A recent survey of cereal crops shows farmers in Manitoba again need to be vigilant for fusarium head blight when harvesting and storing crops.
Fusarium was found in most crops surveyed, said Andy Tekauz, a plant pathologist with Agriculture Canada’s Cereal Research Centre.
The average severity in wheat crops was 10 percent. The average severity in Manitoba’s barley fields was seven percent.
“That’s fairly substantial,” Tekauz said, noting this year’s fusarium levels are similar to those of 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Wheat fields most affected this year are the ones planted early, said Tekauz. Those crops were flowering during moist, humid weather, which set the stage for the disease to flourish.
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Bob Wiens, a producer from Domain, Man., said growers in his area are seeing a lot of empty heads in their wheat fields.
Wiens wanted to spray his wheat crop with Folicur, a fungicide treatment for fusarium. But soggy soils caused by excess moisture made it impossible to get onto his fields at the best time for spraying.
Although there is concern about the losses fusarium will cause, Wiens said the full tale won’t be told until farmers take their crops off.
Fusarium head blight can lower yields, grade and quality of infected fields.
The disease can contaminate the grain with mycotoxins, making it unsuitable for malting or feed.
While the latest survey by Agriculture Canada is a grim reminder of fusarium’s prevalence in Manitoba, there was some encouraging news for Saskatchewan farmers.
Part of the survey included eastern Saskatchewan from Yorkton south to the Canada-United States border. Tekauz said levels in that area are down from a year ago. He described them as “very, very low.”
Samples for the survey were taken between July 24 and Aug. 3
Take precautions
Manitoba Agriculture has some suggestions to deal with fusarium.
- Adjust combine louvre openings and air velocities to reduce the number of fusarium-damaged kernels in harvested grain. The goal is to blow the lightweight, diseased kernels over the back of the combine without losing too many good kernels.
- Fusarium levels often vary from field to field. Bin each field’s crop separately to make the most of market opportunities.
- Fusarium-damaged crops must be stored properly to prevent further mould and toxin development. Wheat infected with fusarium head blight with a moisture content greater than 14 percent should be dried using heated air to stop further disease development. Green feed should have less than 20 percent moisture.
- As for silage, grain drying or proper ensiling in an airtight silo will stop further mould development but will not remove the deoxynivalenol, a mycotoxin produced by the fusarium mould. Silage contaminated with fusarium head blight should be tested for its mycotoxin level before feeding.
