Research
Making every Manitoba Farmer member more productive and sustainable
Manitoba Crop Alliance’s research program invests in research that will make every Manitoba farmer member more productive and sustainable, providing data to help members make decisions for their operations. Investments will be made towards meaningful, independent research and valuable knowledge as outlined in our strategic plan.
Our research priorities are identified each year by our farmer-led crop committees. MCA has four crop committees: wheat & barley, flax, sunflower and corn.
We address identified research priorities through collaboration in provincial and federal funding programs, and internal funding programs such as our Whole Farm Research program. In addition, we lead a Research on the Farm program and support numerous variety evaluation trials (e.g., Manitoba Corn Committee, Manitoba Crop Variety Evaluation Team, Sunflower Variety Performance Trials), which provide unique opportunities for the creation of sound data that can help farmers make informed decisions for their operations.
We take pride in the role farmer members play in identifying research priorities and initiatives. If you are interested in contributing to discussions about research that could impact your farm, consider becoming a crop committee delegate!
General MCA research priorities include:
- Variety development and genetic enhancement
- Applied agronomy
- Disease and pest management
- Crop quality
- Economics and farm profitability
- Value-add opportunities
Crop Specific Research
Select a crop below to view all related research projects.
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Start Date: 2022
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Completion Date: 2026
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Project Status: Ongoing
There is increasing demands for straw removed from farm fields, including for use as livestock feed and bedding, pulp, bioproducts and biofuel production. In particular, recent years of drought conditions have led to a greater interest in straw removal and… Read More
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Start Date: 2023
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Completion Date: 2028
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Project Status: Ongoing
Insect pests of field crops in Western Canada pose serious risks to crop yields on an annual basis. Farmers in Western Canada have to manage insects including grasshoppers, wheat midge, wheat stem sawfly, cabbage seedpod weevil, pea leaf weevil, bertha… Read More
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Start Date: 2023
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Completion Date: 2026
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Project Status: Ongoing
Weed persistence and herbicide resistance are significant challenges for crop production in the Prairies. Over the years, many crop production and weed management strategies focused on reducing the abundance of weeds by controlling their above-ground presence. Read More
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Start Date: 2019
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Completion Date: 2022
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Project Status: Completed
This project is made up of multiple sub-projects with multiple research and industry professional collaborating on a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach to understand crops response to extremes of moisture and how to mitigate yield loss. Read More
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Start Date: 2019
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Completion Date: 2022
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Project Status: Completed
The goal of this study was to obtain a selection of crop varieties (Wheat & Canola) more resilient to excess moisture, better understand the amount and timing of excess moisture as it affects growing crops, and take measurements of critical… Read More
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Start Date: 2019
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Completion Date: 2022
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Project Status: Completed
Phytoglobins (PGBs) are animal-Like hemoglobins found in plants, and participate in plant response to biotic and abiotic stress. Increase Pgb levels in corn and soybeans exhibit tolerance o excess moisture and other stressors, while reduced Pgb levels showed that plants… Read More
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Start Date: 2019
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Completion Date: 2022
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Project Status: Completed
Soil moisture levels fluctuate constantly and can increase dramatically with a single rainfall event. Soil moisture can vary greatly in small spatial areas such that near-drought levels can exist in topographic highs situated very closely to saturated conditions in topographic… Read More
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Start Date: 2019
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Completion Date: 2022
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Project Status: Completed
This study looks at a long term study that began in 1992 that includes grain-based crop rotations in "annual only" and "perennial-annual" systems to establish soil water minitoring to assess the impacts long term rotations have on soild water dynamics.… Read More
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Start Date: 2019
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Completion Date: 2022
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Project Status: Completed
This project consisted of two parts, an on farm experiment and a small plot experiment. In the on-farm experiment four fields prone to excess moisture were identified to establish if overwintering cover crops established in the fall will facilitate fall… Read More