The Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster (ICAC) was designed to put focus on a whole-farm approach, it addresses critical gaps in research for farm management as a whole and does not put focus on one crop type or approach. There are seven research activities within the cluster, MCA participates in all research activities as they all bring valuable information to Manitoba producers. Each activity and a brief description are listed below, for more information, view the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster Summary 2018-2023.

Co-ordinated monitoring of field crop insect pests in the Prairies Ecosystem

• Provides funding for the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network.
• Funds the activities to continue to develop tracking and trend prediction of insect pests.

Co-ordination of a crop disease monitoring network for Western Canada

• Provides funding for the Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network.
• Funds the activities to continue to provide timely information about crop diseases and highlight effective disease management approaches.

Developing a risk model to mitigate Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in western Canadian cereal production.

• Provides funds to develop a FHB risk map model that is based on data taken across the Prairies and takes into account over 500 weather stations to produce a user-friendly, online risk-mapping tool.

Management of glyphosate-resistant kochia in western Canadian cropping systems

• Studied the effect of several different non-chemical ways to manage kochia, including crop rotation, row spacing, seeding rates and harvest timing.

Spray drift management under changing operational requirements

• Studied how the machinery plays a role in creating spray drift.
• This included quantifying drift as a function of travel speed, spray quality and boom movement.

Optimizing systems productivity, resilience and sustainability in the major Canadian ecozones

• With increasing evidence that supports the benefits of diversifying crop rotations to ensure long-term sustainability, this project studied several different crop rotations at eight sites across the Prairies to determine the impact of different rotations on productivity, resilience and sustainability.

Economic and agronomic performance of emerging cropping systems for Western Canada

• Looks at including soybean and/or corn in crop rotations in Western Canada (regions where this is not a traditional crop included in rotations) and the economic, agronomic and environmental impacts this will have.