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Randy Clear
- Canadian Grain Commission |
| Farmscape for July 11, 2002 (Episode 1019)
Weather conditions over the next few weeks will the main factor in determining the level of fusarium infection prairie grain farmers will have to contend with this year.
Over the past several years the Canadian Grain Commission has been monitoring all crop districts in Western Canada in an effort to track levels of fusarium infection, primarily in wheat, and determine the species of fusarium present.
CGC Mycologist Randy Clear says news reports indicate weather conditions have been ideal for the development of fusarium but the critical period is when the crops reach the flowering stage.
Clip-Randy Clear-Canadian Grain Commission
July as a month is our most important month for precipitation that causes head blight.
I know the crop was a little late getting going this year so it might be slightly later than it has been.
Right now the winter wheat, I gather, is flowering and there's been some spraying going on for fusarium so certainly there will be some fusarium damage in the winter wheats.
The spring wheats, being a little later to flower, we'll monitor the weather as the heading time, the flowering time comes around.
The greatest issue with the weather is moisture.
Temperatures are certainly going to be adequate any year virtually in Manitoba but the moisture conditions are extremely important.
If we have a high level of disease inoculum on the ground in the residue, you don't necessarily need as much ideal conditions to get a higher level of disease than if you had a lower level of inoculum.
The weather conditions, particularly the moisture...if we get a lot of heavy rains or even light rains for a period of time or even a heavy dew now a days seems to sufficient to trigger an outbreak of the disease.
Clear says the grain commission does have good advance knowledge of where the pathogen is mainly found.
He says areas of Manitoba and Southeastern Saskatchewan are where the right weather conditions will cause problems but weather conditions will have little impact on fusarium levels in Central Saskatchewan and Alberta the because the fungus hasn't become established there.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council |
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© Wonderworks Canada
2002 |
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