Manitoba wheat farmers have a new tool to help combat an old
enemy.
The Pest Management Regulatory Agency this month approved an emergency use registration for Folicur. Distributed by Bayer Canada, Folicur is known to help suppress fusarium head blight when wheat is in the vulnerable flowering stage.
Fusarium, which also attacks barley crops, cost Manitoba growers up to $70 million last year in reduced yields and grain quality. Its presence has become another factor that farmers must consider when deciding whether to grow wheat.
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“We’ve talked to and seen growers who have shifted out of wheat on their farms to avoid fusarium problems,” said Barry Todd, director of Manitoba Agriculture’s soils and crops branch. “It’s hit them hard.”
Manitoba Agriculture was among those pressing for the emergency use registration. It does not extend to barley.
Folicur is not registered for any other use in Canada. Although fus-arium spread into eastern Saskatchewan last year, there was no application from that province to use Folicur against the disease, said PMRA spokesperson Antony Simpson.
Information will be gathered in Manitoba this year to gauge the effectiveness of Folicur against fusarium in wheat.
North Dakota farmers have had access to the fungicide since 1997, according to the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, which lobbied alongside the Manitoba government for the emergency use of Folicur. The association described fusarium as epidemic in Manitoba. It fears this spring’s glut of moisture will make conditions prime for another outbreak.
“It’s something we needed to give us an option,” said Art Enns, Manitoba vice-president of the wheat growers. “I think a lot of farmers will try it on a test basis and see if it’s worth the money.”
Fusarium is a fungal disease that can hamper grain quality and yields. It produces toxins that can render milling wheat and malting barley unsuitable for human consumption and feed grain unfit for livestock.
Data collected in North Dakota shows Folicur can lower the level of toxicity caused by fusarium in grain, Enns said.
“That is very important when it comes to animal feed. A lot of the feed mills really look at that level of toxicity.”
Wheat growers president Kevin Archibald viewed the emergency registration as a step forward in harmonizing Canadian and American pesticide registrations.
Anyone applying Folicur in Manitoba this year should consult Manitoba Agriculture for its recommendations. Simpson said the fungicide is to be applied only in areas affected by the exceptionally wet conditions this spring.
There is still no telling what the effects of fusarium will be on wheat crops this year. The disease attacks when there is damp, humid weather at the flowering stage, said Andy Tekauz, plant pathologist with Agriculture Canada’s cereal research centre in Winnipeg.
“If it’s dry, nothing will get it. If it rains, then everything will. It’s a bit of a crap shoot.”
