Wheat midge
Wheat farmers in the northeastern part of Saskatchewan should start thinking about wheat midge.
Traps which monitor the presence of midges can be built from common household items. Ice cream pails (four litre), coated with vegetable oil or petroleum jelly and placed upside down on the soil surface, will trap adult midges as they emerge from the soil.
Another type of trap can be made using empty milk cartons. First, paint the carton white or yellow to allow easier insect identification. Put the carton on a stake, coat the outside with vegetable oil or petroleum jelly and place it just above the crop canopy. Although all types of small flying insects will be caught, this trap has the advantage of detecting midges moving in from adjacent fields. Several traps should have been put in each field around June 20, when the adults were likely to start emerging.
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If you have determined the midge is present, detailed monitoring from the start of heading to mid-flowering is crucial for effective control.
Inspect crops when the midges are flying, between 8:30 and 10 p.m. on calm (wind speed less than 10 km/h) and warm (temperature above 15 C) evenings. Several dozen heads should be inspected at three or four locations in the field.
Treating the crop with an appropriate insecticide should be considered if more than one midge fly is seen for every four to five wheat heads.
At this level of infestation, a yield reduction of about 15 percent can be expected. Downgrading due to distorted and shrunken kernels is also likely.
– Sask. Wheat Pool Production Perspectives
Calgene receives patent
Calgene, the California company that invented the genetically engineered FlavR SavR tomato, has been granted a patent covering napin, which is a key element in producing many of the company’s genetically engineered plant oils products. The patent covers three seed-specific promoters, including napin.
The technology which produces seed specific promoters is relevant to genetically-modified oil and meal products because it allows scientists to specifically control the expression of these introduced genes.
In the case of modifying oil, the promoters ensure that only plant oils are affected by the introduced genes. The genes don’t affect the rest of the plant.
“The issuance of the napin promoter patent is another important step in the development of Calgene’s vertically integrated oils business,” said Andrew Baum, president of Calgene’s Oils Division.
Calgene has executed licenses with Plant Genetic Sciences (PGS), Monsanto, AgrEvo and Groupe Limagrain under its various patents to experiment with rapeseed oil modification – an area outside Calgene’s core interest.
Calgene is an agricultural biotechnology company that is developing plant varieties and plant products for the fresh tomato, cotton seed and industrial and edible plant oils markets.
– Calgene
Barley yellow dwarf virus
There is a high risk of outbreaks of barley yellow dwarf in cereal crops in central and southern Manitoba. Strong, hot southerly winds from June 16-18, originating in the southern U.S. have likely brought large quantities of virus-carrying aphids to early seedling-stage cereal crops.
Oats and barley are most at risk and the only effective control is to use resistant varieties. In oats, symptoms include leaf reddening and stunted growth, followed by blasting and poor seed set. The oat cultivars Robert, AC Preakness and AC Belmont have disease resistance and will suffer smaller losses than other registered oat cultivars.
In controlled field trials from 1992 to 1994, where tested lines were exposed to severe infection, Robert had losses from five to 30 percent, while susceptible varieties suffered losses from 60 to 100 percent.
In barley, symptoms include leaf-tip yellowing (of a bright lemon hue) and stunted growth followed by poor or absent development of heads. Lines with effective resistance are in advanced testing at the Agriculture Canada’s Brandon research centre.
In controlled field trials of wheat from 1992 to 1994, where tested lines were exposed to severe infection, the advanced, resistant lines suffered losses from five percent to 10 percent, while susceptible varieties suffered losses from 80 to 100 percent.
Wheat does not usually show symptoms as striking as those in oats or barley, but tillering and head-filling are adversely affected, possibly resulting in yield losses of 50 percent or more.
There are no highly resistant wheat or barley cultivars registered for use in Manitoba.
Conditions are favorable for widespread outbreaks but it is too early to report on actual disease occurrences. If an outbreak is beginning, disease symptoms should have been evident by July 1. No effective chemical control measures are available to slow or halt the spread of the aphid carriers, or the virus infection itself once plants have been inoculated.
Manitoba Agriculture in co-operation with Agriculture Canada’s Winnipeg research centre will be monitoring fields in early July for distribution and severity of the virus.
– Manitoba Agriculture pest bulletin
