your crop. You need every possible advantage available to you. The Pulse School on RealAgriculture.com has everything you need to make the best choice for you and your Farm On Demand videos with leading industry experts available anywhere, anytime. Go into the season confident and ready with the Pulse School on RealAgriculture.com welcome back to RealAg Radio. Here with Acadian Plant Health we have Andreas Reyes Gauge, regional technical manager, also responsible for business development in Canada, Loren Davis. What is Acadian Plant Health? We harvest seaweed out of the Atlantic Ocean. We create a product that farmers can apply either as a seed treatment or foliar on their crops to help deal with crop stresses, abiotic stress, and help that plant be healthier. What's the one piece of advice that you give to the Real Agriculture audience that is interested in trying out a biostimulant? It is very important to remember that no, not all biostimulant products are the same and not all of them are going to be doing the same thing. So you need to choose carefully about exactly what you want from this product. Lorraine, what would your advice be? You know, I think biostimulants, they're a great fit. They do have an opportunity in broadacre crops. You know, they're not a silver bullet. They're not going to replace your fertiliser or your fungicide or your herbicides, but they can be a nice, they can be integrated. To be a nice addition, you go to acadianplanthealth-na.com. Welcome back to Reel Ag Radio here on this agronomic Monday. It is April 6th, as mentioned, my dad's birthday. So if you see him today, wish him a happy birthday. None of you will. That's hilarious. Okay, this segment, it's incredibly fitting, actually. It's brought to you by Field Heroes, powered by the Western Cranes Research Foundation. Whether you're a farmer, researcher or educator, visit FieldHeroes Cat to learn how beneficial insects can work for you. And yes, one of the people who would be contributing to all the wonderful resources at FieldHeroes CA is Dr. Boyd Mori. And that's who you're going to hear in this Canola School episode in conversation with Amber Bell. We are talking flea beetles, we are talking cutworms, of course, early insect pests of several different crops on the cutworm side. But of course, flea beetles just absolutely love canola and it's a pest that you can't always predict where it's going to be. And then of course, cutworms, they can be incredibly patchy and incredibly hard to control after the fact. So this becomes a question of insecticide treated seed, how long that protection lasts and of course, Scout, scout, scout. So let's hop to that conversation. We've got Boyd Mori and Amber Bell. I'm Amber Bell and this is Real Agriculture here today for this episode of Canola School with Dr. Boyd Mori, who's an associate professor at the University of Alberta. We're going to be speaking cutworms and flea beetles. Welcome, Dr. Mori. It's great to see you. Thanks for having me. Cut worms and flea beetles. It's winter outside right now, or looks like it. But this is going to be a problem fairly soon. Very soon. Yes. Yep. As soon as the seeds in the ground probably have to worry about both of them. So when talking about these insects, what things do they have in common? And then what, where do they kind of diverge? For sure. So, I mean, both cutworms and flea beetles are generally early season pests so as soon as our seedlings start to emerge from the ground, that's generally when we have to deal with both of those species. Both are very sporadic as well. We can't really predict them, unfortunately. But usually cutworms are more patchy, whereas flea beetles are kind of more widespread. And we kind of deal with flea beetles somewhere throughout the prairies every year. So with cutworms being patchy and flea beetles being a little more widespread, I'm sure scouting looks a little bit different. Let's talk about scouting for these two different insects. Right, for sure. So flea beetles, we're, we're really looking at the most damaging stage from Cotyledon, basically seedling emergence to the third true leaf stage. And then when we're monitored, monitoring for them, hopefully we're looking at multiple locations throughout the field and we're looking for that kind of very stereotypical shot hole feeding damage on the, on the seedlings. And right now we have an action threshold of 25%. Whereas cut worms, there were most cutworms are nocturnal. So really for them, rather than actively feeding larvae on the plants, we are looking for kind of bare patches throughout our fields and then going to those patches, digging around, rooting around in the top of the soil surface and looking to see if we can actually find any cutworms. Now is it going to be the same time of year that you're looking for both? Generally, yes. Cutworms can be more of a problem for a longer period of time than flea beetles, but generally early season, as the crop is getting established, that's when we're really concerned about both species. What do management strategies look like for each different insect? Right. So for, for flea beetles, virtually all of our canola has a neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatment on it. And then if growers are in a, an area where they have been dealing with flea beetles over multiple years and have high populations, then they should really be considering a kind of, I like to call them the next generation of seed treatments. But one of those additional add on insecticide seed treatments and then as I mentioned, the 25% action threshold, if they reach that, then a foliar spray would be required. For cutworms, they're very sporadic. So there are some seed treatments available for cutworms that again, if farmers want to kind of reduce their risk, they can add those seed treatments on. Otherwise you can, there are foliar applied products that are available if you're seeing and noting a lot of cut room feeding within your fields. Now we speak about the thresholds and I mean, we can't really tell what's happening until things are up and growing. So how would you say growers should be responding? Or is it a matter of looking at past records? How would they, they respond to whether or not they should get that seed treatment right off the bat? Right. Yeah, it's kind of for, for both species. Unfortunately we really don't have good ways to predict them. So it's really based off of kind of the grower and the agronomist experience in that region. If they've noted higher levels in the past few years, then it's probably a recommendation. Sometimes, particularly with cutworms, we might hear things, things like, oh, if you had an earlier harvest the previous year, if you had some regrowth after that harvest that might attract the ovipositing or the egg laying females into the field. So you may have an issue there. But we're really not monitoring for those species at that time. So it's really kind of. Yeah. Basing off what's been happening in the region over the previous few years and how concerned should you be if you heard your neighbours had a bad outbreak last year? I think that's definitely something to consider. If you're, particularly if that neighbour is, you know, the next field, then it might be a worthwhile endeavour for them to think about a seed treatment. But hopefully they can also be out there scouting in their fields and know for sure if they're in their fields as well. How much time would you recommend a grower spends actually out scouting in the field? That's a great question. I know, you know, time is. Time is of the essence for these species, but also time at that time of year when there's so many other things going on, it's hard to make time. So I don't really have a good, a good estimate for you, unfortunately, you know, hopefully they're at least it's not just a pass down the road while you're driving in your truck, but you're actually getting out and having a look. And I think most people are doing that fairly regular and good timing to do plant counts. Exactly. And especially particularly if we're getting hotter, drier weather, if our, if our seedlings or if our crop is slow to emerge or under some kind of stress, then it's definitely a time that we should be out there, particularly for flea beetles and just having a look and see what's happening. So with that, do you have any fun and interesting facts that you might have about flea beetles and catworms yeah, so many for flea beetles, many species, when we think of natural enemies and we think of parasitoid wasps, we generally think of these little parasitoids laying eggs or basically stinging and then laying eggs into caterpillars or other worm like larvae. But for flea beetles, there's actually an interesting wasp, Microtonus vitti, that will parasitize the adults, which is kind of unique. Unique. Here on the prairies, we don't have a lot of species that will parasitize adults. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a great job and isn't helping us make our populations below thresholds, but it's still out there and it's still adding some population regulation. Are there quite a few of them in Alberta? There are. There seem to be quite a few of them. When we do have them in the lab, we can see some emerge. And so it's quite interesting. And you know, just with how prolific flea beetles are, though, unfortunately, they just don't keep up. Right. Any interesting facts about cutworms? For cutworms, I guess some interesting things. If you were to pick them up, you'll notice that they'll crawl into a C shape in your hand. Between the different species, we might consider some more kind of climbing cutworms that will climb up the plants. And then I would say, you know, we call them cut worms. They're not actually worms. Right. They're, they're caterpillars. They're larvae of a moth species. And they overwinter so early, early in the season they can overwinter at several different stages. So we can have some true cutworms that overwinter as eggs or, or larvae. And so that's why they're quite damaging during this, the year. Some people might consider Bertha armyworm a cutworm. I don't, I wouldn't really call it a true cut worm, but it would be considered one of those that climbs. And of course, we can see that all over the plants later in the season. How many different species of cutworms are there? Ooh, that's a great question. And off the top of my head, I don't know, but there's several, I would say more than 10 that can be pests here in Alberta. Now, if you were to put into three quick tips for growers going out looking for flea beetles and cut worms this season and managing them, what would that be? Yeah, I think again, based off past experiences, thinking about what seed treatments they're adding, whether they need that kind of next step up in their seed treatment package, definitely be out there, they're scouting boots on the ground because everyone always says, and then the third one is just if you are reaching that action threshold for, for both species, just make sure that they're active and they're, they're still out there and feeding in your field before you pull the trigger. Wonderful. Well, I'm going to thank you so much for your time. And that was Dr. Boyd Mori on Real Agriculture. All right, thank you as always, of course, for joining us here on RealAg Radio. Or of course, if you're listening to us on your podcast platform or hit the download or even on YouTube. We appreciate all the different ways that you reach out and listen. If you've got feedback on today's show, give me a shout at 1-855-776-6147. You can text that line, of course. You can also zip me an email. Elsmith realagriculture.com but don't go away. We've actually got one more segment for you after the break. You're going to hear an Edible Bean School. So Bern Tobin's got a couple guests on to talk about what's ahead for dry beans, edible beans for 2020 26. Ah, the lovely signs of spring until take on hard to kill weeds early on with what they fear most Fierce, Easy and new Volterra cereals. Up to eight weeks of extended weed control in pulses and wheat less in season pressure, more flexibility when it counts before the crop, before the chaos spray Fierce Easy and Volterra cereals own the ground. No mercy. Visit newfarm CA soilactive. Before you get back in the field this year, spend some time with the corn school on realagriculture.com get all the information you need on hybrid selection, planning, depth, crop inputs and more from a wide range of industry experts. A massive library of video content is available on demand when you need it most. Spend your time outside of the field inside the classroom with the corn school on realagriculture.com for oat growers across the Canadian Prairies, CDC Indoor is the milling oat. Built to deliver from Manitoba to Alberta, CDC Indoor brings together what prairie producers demand. High grain yield, excellent disease resistance and the standability needed to handle prairie conditions with consistency. The processors and growers both rely on Whether you're pushing for top end yield or premium quality, CDC Endure is ready to perform across the prairies. Learn [email protected] or call 1-877-270-2890. Welcome back to Real Life radio here on Groove Radio, channel 147 SiriusXM it is agronomic Monday, April 6th and I am your host, Lindsay Smith. And do you know that Real Agriculture is on the hunt for very cool shops that we'd like to record for our series RealAg Shops. We're looking for new and exciting builds Renault retrofits to feature on the series. It features smart and slick shops from across Canada and the us both big and small. And if you know someone who has a great shop, you can nominate them for a tour by emailing Shaun [email protected] of course, you can also send us a text at 855-776-6147 or by all means you can zip me and email as well. L smitheal agriculture.com and we go now to our final segment of the show. We've got an Edible Bean School episode. Bern Tobin hosts Wade Bickle and Dennis Lang to talk a little bit about last year, but dive into what's ahead for 2023. Hi, I'm Berner Tobin. Welcome to a new season of the Edible Bean School. To kick things off on this episode, we'll take a quick look back at the 2025 season and then dig into some management considerations for 2026 as growers get ready to plant edible beans this spring. We'll be joined later in the show by Hensel Co Op's Wade Bickel for a perspective on the Ontario crop. But first we'll head west to connect with Manitoba ag Pulse and soybean specialist Dennis Lang. Hi, Dennis. Hey. Great to have you back on the Edible Bean School. I see you've dressed for the season. Well, most definitely. We always, when we're talking dry beans, we gotta dress for success. So here we go today. Hey, let's look back at the 2025 season. Growers seeded 210,000 acres in Manitoba and yields just surpassed what was a record yield in 2022. A lot of good storeys to tell. I think. So for the most part, you know, the overall quality of dry beans was good this year. There's, you know, some challenges I think right now over the wintertime. There's because of the big crop that we had. There's still some beans in storage yet on farmers farms, price has been a little bit lower, but the positivity as far as the yields go, very good for the most part. And there's the odd issue here and there with some a little bit of frost damage and a little bit of, you know, issues with white mould in the seed. But Generally quality was pretty good this year. So I think most growers are pretty happy with that. Hey, let's Talk Management for 2026. Now you're a big supporter of pre emergent products when it comes to weed control and focusing on those key weeds. Well, most definitely because you have to know, I guess probably the biggest thing with dry beans is know what your weed spectrum is in that field, right? If you're going after things like the pigweeds, the kochias, you know, the buckwheat and you're trying to, you expect to get those post emergent, that's not going to happen. You need to be in there pre emergent. You need to be looking at your edge, your edge products, your treflans. You need to be looking at other products. There's EPTAN for example, or sorry, there's permit actually that can be used as a pre as well or it can be used as post. But the biggest challenge is look at your weed spectrum. If you have weeds that are only going to get controlled by a pre emerging, you definitely want to have a pre emergent down because dry beans take a long time to get going and getting, getting established. And weed control is so important early in the season. And post emergent products, they work but you know, they're very weather dependent sometimes and you don't want to get into a problem. Especially if you're looking in areas where you know you might have a water hemp issue, right. And you're really limited on products there. It's not. And especially you don't want to get behind eight ball because that could be really challenging to grow a good successful driving crop. Now, many growers wrestled with white mould last year. Is there anything growers can learn from that experience, Dennis? Especially when it comes to different classes of beans, they grow Well, I guess one of the first things is knowing what factors favour white mould. We haven't had a really bad white mould year in dry beans in a while. This year was one of those years where a number of growers spray once for sure, a lot of times twice and in some instances three times. But things that you need to kind of realise is, you know, paying attention to things like plant population. If you have fields that have less air movement through it, like along, you know, along tree lines, there's always potential for more white mould development. Moisture conditions at time of flowering really important as well. If you have rainfall or heavy dews and you have wet canopy still by lunchtime, that's going to be factors that going to Favour that. So one of the things, there are some differences between different varieties. Varieties such as pinks and small reds and pintos are probably more susceptible than what navies and black beans are. But with that being said, if it's a good white mould year and conditions are right, be prepared to spray. And knowing when to spray is also really important. Making sure that your timing is correct and plan, if you are planning on a double application of a fungicide, plan accordingly. Making sure that you're in that. If you're going twice, you want to be in that, you know, 20 to 30% flowering stage, but that means you have pin pots versus if you're going a little bit later or if you're going twice, then maybe waiting a little bit on that first application, going twice. But there is some good research from NDSU that's on that and you can find that online through, through their website. But for the most part, just know what varieties you're growing. Adjust your seeding rate accordingly. If you have a, if you have an area where maybe you can get away with a few less plants just to help with that, you know, holding the white mole back a little bit. And again, the, the weather's going to play a big role in it. If it's a dry year, we won't have to worry about it. If it's a year like we had last year, year with the rainfalls timed just right. Well, there was a lot of head scratching going on there at one point because you go that third time. So that's just something that's called that I've been getting this past year. Now you've been doing some thinking on, you know, a kidney, cranberry and great northern beans and what growers should consider when growing those types. Well, I guess the biggest thing that you need to look at is if you're, let's say, a long term pinto grower and you want to, you know, explore some of the other bean types like kidney and crowns. The first thing to really do is, you know, talk to your dry bean company that you're working with, find out, you know, what price levels are. And a lot of times those beans have a higher price level. But along with that, your seed costs are going to be higher and also, you know, your equipment cost could be a lot higher as well. And the reason I say that is because at harvest time, using a, you know, a regular, you know, John Deere or case IH combine in a kidney bean when the seed is really dry can cause you a lot cost you a Lot of money because you can get higher cracks. So what I usually recommend to growers is, you know, explore these other bean types, know exactly what is involved in growing before you put the seed in the ground. And, you know, if you're only, you know, if you've only been used to growing pintos and navies, make sure that you have an option available for a bean combine for a kidney or crayon. Just because, you know, come fall time, if weather conditions aren't suited for harvesting with your combine, you may need to look at some other options with that. And that's kind of the cautionary note. But again, you know, look at yields. When we look at yields of all the bean classes, pintos typically have the most consistent yield. Blacks are also very good as well. And those are a couple options that, you know, you can expand a bit more. We'll probably see a few less acres of pintos just because it was such a big crop last year. But generally they always seem to have a market for it. So it just look at all the options and just don't look at the price. There's a lot of things that go into making that decision to look at these other bean types. Yeah, for sure. Hey, one final thought. You wanted to talk about why it's important to pay attention to seeding rates versus, you know, plant establishment rates. Well, that is a question I get every year. When you're looking at solid seeding, let's say a navy or a black bean in a, you know, 12 inch, or I'd say less than 12 inches. I always like to tell growers you want to be. You want to have a seeding rate of somewhere between 140 to 150,000 seeds per acre. So what that means is that a month later, when you're doing your stand count, due to various mortality and germination, you may end up with 125, 130,000 plants. Really important to make that distinction because if you're ordering seed and you're ordering for 125, while you're ordering seed for 125,000, you're not ordering a stand for 125. Because you plant 125, you're going to get a lot less. That plays into weed control. That plays into, you know, yield in some cases, but it also plays into harvestability. Having a stand that's too thin, you have less material coming into the combine. And if it's a drier year, you have more potential for damage to, to the seed by the combine. So Those are the things you have to really kind of be aware of. Know what type you're growing, know what stand you'd like to have, and then, you know, bump it up to make sure that that's the stand that you get. Especially in Manitoba soils, we typically don't start planting until, you know, right around May 20, right around the May long weekend, just because we want to put it into warmer soils. And usually in that two week period before the beginning of June, a lot of the beans get in the ground, but we can still get cool weather. So, you know, seed is one area. I definitely do not want to see growers cutting back, but you have to, you know, play in. Keep in mind that, you know, if you have like when you talk about white mould, there is that balance. You don't want to have too many plants either. So you got to find that balance, know what your equipment does. That's why I always encourage growers to do stand counts a month afterwards because then, you know, if you need to do any modification to your equipment for future years. I'm now joined by Hensel Co op origination manager Wade Bickel. Hey, let's start it off with a look back at the 25 season in Ontario. You know, planting went well, but things got pretty dry as we moved into July. They sure did well, planning was right on schedule. We had the crop virtually all planted by that June 20th is kind of where we like to have it done by here in Ontario. So. So everything went tickety boo there. We did have some heavy rains, believe it or not, later in the middle of part of June, and we had to do some replants. But overall it was pretty minor. By the, by mid July though, we were looking for rain, especially in central Ontario where we have some of our edible beans. And then by August, even in, even in southern Ontario, there was places where, you know, we could tell the top was off the yield. Yeah. Now from a quality perspective, you know, there were some issues. You saw some, you know, some green patch, some deformed beans, but overall quality is pretty good. Yeah, we, we did hear those calls, you know, and we get them in years where it's dry like this where, hey, there's some areas in my field where the, you know, the plants look funny. There's lots of green, curly, empty pods or that they're. The dry beans themselves are just disfigured or kind of funny looking. But you know, at the end of the day we really didn't have other than a few minor exceptions. We didn't really have any huge quality problems that way, other than the crop was pretty dry. Yeah. Hey, let's look at yield now, whether it was a drag on yield in some classes, but others did really well. Yeah. It's amazing to me how resilient these edible bean varieties are. Now, are our navy bean yields or white bean yields in Ontario, we're down three bags, kind of to what the average was. And black beans down a little bit. Crayons are large seeded beans. Crayons and kidney beans are up three bags. Better than normal. Wow. And I think I can attribute that to our better growing season in those major growing areas where kidneys and crayons are growing. When it comes to azuki beans, we've seen yields down by five bags over the previous year. But don't forget, 2024 was an exceptional year for azuki beans. We had good yields across the board, and last year was just, you know, back to normal almost. Let's talk acres. You know, we saw some acreage shifts in 2025. White beans, navy beans, way up. Azuki's, as you mentioned, you know, down. Give us a snapshot of 25 and where the acres are going in 2026. You know, a picture of that. Okay. You know, we had an increase in acres over 24 by 10,000, making 2025 the largest acreage we've had in the last five years. Certainly no comparison to the increase they've seen in Manitoba, as we just heard. But, you know, acres in Ontario of navy beans, white beans were up 30%, you know, up 15,000 acres, a substantial increase. Black beans down. You know, market forces have drove the black bean acres down 10%. Crayons up 15% though. The kidney bean acres. Wow. Up 63%, up 8,000 acres year over year. So a huge increase there. And I'll get into that a little later when we talk about 26. But the Japanese and other beans down a little bit, and Azuki beans down, like you mentioned, a lot. We're down 50%. So what's happening for 2026, Wade? I know a couple of things to talk about, you know, competition from IP beans, for example. Yeah. So I think that we'll see acres, if not flat, maybe slightly lower than last year in Ontario, like you mentioned, IP soybean premiums are strong. And, you know, if you're. If you have the land to grow dry beans, you could grow IPs, too. So that's probably going to impact acres somewhat. You know, acres are down. I always say this. If we get into a Tough planting season for corn. Will growers plant corn or will they switch to dry beans? It happens in Garen, Perth, Oxford and some of the areas in Middlesex as well, where we could switch to large dry beans in Ontario. What about large seeded beans? You know, they tend to send, you know, they've shown the greatest return per acre at this time. Is that where, you know, the potential is or the opportunity might be? I think, yeah. For growers that have edible bean equipment, dry bean equipment like Picket combine, a bob combine and some pullers, there is going to be opportunities for great returns on large seeded beans, that's for sure. A final thing, you've also been talking about some new varieties that growers will be planting this year. Tell us a little bit about Steam and Blast. Yeah, we've been pretty excited about these two navy bean or white bean varieties that came out of the University of Iguana. Steam has, is like in every trial location for the past several years has been the number one. Navy being in the trial and Blast is also in that same realm. Both are very upright. We're really, really looking forward to seeing what those do on a large scale in Ontario this year. And for the most part we are nearly sold out of Steam. So it's been. The message is getting out. Hey, tell us about Umbra, a new black bean. Umbra is. It's another University of Guelph black bean variety. It's. It's one that we're really hoping takes off with the growers. It's got really good yield potential. It's got upright direct harvest ability. It's. It's great on those fronts. And its other key factor is that the end users are going to love it because it has that black sauce or black retention when it's cans. So it's really something we're looking forward to. Final thing, final variety, Gallantry, a dark red. I mean, another, another variety to emerge from Guelph. Yeah, it is, it's. So we had Dynasty, which turned out to be a real winner in the dark, dark red kidney bean market. Now we have Gallantry, that's come into play and, you know, the last several years it's a couple of bags better in yield and slightly earlier. So I know from my perspective it's got some really good potential and growers should look at that variety when they're, when they're planting. Well, Wade, hey, always great to have you on the edible bean school. Lots to talk about, lots to look forward to. We will see you in the months ahead. Perfect. Thanks, Bern. Thanks for having me. Have a great day. Day. All right, we're going to leave it there for this episode of Agronomic Monday here on RealAg Radio on rural radio, channel147, SiriusXM. Thank you so much for joining me. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you along. Drop us a follow, let us know you watch the show. If you've got any feedback, you can send me an email lsmith real agriculture.com and we'll talk to you later in the week. Have a wonderful one. Cheers, everybody.