Name the Peril - Talk About Yield Loss

[sumdumguy]

TPhoto taken by spray plane over a Canola field near Regina. Feel free to zoom to identify the peril

[shtferbrains]

If the picture came from a spray plane operator safe to say some kind of bug or worm?
Can you give us a hint as to what the crop is?

[sumdumguy]

July 1 - Canola Field.
Hint: This peril was not specific to this field but these spots are not very visible from the road. Not bug or worm.

[Blaithin]

I would guess gopher although they seem small compared to gopher spots here.

[Marusko]

poor straw management left piles of straw all over the place that killed germ in patches

[Hamloc]

July 1 - Canola Field.
Hint: This peril was not specific to this field but these spots are not very visible from the road. Not bug or worm.

Clubroot?

[redleaf]

My first guess was cutworms but you say no insect or worms

[sumdumguy]

Blaithin, you are one wise owl. Those are pocket gophers/ gophers and fields north of Regina and even south of Regina were infested. Also driving to Shell Lake, I noticed same type of patches in Canola along highway heading north. They are impossible to kill because they are below ground and harvest the roots of the Canola.

[Blaithin]

They’re bad around here this year, especially alongside pastures. It looks like a wave of dead moving out into the field.

[helmsdale]

So is there a difference between gophers, pocket gophers, and richardson ground squirrels?

All we have is the latter, and anything that borders grass around here has to be well tended with a .22 most of the year. I've tried poisoning, but all it seems to do is increase the housing supply! They'll be back in a year or two at the best.