Canadian Soybean Honeymoon: Agronomy and Cropping System Shifts in Manitoba.

Soybean (Glycine max) acreage in Manitoba has expanded rapidly in the past ten years with acreage in 2016 exceeding 1.5 million acres and projections of 2 million for 2017. Several factors have been driving this change including breeding efforts to develop short season soybean varieties in 00 and 000 Maturity Groups. Soybeans have been a profitable crop for farmers in Manitoba and there are projections for continued expansion of acres across western Canada. Pushing soybeans to the edge of their adaption zone is having both positive and negative impacts on cropping system in Manitoba. Crop rotation diversity is increasing. Volunteer herbicide tolerant canola (Brassica napus) has become one of the most abundant weeds. Rotational tillage is increasingly used in traditional no-till areas to warm soils and facilitate earlier soybean planting. Disease and insect pest pressure is currently low, with change expected with the increasing frequency of soybean in rotation. The rapid change in soybean production in Manitoba, has created a need for regionally-adapted agronomic knowledge to support this crop in this growing region characterized by short and cool growing seasons, calcareous soils, and canola as a major crop in the rotation.