Fusarium is a deadly disease that homes in on moisture to give it a perfect target in a crop.
Anhydrous ammonia injected into a bale acts the same way: zooming straight toward the moist patches.
But researchers are only beginning to realize how effective this guided missile of anhydrous can be for killing fusarium in baled forages.
“The surprise was about the level of control we got,” said plant pathologist Jim Calpas of Alberta Agriculture.
“We pretty much eradicated fusarium in straw and hay.”
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If anhydrous ammonia pumped into poor quality hay can eliminate fusarium problems, producers in forage-deficit parts of Alberta could use it to import bales from fusarium-infected zones without worrying about bringing in the disease.
Plant pathologists have long known that anhydrous ammonia has an antimicrobial effect.
When the gas sucks up the moisture in wet parts of a bale or in grain, it is taking away the home of fusarium, which can produce vomitoxin and make feed grains and forages inedible for animals.
Anhydrous ammonia is not registered as a treatment for fusarium. It is, however, encouraged for use by farmers who want to increase the feed value of their low quality forages.
A few years ago, County of Red Deer agriculture fieldman Art Preachuk was interested in how much fusarium control farmers were getting as a “collateral benefit” of using anhydrous ammonia in poor forage.
He found that the fusarium levels were reduced by about 75 percent. That finding convinced other researchers from Alberta Agriculture, the University of Alberta and Red Deer County to do another test.
Imported wheat straw bales with high levels of fusarium graminearum, the worst strain of the fungal disease, were put in seven bale stacks and injected with anhydrous ammonia in exactly the same manner a producer would use to improve the feed quality.
The fusarium was reduced by 100 percent in one case and 99.9 percent in another. Other diseases were also reduced.
Calpas said this should be seen as good news for farmers who need to import poor quality bales from high-fusarium places like Manitoba.
If a farmer is already using anhydrous ammonia to improve the feed quality, he appears to also receive fusarium control for free.
More tests will be needed before the Pest Management Regulatory Agency is able to recommend using anhydrous ammonia specifically for fusarium control, but these results should encourage more research, Calpas hopes.
“If you’re going to investigate the potential for control, you have to start somewhere,” said Calpas.
“This probably opens the door to more formalized studies.”
