Much of the Canada Western Red Spring wheat is rated as poor or very poor for disease resistance
Prairie wheat growers who are hoping to reduce losses caused by fus-arium head blight should start with a critical assessment of the varieties they’re growing.
Marcia McMullen, a cereal pathologist with North Dakota State University, said farmers can avoid yield losses and costly grade discounts by anticipating periods of heightened fusarium risk and managing the risk properly.
The first step is proper varietal selection.
“One of the primary management strategies that our producers in North Dakota use is … choice of resistant varieties,” said McMullen, a guest presenter at a Soils and Crops Agronomy Workshop held March 17 in Saskatoon.
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“We have developed some good hard red spring wheats with what we call moderate resistance — I think in Canada you might call it good resistance — and we have wide acceptance of those in areas of high risk for the disease,” she said.
“Fungicides are also important, but even fungicides used on susceptible varieties probably won’t give adequate management.”
The area affected by fusarium head blight in Western Canada has been widening.
Abundant rain, saturated soil and high humidity during and immediately preceding flowering have boosted infection levels across the West.
By some estimates, as much as two million tonnes of wheat and durum were graded as salvage last year because of high levels of fusarium damaged kernels and fusarium related mycotoxins, either DON or vomotoxin. Â
Salvage grain is not legal for sale and has no value.
McMullen said managing fusarium effectively can be a challenge, especially in areas that are not typically affected by the disease.
New cereal varieties with improved fusarium resistance are coming online in Canada, but adoption of new varieties often occurs gradually.
Uptake usually occurs in years after the disease has taken a significant toll on production and marketing efforts.
“If farmers are consistently … impacted by the disease, then they’re naturally more interested in choosing the best, most resistant varieties.”
According to data from the Canadian Grain Commission, much of the Canada Western Red Spring wheat produced in Western Canada in 2013 was from varieties that were rated as poor or very poor for fusarium resistance.
The top CWRS varieties planted in 2013 were:
- Harvest: very poor
- Carberry: good
- Lillian: very poor
Carberry was the top variety in Manitoba in 2013, Unity (fair) was tops in Saskatchewan and Harvest and Stettler (susceptible and moderately susceptible) were tops in Alberta.
“That tells me that if you are in the higher risk areas, then farmers are already adopting the more resistant varieties, but as you go into the … drier areas, maybe not yet,” McMullen said.
As they did in North Dakota more than 20 years ago, wheat farmers in many parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta have received a crash course in fusarium management during the past few years.
Infection levels has increased noticeably in areas that are typically unaffected.
Many farmers now use fungicides routinely after a couple of years with abnormally high fusarium pressure, sometimes when the risk of infection is relatively low.
McMullen said in some cases the cost of buying and applying fungicides could be avoided completely.
Fusarium risk is determined largely by climatic conditions that occur during the growing season.
In the United States, risk prediction models have been developed and fine-tuned over a period of years or decades, McMullen said.
Farmers in 20 American states can access an online fusarium risk assessment tool that monitors environmental conditions and provides daily risk assessment forecasts.
Regional data is fed into the system, and farmers can customize their risk assessment queries by entering specific land locations and identifying the cereal varieties they are growing.
The program, at www.wheatscab.psu.edu, allows farmers to make informed decisions about fungicide applications.
“In addition to letting farmers know when the risk is high, we also try very hard to let producers know when there is no risk,” McMullen said. “We want them to save their money, too.”
Communication is a key element to reducing production costs and managing the disease effectively, she added.
Extension agents involved in the U.S. monitoring system prepare frequent forecast commentaries, which can be sent directly to a grower’s mobile phone, alerting him to heightened risk.
“It’s kind of a push technology,” McMullen said. “The communication is critical.”
