Plant Pathologist
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Lacombe, AB
Plant Disease Issues in Alberta
Tuesday, January 24 4:00pm - 5:00pm Room 5
Wednesday, January 25 11:00am - 12:00pm - Room 4
Bio
Kelly was born at Humboldt, Saskatchewan, and was raised mainly in Saskatoon, but spent most of his summers on his father's small grain farm near St. Brieux, Sask. Currently, he is a plant pathologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in Lacombe. He received a Bachelor’s of Science in Agriculture in Agricultural Biology in 1985, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Pathology from the Department of Biology at the University of Saskatchewan. Kelly’s graduate work focused on the epidemiology of sclerotinia stem rot of canola and the potential of using petal testing as an indicator of disease risk.
Kelly’s main focus at Lacombe is on cereal diseases, especially those of barley, but he also works on diseases of other crops, including canola, as part of collaborative studies with colleagues across western Canada. He is currently involved with research studying: the development and use of plant resistance for disease control; the impact of cropping systems on disease development; disease risk assessment; and the development of practical integrated solutions for crop health and disease management.
Session Summary
2010 and 2011 saw the unfortunate appearance of a number of plant disease issues in Alberta. One potential reason for this increase in disease prevalence and severity may be the shortening of crop rotations as the typical rotation across many areas of the western Prairies has become canola-cereal-canola-cereal. A one-year break away from a host crop is typically not sufficient to allow for the natural destruction of pathogen inoculum in or on the soil, thus leading to greater pathogen inoculum carryover between growing seasons. In addition, abundant rainfall in many areas of the Prairies in the past two years also enhanced disease development and greater potential disease carryover from one year to the next.
Kelly will outline key management strategies for ergot, leaf spot diseases and stripe rust of cereals, and sclerotinia of canola. In addition, your conference proceedings document will include a more detailed discussion of these strategies as well as an outline of key management strategies and sources of information on the internet for the main diseases of cereals and canola. Kelly's presentation and proceedings document will provide you with knowledge that can be used to help minimize the impact of various disease issues in 2012.
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