After clubroot was discovered in Saskatchewan last year, canola growers will be watching their fields more closely as they start to plant this year’s crop.

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture will be conducting a more extensive clubroot survey this year to try and get ahead of the soil-borne disease.

Penny McCall, Executive Director of the Ministry’s Crops and Irrigation Branch says they will be surveying 1800 fields across the province’s northern and eastern crop districts.

"Those areas were selected for a number of reasons," she said. "Primarily one being that it's the main canola production area of the province, and also that the conditions are believed to be more favourable for clubroot and because clubroot has also be found in Alberta, and Manitoba. We are looking at the areas that we boarder up against those other provinces."

McCall says farmers should also be on the lookout for symptoms of clubroot no matter where they farm.

"We also will encourage that the growers work with a professional agronomist," she said. "That professional agronomist can be with the minister, with the RM it could be with a private retail agronomist, the work with that person to develop a clubroot management plan specific to their farm."


McCall adds with clubroot being new to Saskatchewan, learning how to discover and manage the disease is very important.