EXAM – Canola Watch 2025 – Section 2

1. The June 11, 2025 Canola Watch quiz included this question: Windy days can coat weed leaves in dust. This dust can tie up herbicide molecules in the same way that hard water can. What herbicide is particularly vulnerable to dust on leaves?

2. On the topic of hard water, Canola Watch posted a new Fundamentals article “Test your sprayer water.” The hard water risk to herbicide performance is all about chemistry, as the article describes. Treatment with ammonium sulphate before adding the herbicide can help. Water with hardness over ____ ppm (parts per million) is the general threshold for action. (Fill in the blank)

3. A question of the week in the June 18, 2025 Canola Watch asked if a top dress [of nitrogen] makes sense. Recent rains in some regions had improved yield outlooks. What is the optimal timing for an in-crop application of nitrogen fertilizer on canola?

4. A new Canola Watch Fundamentals article “Can we heat-proof canola” describes the effect of hot weather on flowering canola. In a study, AAFC researchers Baoluo Ma and Wei Wu compared two temperature treatments: maximum 23°C and minimum 17°C, which was the control, and maximum 27°C and minimum 24°C. How much did the high temperature treatment reduce canola seed yield when compared to the control treatment?

5. The Fundamentals article “Can we heat-proof canola?” (link in question 4) describes five potential heat-proofing actions, noting that none has a proven track record. Which action includes this status description: It has been examined for years and shows no consistent benefit.

6. The Fundamentals article “Hail – From emergence to harvest” describes potential yield impact from hail on canola at four growth stages. At which crop stage does hail tend to be most damaging to yield?

7. The Fundamentals article “Tips to increase soil pH for crop nutrition and clubroot” provides tips to manage soil acidity. The article states that common crops on the Prairies will start to experience pH-induced yield loss at what pH level?

8. The Canola Watch Fundamentals article “Soil sampling - timing, technique and interpretation” includes soil test interpretation tips from experienced crop fertilizer specialists. The section on potassium (K) says K deficiency is not usually a problem for canola and most other Prairie crops unless soil tests levels are below 100 ppm. If application is necessary, K banded in or near the seed row can be up to ___ times more efficient than broadcast K. (Fill in the blank.)

9. The Canola Digest January 2025 article “Agronomists rank temperature as the top risk factor” includes this line: The CCC encourages farmers to set yield targets based on ___________. (Fill in the blank.)

10. The Canola Digest January 2025 article “How to create a field profit map” describes a pilot program to map cropped fields to show the range of profitability within each farm field. How many years of combine yield data and satellite imagery does project lead Paul Galpern say is enough to show consistent patterns of yield variability?