Stripe rust and the next winter wheat crop

Farm and Ranch July 26, 2011 One reason stripe rust in wheat was so prevalent in wheat this year was that early planted winter wheat got infected in the fall of 2010, giving the disease an early start this past spring. What about this coming fall?

Xianming Chen with the Agricultural Research Service at Pullman, Washington says the late planting of spring wheat this year will likely lead to a heavy load of innoculum again this fall. But whether we see winter wheat get infected again will depend on fall weather.

Chen: “If we have a drier fall there is probably less infection. If we have good moisture condition like last fall we will have more infection. If the winter weather is cold and dry without much snow cover the rust will be reduced by winter condition. If we have a warmer winter and good snow cover we may have another stripe rust year. Therefore my recommendation is choose the best resistant cultivars.”

While many farmers had to apply multiple applications of fungicides to protect their wheat from stripe rust Chen admits it has been a good year for researchers studying the disease and for breeders selecting for stripe rust resistance.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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