More On Stripe Rust

On Friday, we talked with Tim Murray, WSU Extension plant pathologist, about the problem this year with stripe rust in winter wheat. A mild winter has created a problem with the disease and he says that farmers need to be proactive.

MURRAY: Farmers are well aware of this issue. The field consultants that are out there for the companies are well aware of the problem, everybody's on alert and so we're just giving them extra information and try to encourage them to be diligent early in looking for the disease. The first thing we always recommend, and it's too late now for winter wheat, is to look at the variety testing results and look at the varieties that do well in your particular production area and pick the most resistant variety that's available.

The latest projection by Dr. Xianming Chen do show a potential loss of yield this year.

MURRAY: He bases his yield losses on very susceptible varieties that are not very commercially grown. In his March 1st stripe rust update, he says that based on their very susceptible varieties that the potential yield loss ranges from about 53% on their very susceptible varieties and he translates that into 40 to 60% yield loss on susceptible varieties. He says if highly susceptible varieties have a 53% loss then that translates into a 0 to 26% loss for varieties that growers actually might have out in the field.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.