CHICAGO, April 24 (Reuters) – Stripe rust, a plant disease, has emerged on developing wheat in parts of Kansas, the top U.S. winter wheat producer, agronomists at Kansas State University said in a statement on Friday.
The fungal disease has the potential to cause yield losses of 40 percent on susceptible wheat varieties. Stripe rust thrives in cool, humid weather, which most of Kansas is experiencing this week, the trade group Kansas Wheat said.
University agronomists reported stripe rust at low levels across much of southeastern and south-central Kansas, with a heavy infection near Altamont, in Labette County.
“Stripe rust was present at only low levels in most fields we checked this week, with less than one percent of the plants infected,” Kansas State plant pathologist Erick DeWolf said in a statement.
However, DeWolf recommended that farmers check their fields and consider using fungicide to control the disease if it spreads.
