Western Canada saw the most severe Aster Yellows pressure in 2023 since 2012. Dr. Tyler Wist discusses the outbreak, the disease and its vector, the aster leafhopper, along with how his team is designing tools for detection of the phytoplasma and determining the migratory origins of these leafhoppers.

Lyle shares how to adapt your management practices to best mitigate the downside of dry conditions and addresses what agronomic steps can be taken to protect farm profitability during a drought.

Impact mills are likely to be the best fit of the harvest weed seed control strategies for western Canadian farms. With an estimated 30 mills in use on the Canadian Prairies, Dr. Tidemann will share key feedback from those producers, showing farm types, associated costs, benefits, challenges and strategies implemented.

Ken believes that effective non-profit organizations can play a pivotal role in making a farmer-focused innovation system function. With recent visits to Europe, Africa and new Zealand, Coles will share his perspective on what needs to happen to help boost practical, regional and farmer-relevant innovation.

Crop imagery from drones and satellites can now provide farmers and agronomists useful information to assist in crop management. Steve reviews recent research from the Crop Imaging Lab at the University of Saskatchewan, including remotely sensed satellite information, scouting crop emergence, mapping kochia infestations and more.

Phillip Harder is the research director and hydrological scientist at Croptimistic Technologies. He grew up on a family farm near Saskatoon and earned a PhD in hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan in 2018. His research interests are focused on understanding the relationships between hydrology and agriculture on the Canadian Prairies. The overarching motivation of his work is to develop understanding and tools to improve agricultural outcomes and reduce water-related risks for Canadian Prairie producers.

Valentina Anastasini is from Argentina, where she attended the National University of Rosario and completed a Biotechnology Degree in the College of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. In January 2023, she joined the University of Saskatchewan as an MSc student in Cereal and Flax Pathology, under the supervision of Ds. Fleitas and Kutcher. Her project is the study of bacterial leaf streak of wheat in Canada. It includes study of the disease under field and controlled conditions and molecular diagnostics of the bacteria.

In his Tree-Ring Lab, David Sauchyn has built a 1,000-year record of the water balance on the northern plains by analyzing the growth of trees at 224 sites. This record of pre-industrial hydroclimate provides a unique perspective on current climate changes. While the numerical climate models can replicate historical temperature trends, they perform less well with the simulation of precipitation and related variables. Our understanding of how climate change is affecting soil and surface hydrology depends on the model, assumptions about the human influence and especially how well the models can simulate the natural variability captured by the tree rings. Future scenarios from climate models should be used with a knowledge of these sources of uncertainty, and Sauchyn’s presentation will focus on how these climate models may point to where Prairie climate may be headed in the future.