As harvest progresses it is becoming clear there are quality problems with the crop in the eastern portion of the Prairies, including high fusarium infection levels in Manitoba’s wheat crop.
The Canadian Wheat Board says it will be difficult to market fusarium-damaged wheat this year because of more stringent customer requirements and a morphing pathogen that has created headaches.
The agency is implementing a fusarium management program this fall to help farmers achieve something higher than feed values for infected crop.
“We are here to add value to farmers’ product in whatever way we can and that’s what we’ll be striving to do,” said Rick Steinke, director of logistics with the CWB.
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Preliminary analysis of the 2008 crop shows higher fusarium infection levels in Manitoba and northeastern Saskatchewan than last year, but not as extensive as previous outbreaks like the one that caused serious downgrading to the 1993 wheat crop.
There are two new disturbing developments relating to dioxynivalenol (DON) that will make the board’s job of selling fusarium-damaged wheat more challenging.
DON is the mycotoxin measure by which customers judge fusarium-infected wheat. Steinke has noticed a trend toward tightening the allowable level of DON.
In the past, the cutoff was usually around two parts per million (ppm) but many customers have dropped the threshold to one ppm.
Secondly, the relationship between the level of fusarium infection and the level of DON has worsened. It used to be that a two percent fusarium infection would cause two ppm of DON, but now it is more like six ppm.
“The fusarium pathogen is changing. That’s what is leading to this different relationship,” said Steinke.
Blending at the elevator and further down the line will be used to bring damaged wheat back in line with customer requirements.
Steinke said the board should have the details of its winter wheat fusarium program ready within two weeks. The spring wheat program will follow.
Rob Park, manager of Manitoba Agriculture’s Crops Knowledge Centre, said fusarium isn’t the only quality issue affecting the province’s cereal crops thanks to a 10-day rain that delayed harvest.
“We have some significant sprouting damage and some bleaching,” he said.
A harvest that began with crops coming off in “near perfect” quality has deteriorated to the point where it is likely to be a normal to slightly below normal crop overall.
And with half of the crop still to be harvested in the western portion of the province, and late-season crops like sunflowers, soybeans and corn still out in the field in central and eastern Manitoba, there could be more frost-related damage.
The good news is that there have been no reports of quality problems with canola. And seed weight is “fantastic” across the board for the cereal grains.
Terry Bedard, crop reporter with Saskatchewan Agriculture, said there are reports of quality problems in southern Saskatchewan, especially the southwest corner, which has received a lot of rain.
Farmers in those regions are reporting staining, bleaching and sprouting in their cereal crops.
Charlie Pearson, crop analyst with Alberta Agriculture, said despite better harvest conditions in Alberta, rain and a little frost have caused downgrading.
“It won’t be a super-duper high quality year,” he said. “It’s probably kind of a normal crop and probably the normal blend of grade breakdown.”
