Farmers might have to make sure that fusarium damage levels in their wheat are even lower than they are now because of a new strain that is spreading widely.
The Canadian Grain Commission is considering lowering the levels of damaged kernels allowed because the new fusarium strain is producing more vomitoxin than the one that has dominated since the 1980s.
For fungus-infected farms, it might mean a frustrating and costly new reality of quality downgrades.
“It was a big surprise,” said Randy Clear, a crop quality expert at the CGC, about the discovery that a new form of fusarium graminearum had taken over Manitoba and was quickly spreading to Saskatchewan.
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“We’re going to have to see about the tolerances being lowered for some of the wheats.”
Keystone Agricultural Producers vice-president Rob Brunel said this development will increase the pain Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan farmers have been feeling from the fungal disease.
“What can you replace wheat with?” said Brunel. “There aren’t too many options.”
Fusarium graminearum is a fungal disease that infects heads of cereal crops. The type the grain industry is familiar with is called 15 Acetyl. But tests on frozen samples of grain held by the CGC show the new graminearum strain, 3 Acetyl, appeared in 1998 and is rapidly spreading.
Clear said that in 1998, only six percent of fusarium graminearum infections in Manitoba were of the 3 Acetyl type, with the rest being 15, but by 2007 it had become 68 percent.
Saskatchewan’s fusarium cases are now about one-third 3 Acetyl. Clear said some parts of the Maritimes are more than 80 percent new variety, while in Ontario and Quebec the infection is less than a third.
“It’s a huge change,” said Clear, noting the aggressiveness of the new variety in displacing the old.
“That old variety wasn’t just hanging on, it was thriving. What’s remarkable is that it’s being replaced so quickly.”
The 3 Acetyl is capable of creating substantially more deoxynivalenol (DON), known as vomitoxin.
This is dangerous for humans, pigs and cattle at high concentrations.
Clear said the CGC had been assuming that kernel damage rates could be extrapolated into representing a vomitoxin content, but because of the change to the new fusarium type, the DON level could be higher than previously expected.
“The threes were much better at producing DON,” said Clear about Agriculture Canada tests.
“That’s what gave us the most concern, because some of the grading tolerances are based on what we might expect the level of DON to be for that level of fusarium damage.”
Brunel said the CGC has an obligation to protect Canada’s reputation as a quality grain exporter, so he doesn’t blame the commission for considering lower tolerance levels.
“It’s a double-edged sword for producers,” said Brunel. “If they lower the fusarium damage level because of the toxicity, it’ll be tougher on farmers who have fusarium in their wheat, but it will also reassure our buyers that the quality of grain they’re buying meets their needs.”
Manitoba’s fusarium-ravaged Red River Valley is likely to suffer most from this development.
Many farmers now don’t try to grow wheat in heavily infected areas and hog producers face hefty feed bills because they have to bring in feed wheat from western Manitoba or corn from the U.S. due to the fusarium problem.
Southern Alberta feed grain broker Doug Chambers said he doesn’t think most livestock feeders will be surprised or inconvenienced by any change in grading because they already do vomitoxin tests and ignore visible kernel damage.
But small scale feeders might discover they’ve been feeding higher levels of DON to their pigs than they thought.
“To me, it’s the (careless) operators that it would make a difference to, the ones who want to do things the easy way rather than the correct way,” said Chambers, who says most of his hog producer clients also test for various moulds.
Brunel said the dominance of the 3 Acetyl is further proof of why farmers need more research and development of fusarium-resistant lines of wheat, barley and oats.
“We need new varieties so that we can continue to produce top quality milling wheat and feed wheat with low DON levels,” said Brunel.
