TCK Smut Test for Pacific Northwest Wheat

TCK Smut Test For Pacific Northwest Wheat

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

For nearly 40 years, TCK smut, a wheat fungus, has been used as a trade barrier for expanding Pacific Northwest soft white wheat exports to China.

From 1974 to 1999, China applied a zero tolerance on the presence of TCK spores which resulted in a ban of shipments from the Pacific Northwest. Since 1999 the ban has been removed, but a specific TCK tolerance level of 30,000 spore count per 50 gram sample has been in place. This has stifled wheat exports to China.

There has been no new data gathered on TCK smut in the Pacific Northwest in many years. However, there have been improvements through seed treatments and other production management practices that may have significantly decreased the disease.

The Washington, Idaho and Oregon Grain Commissions are testing 60 samples of 2010 and 2011 crop grain from soft white wheat export loadings at Portland facilities.

Tom Mick, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission shares more details about the study.

Mick: “We will analyze this information, and if we see a there is a substantial drop in the incidence of TCK it gives us leverage to go back to China and say this restriction really isn’t needed any more. However, if we find that there is a high incidence of TCK then next year we will probably run a test throughout the whole Pacific Northwest to see if we can find any hot spots.”

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.