Maurice Schultz has been hearing “some really bad stories” lately about a crop disease in fields around Carnduff, Sask.
It is fusarium head blight, a disease gaining a toehold in eastern Saskatchewan. It’s the same disease that has plagued Manitoba for years.
Farmers with fusarium in their fields are worried, said Schultz, assistant manager of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator in Carnduff. The disease could mean lost yields in wheat and barley crops.
“I think it’s going to affect the yields fairly considerably,” Schultz said. “We won’t know that for sure until the guys go in the fields.”
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Grain elevators along the east side of Saskatchewan are also reporting fusarium. Its effects on cereals became noticeable within the past two weeks.
“This year it’s definitely out there,” said Grant Neil, manager of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elevator in Yorkton. “We’ve seen it in quite a few fields.”
The disease usually strikes when cereal crops are heading. It causes the heads to ripen prematurely, leaving partially filled seeds in infected spikelets. The shrivelled grain may appear tan to white, with traces of pink on the seeds.
Fusarium has cost Manitoba farmers a fortune over the years. Those losses will continue to climb this year, with fusarium evident in many parts of southern Manitoba.
Losses to barley producers could be as much as $10 million, said Andy Tekauz of Agriculture Canada’s cereal research centre in Winnipeg, and that would be three times worse than a year ago.
Losses in millions
For wheat growers, lost yields due to fusarium could amount to more than $50 million, Tekauz said.
Fusarium infection produces mycotoxins that contaminate grain. Too much contamination will reduce quality and value of a crop, meaning additional losses to affected farmers.
The prevalence of the disease is prompting many Manitoba producers to question the merit of planting wheat and barley. Agriculture Canada hopes to have some disease-resistant varieties available within the next two years.
“In 1993, when we first had the major epidemic of fusarium, it was in the Red River Valley,” said Deb McLaren of Ag Canada’s research station in Brandon, Man. “Since then, it has moved to the southwest part of the province.”
