EDMONTON – There is life after fusarium, says a Manitoba agronomist who has dealt with the disease for more than a decade.
When fusarium spread from the Red River Valley south of Winnipeg to southwestern Manitoba in 1993, farmers feared the worst.
Instead of abandoning traditional crops, they have learned to adapt and cope, said Scott Day of Boissevain.
Farmers still grow barley and wheat and there has been little impact on the price they receive at the elevator, Day told Alberta farmers at the FarmTech 2003 conference. They are worried about how shipments of fusarium-infected grain into Alberta will affect their farms.
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While the disease is still a threat, it hasn’t transformed southwestern Manitoba into grain-free zone.
Farmers now grow two-row barley instead of six-row varieties and pick the most tolerant bread wheat varieties.
In 1993, much of the wheat in Manitoba was seeded to Roblin, a highly susceptible variety. In the south, Roblin is no longer an option for farmers.
“Durum, we just don’t grow it any more,” Day said.
But farmers do grow malting barley and other high-quality hard red spring wheat varieties.
They have learned not to grow wheat where corn was planted the year before. Corn is an ideal host for fusarium graminearum, which causes fusarium head blight.
“Corn can really load up a farm with fusarium head blight inoculation,” Day told the group.
Farmers have learned to stagger seeding dates to avoid the seven-day window when wheat can be infected.
While weather conditions have a dramatic impact on fusarium, farmers have learned that the disease is caused by a combination of high moisture and warm temperatures, not large amounts of rain.
“You don’t need rain, but high humidity and fog.”
Southern Manitoba has been hit harder than northern areas, which don’t have high humidity or fog. Areas under irrigation, such as southern Alberta, would be ideal breeding grounds for the disease.
Folicular fungicides seem to help, but is not the saviour farmers were looking for.
Hog farmers have learned that older breeding animals can handle higher levels of fusarium in their feed than younger animals.
Fusarium creates a mycotoxin in barley called DON that tricks the young pig into believing it is full. As a result, it quits eating.
So far, Manitoba farmers have seen little price downgrade because fusarium is mixed with good grain from the rest of the Prairies.
