The province received variable precipitation this spring which had pathologists and producers expecting the arrival of members of the leaf spot complex. However, Kelly Turkington with the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lacombe Research and Development Centre said they may have been scorched by the July heat wave.

That’s no reason for farmers not to scout their fields. A late arrival of stripe rust spores blew into the province in late June, said Turkington. They likely originated in the state of Washington.

“Towards the early part of July there were reports (of stripe rust) out of Warner County and Vulcan County from a consultant and some reports in Lacombe County and then down the Highway Two corridor towards Calgary, both west and east,” he said.

Depending on the point in the season growers seeded, a stripe rust presence in cereal fields may mean a fungicide application, he said. Early-seeded crops may be out of luck from a timing perspective, but producers that seeded later may still have time to tackle the rust.

Those who may still have the chance to spray for stripe rust include those who seeded spring wheat for swath grazing or silage in late May or early June.

“Often we’ve seen in the past our worst stripe rust problems in those late-seeded fields where you might be looking at silage or swath grazing, especially where the variety is highly susceptible,” said Turkington.

Watch Glacier FarmMedia publications for more on this story.

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Three agronomists gave an overview of the 2016 cropping season at the SouthWest Agricultural Conference in Ridgetown, outlining challenges and wins for the year.

Leanne Freitag, Cargill’s manager of agronomy for Ontario, outlined challenges with wheat, Steph Kowalski of Agronomy Advantage outlined soybean challenges and Russ Barker of DuPont Pioneer outlined the most unpredictable of 2016 crops: corn.

Ontario had record wheat yields, but that rapidly-growing wheat exposed some crop management gaps.

Freitag said she’s surprised at how many growers don’t apply sulphur on wheat, adding it’s simple to do and inexpensive.

“If you’re putting fertilizer on, make sure sulphur is in there,” she said. As the wheat grew rapidly towards a record yield, more sulphur deficiency symptoms showed up in the Ontario crop.

“Putting on 10-20 lbs. of sulphur is really important, and cheap to put on,” she said.

Where there’s a deficiency, the advantage can be 20 bushels of yield difference, she said. Watch the nitrogen to sulphur ratio: It should be 10:1 to 7:1.

Stripe rust was also an issue in wheat for the first time in memory. The disease overwintered further north than usual, Freitag said, and resulted in more damage than normal.

The greater prevalence of the disease showed which varieties of wheat are resistant and which are not. There is a significant difference, Freitag said, but cautioned not to base variety decisions only on resistance to stripe rust. Plant the best variety for your fields, and spray if required.

“Stripe rust is the biggest yield robber of any of the foliar diseases in wheat,” said Freitag. “It can take 50 per cent or more of your yield.”

Spray when symptoms are seen, she added. “Keeping the flag leaf clean is critical.”

The wheat crop came out of the soft winter with little winter kill, which likely helped the wheat put down roots deep enough that it was able to find enough moisture to pull through the dry summer. Altogether it resulted in a record wheat harvest.

Spider mites everywhere

Soybeans pulled through the summer drought in Ontario in most cases — but not for lack of trying by some insects.

Scouting is the best way to stay ahead of spider mites, Kowalski said. Treat the crop with timely spraying. Be careful what insecticide is used, however, as you don’t want to take out all the beneficial insects, along with the spider mites.

Weed control was a challenge for soybeans in 2016, as there often wasn’t enough moisture to activate pre-emergent herbicides. If the weather is hot and dry, spray early in the morning for systemic herbicides and in the evening for contact herbicides.

Fungicides made sense on soybeans, said Kowalski, as long as you got a timely rain. She says use the whole decisions tree on whether or not to spray fungicides. Don’t just not do it because of weather.

Barker said he worries about blanket recommendations to spray fungicides, due to potential resistance and other overuse issues. “It gives me the heebee-jeebees.”

Good base fertility was important to pulling soybeans through to good yield in 2016.

Unpredictable corn

There were times this growing season that Russ Barker just told farmers to stay out of their corn fields. The fields were just too depressing to visit. He also told them that the fields would yield better than they expected, and he was right about that.

A wise plant breeder once told him that cob size was a poor indicator of potential yield, he said. More important is the depth of kernels and kernel flex. The strongest hybrids will produce a deeper kernel late into the growing season.

“Remember that the growing season is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said.

The response of corn to fungicides is well documented — an average seven to eight bushels per acre advantage, he said. Each farmer has to determine if it makes sense economically on their farm.

Where it does make sense, he said, is on silage corn and corn fed to hogs, as the fungicide reduces mycotoxin load for hogs and dairy farmers need to maximize the quality of feed going into the feed bunk.

Two other unpredicted and especially frustrating problems appeared with the corn harvest last year. The first is the amount of Gibberella ear rot on corn, which surprised the industry by showing up in high levels of infection.

“We’re not a whole lot smarter on Gibberella. We still can’t predict it very well.”

Western bean cutworm (WBC) was also a larger issue as it overwintered further north than usual, and continued its long-term growth into new areas of the province.

The WBC was first seen in Ontario in 2008 and became economically significant in 2010, Freitag said. The problem in 2016 is that it appeared in fields where farmers had scouted and didn’t find egg masses.

“We can’t scout with a high level of assurance that it won’t be an issue,” she said. The industry has to sort out how to monitor for the pest, but the answer likely lies in paying closer attention to trap numbers.

Farmers need to make economic and risk assessment decisions on whether or not to spray for WBC, at least until better biotech solutions for control, such as the Viptera trait, are bred into more widely used hybrids.

— John Greig is a field editor for Glacier FarmMedia based at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

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However, soggy conditions have also enabled certain disease pressures to rear their ugly head, according to some government specialists.

“Root rot is showing up in peas and lentils,” said Brent Flaten of Saskatchewan Agriculture in Moose Jaw.

In addition to the rot, the fields were also feeling the effects of pythium and water mould (aphanomyces euteiches).

In a few cases, some lentil fields were virtually wiped out, though most are OK — “kind of hit-and-miss depending on how much rain or water the field retained,” he said.

Flaten said he is also fielding questions from producers wondering whether to spray for sclerotinia in canola or leaf diseases.

“There’s probably even more acres where people are worried about (fusarium) head blight or sclerotinia than the root rot.”

Issues are similar in Manitoba, with both fusarium and root rot cited as problems.

However, provincial field crop pathologist Pratisara Bajracharya said there is another familiar name working its way in from the U.S.

“Leaf rust is in some Manitoba locations as well as near the Montana and North Dakota border,” she said.

As a result, Bajracharya is asking producers to scout their fields in the lower canopy to look for both leaf rust as well as stripe rust.

“That is for wheat, barley and small-grain cereal crops,” she said.

Root rot has been an issue for soybeans, while one canola field near Carman, Man. had a bit of blackleg.

“In general, lots of different diseases were showing up this year compared to other years,” she said.

Both specialists agree further rains will only exacerbate the problem.

— Dave Sims writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow CNS Canada at @CNSCanada on Twitter.

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Last year, there was a lot of stripe rust throughout the continent, but it was too dry on the Prairies to become a major concern for winter wheat producers. “We didn’t have rain in Saskatoon until the end of July,” says Kutcher.

Stripe rust — a cousin of stem rust and leaf rust — thrives in cool, moist conditions. Most inoculum spreads northward from the U.S. to the prairie provinces, although Canadian researchers are investigating the possibility that stripe rust is overwintering in Alberta and, to a lesser extent, Saskatchewan.

This year, because of the prevalence of stripe rust in several northern U.S. states, inoculum may travel on spring winds into the prairie provinces as early as April.

If the weather grows moist, producers should be on the alert. But if temperatures stay dry and warm, there may be nothing to worry about.

“There are three things that make a disease: a susceptible crop, a pathogen and the right weather,” says Kutcher. “Weather conditions are the ultimate factor — if it stays warm and dry, and they’re predicting El Niño will hang on, that will limit the amount of disease here.”

Kutcher has completed three years’ worth of work on a varietal resistance and fungicide timing study for spring wheat. His team’s winter wheat project, which looks at varietal resistance, is in year one. He says spraying should depend on when the spores arrive.

“Winter wheat producers should be considering spraying at flowering (anthesis) time or even earlier if the situation warrants it,” he says.

Variety resistance

Denis Gaudet, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Station, has led stripe rust surveys over the last several years in Alberta.

He says his team generally heads out to the field in late fall and mid-April, or as soon as the spring growth is underway.

“It’s been a fairly mild winter, and we certainly saw lots of stripe rust around last fall on the winter wheat, so it could overwinter this year,” he says.

If stripe rust does overwinter in the Prairies, or blows in early, frequent and thorough scouting will be key for early management. When scouting, producers should check new leaves for pustules arranged in longitudinal rows along the leaf veins.

Gaudet says spraying too early might be ineffective, as the crop may become re-infected later in the season — or, depending on the weather, stripe rust may not become an issue at all.

“The important thing to remember there is that you only need to protect the flag leaf and the penultimate leaf with fungicide,” he says.

But Gaudet says spraying early isn’t necessarily the best strategy for Prairie winter wheat producers. “Last year, we had an overwintering event in southern Alberta, but because of the dry conditions that we had from late May on until mid-July, we didn’t get any serious stripe rust development,” he says. “It was a case where if you’d gone out and sprayed you would have wasted your money.”

He recommends producers closely monitor winter wheat spring growth and keep an eye on the weather before making any spraying decisions.

But by far the most effective management strategy is the use of resistant varieties. Robert Graf, a winter wheat breeder with AAFC, says producers growing winter wheat varieties that are considered “intermediate” have some protection but should keep a close eye on their fields.

“I would suggest that anything that is rated resistant (R) or moderately resistant (MR) has a good level of resistance,” he says.

Varieties that have a resistant or moderately resistant rating are AAC Gatzeway, CDC Chase, Emerson, Moats and AAC Wildfire. In the general purpose class, varieties that are rated moderately resistant are Peregrine, Pintail, Sunrise and Swainson.

AAC Wildfire is a newly released variety currently in the multiplication stage. Graf says it looks very good for stripe rust resistance, as do AAC Gateway, Emerson and Moats.

For producers who planted non-resistant (susceptible) varieties in the fall, management recommendations boil down to careful scouting. “Scout by the end of May, or as soon as it starts to green up, and use a fungicide only if necessary,” says Kutcher.

Gaudet adds that while stripe rust starts in winter wheat, the disease moves readily into spring wheat, which covers the largest acreage in Western Canada. Decisions to select resistant spring wheat varieties can still be made.

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For now, the immediate challenge before growers is to get out and scout their wheat fields. According to Dale Cowan, senior agronomist with Agris Co-operative, the worst-hit region for stripe rust at week’s end is west of Thamesville in Chatham-Kent, south of Highway 401 and down along the Lake Erie shoreline into Essex County.

This is the region, Cowan said, where the rust spores were first blown in and deposited, and where the disease is most advanced.

But there have been additional sightings farther north, even into Grey and Bruce counties. And no matter where it’s found, growers need to act quickly to avoid significant losses in yield.

“It’s at the point where you want to keep the flag leaf clean because it produces 70 per cent of the yield, and it’s sporulating very quickly and moving very fast,” said Cowan.

“The next stage we’d consider a fungicide would be T3 (head stage), so what we’re advising is that you have to keep the flag leaf clean with a T2 (flag leaf) fungicide.”

The problem began farther south in the U.S. — and Cowan noted it was already 400 miles further north into Kentucky than it normally should have been.

Even for a grower with crops three days away from a head spray (at T3, growth stages 59 to 65), the disease is advancing so quickly that waiting those three days to save money could cost him or her 50 per cent of a field.

In the past three days, Twitter has seen a variety of photos depicting the extent of the spread of the disease. One individual photographed his lower legs and boot tops covered in yellow-orange spores, just from walking through a field. Another shows the soil between rows with the same yellow-orange colouration.

“Once the flag leaf is gone, you’re going to take a 50 to 60 per cent yield hit,” said Cowan. “If you don’t spray the flag leaf now and you’re going to wait for T3, there’ll be nothing worth protecting even three or four days from now. If you’re a week away from heading, you have to make two passes through the field or you just won’t have anything worth spraying at T3.”

The fungicides a grower would use for T1 (tiller) or T2 (flag leaf) cannot be used if the awns are showing or the heads emerging, Cowan warned. Those particular fungicides carry a strobilurin, which will increase levels of deoxynivalenol (DON) — and the risk of DON infection is extremely high, as well.

“We have this situation where we have rust, where we can lose half our yield, or DON, which will make the crop unsalable,” Cowan said, adding that neither is a great option.

“Those are your two choices, so you can’t just sit there and ignore this crop because you won’t have a wheat crop if you’re badly infected. And the first step is you have to get out and scout your fields!”

— Ralph Pearce is a field editor for Country Guide at St. Marys, Ont. Follow him at @arpee_ag on Twitter.

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The diseases, which generally target cereal crops, were thought to have blown up from the northern U.S. in late spring. Fields near Carman and Killarney both tested positive for rust in winter and spring wheat.

Recent warm weather, however, appears to have dealt the two rusts a deadly blow.

“Not with this heat — rust doesn’t enjoy 30 C days, even though we’ve had precipitation; it’s just been too hot,” said Pam de Rocquigny of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in Carman.

She credited producers in the affected areas for scouting fields and applying fungicides where needed, as the main reasons for the diseases’ departure.

The ag department’s focus now shifts to fusarium head blight, she said, as now is the time the crops traditionally show symptoms.

“Usually about 21 days after flowering — that’s when you start to see the symptoms on the wheat heads,” she said.

Already, a few stands of winter wheat have exhibited signs of fusarium.

Infection generally occurs at the flowering stage, so the timeline for applying fungicide for suppression has passed, de Rocquigny said.

“But we haven’t sampled enough fields yet. We expect to know more in a week or so.”

— Dave Sims writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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Stripe rust and leaf rust appear to have blown in from the United States.

Pam de Rocquigny of Manitoba’s agriculture department said the two rust strains were observed at extremely low severity in MCVET winter wheat plots at Carman. Also, a patch of stripe rust was found in a winter wheat field southwest of Killarney.

“Stripe and leaf are just across the border from us, so I guess it was just a matter of time until we started to see those diseases appear here in Manitoba.”

Rust diseases are sporadic on a year-to-year basis, she said. Right now is an opportune time for them, though, as winter wheat is flowering and spring wheat is advancing at a steady rate.

“Some of it’s in the flag leaf, so we’re 10 days away from that crop heading out and starting to flower,” she said, adding farmers should definitely be scouting their cereal crops.

Fortunately, both strains of rust can be managed with fungicides and are still relatively scarce, according to de Rocquigny.

“I don’t think there’s a cause for real concern at this point.”

— Dave Sims writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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Watch this excellent video from Wisconsin courtesy of AGGronomyTV discussing scouting and spray decisions in winter.

Mike Harding is Plant Pathologist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development

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“Last year, stripe rust overwintered in the central Alberta region, near Lacombe, Red Deer, and Olds, which was alarming because it really hasn’t overwintered in years,” said Janine Paly of Ducks Unlimited Canada.

“Last year, there was early-onset stripe rust in the Edmonton region, but this year is the first year that we’ve seen stripe rust overwinter in the Edmonton region.”

And the disease seems to be spreading north, she said. Last summer, a late infection of stripe rust was found in Beaverlodge — “the first year it was found in the Peace region.”

“We have seen stripe rust in the past come up as far north as the Barrhead region, but this is really the first time we’re seeing stripe rust overwinter this far north.”

So far this year, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development has confirmed that stripe rust has been found in four counties in southern Alberta, and in mid-April, Alberta Agriculture researchers found stripe rust at a winter wheat plot in Olds.

“The snow had just melted and the field was still wet, and we found 1 per cent up to 10 per cent stripe rust in some places,” said research scientist Krishan Kumar.

“On susceptible varieties, this is a concern. If the weather is good and there’s a lot of moisture, it will keep on multiplying in the field.”
But the disease isn’t limited to research plots in Olds, he said. “We’re getting quite a few reports of stripe rust, especially in the central Alberta area.”

Overwintering in stripe rust is generally caused by spores moving from spring wheat still in the field to winter wheat that’s just becoming established, said Kumar.

“This crop was planted in September or October of 2014, and at that time, there was still some spring crop in the field,” he said. “The stripe rust transferred from the spring crop to the winter crop, and the snow fell and worked as insulation for its survival there.”

But central Alberta’s relatively mild winter should have worked against the disease, said Paly.

“I didn’t think it would overwinter in the Edmonton region, given that the snow came later in the year and we had a fluctuation in temperatures, exposing the spores to cooler temperatures,” she said.

“This has caught me off guard for sure.”

Stripe rust is “getting to be more common,” said Kumar, and can cause a lot of damage “depending on when it comes and how severe it is in the field.”

Start scouting

And because the disease is already popping up around the province, producers shouldn’t wait to start scouting their winter wheat fields, said Paly.

“Producers need to be aware that if they have winter wheat in central Alberta or even in the Peace, they should be out monitoring their fields,” she said.

“If I’m finding stripe rust now, they should be out monitoring their fields right now as well.”

At this point, producers should be monitoring their fields every three to five days, said Paly.

“If it stays on the lower leaves and the weather conditions aren’t favorable for the development of stripe rust, then we should be okay. They may just have to spray later on, at head emergence,” she said, adding that the disease fares best in cool, wet environments.

If, however, the disease starts moving up through the canopy, “that’s cause for concern.”

“That’s when the growers should be monitoring their fields quite regularly to make sure the disease doesn’t spread to the upper canopy.”

Producers growing a susceptible variety of winter wheat should spray “around stem elongation and come back later at the anthesis timing” to reduce the spread, but if the variety has some disease resistance, producers simply need to monitor their fields.

“If the disease is developing severely, they may want to think about using a fungicide to protect the plants, but if they have a resistant variety, the stripe rust shouldn’t develop any further.”

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It appears that the stripe rust fungus may have overwintered in both southern and central Alberta because all reports are on lower leaves and no striping yet on new leaves. Additionally, Eric Amundsen reported the ability to recover viable stripe rust spores from winter wheat in southern Alberta on March 30, 2015.

Two of the five positive fields in southern Alberta had symptoms on more than one plant per square meter indicating that scouting for stripe rust in winter wheat should remain a priority.

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