There's a reason it's called the yellow death: stripe rust can spread quickly and kill off huge sections of a wheat field. Even after an effective fungicide application, the yellowing will continue to expand for a few days while the product takes effect. It's this aggressive spread pattern that has Peter "Wheat Pete" Johnson warning... Read More
Category: Fusarium
When it comes to winter wheat, fusarium head blight (FHB) likes lots of spring moisture but cool temperatures can slow development of the disease. Cool and wet weather are two things Ontario's wheat crop has seen plenty of in 2025. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Wheat School, Bayer Crop Science agronomist Kurtis Pilkington looks... Read More
In 1996, fusarium devastated the Ontario wheat crop. More than 90 percent of the crop was downgraded to feed, or sample, or simply dumped in the bush thanks to high deoxynivalenol (DON) levels. In 2024, fusarium was back in Ontario fields, but the crop, with help from improved genetic resistance and improved fungicides, was much... Read More
Is anthesis the key timing for a fungicide pass if fusarium is the risk? Possibly, but going too early can leave heads or parts of heads unprotected, and later infection can cause some big downgrades due to DON production (a toxin produced by the disease). For this episode of the Wheat School, Amber Bell is... Read More
The beast is back! Ontario's winter wheat crop has high yield potential but there are also high levels of yield robbing fusarium in fields in some regions of the province. Real Agriculture agronomist Peter 'Wheat Pete' Johnson says it's not as bad as 1996 when fusarium decimated the provincial winter wheat crop, but growers will... Read More
Ontario winter wheat growers are crossing their fingers and holding their breath as a potential record crop heads into its final weeks of grain fill and approaches harvest. RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson says a key yield indicator he's been watching is the number of seeds at each spikelet. He notes that growers have been sharing... Read More
Farmers across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have access to a new risk mapping tool for assessing fusarium head blight (FHB), fusarium damaged kernels, and deoxynivalenol (DON) risk levels in spring wheat, winter wheat, barley and durum based on weather conditions. The weather-based risk is calculated using real-time weather data from more than 500 stations operated... Read More
Starting in May, Prairie farmers will have access to an up-to-the-day fusarium head blight forecasting tool for winter and spring wheat, durum, and barley. The new forecasting tool is based on over five years of research and field-level proof-of-concept work supported by Alberta Grains, SaskWheat, SaskBarley, the Manitoba Crop Alliance, the University of Manitoba and... Read More
There's plenty of research data that shows applying a T3 fungicide to winter wheat will deliver a yield benefit, even in a dry growing season. RealAgriculture agronomist Peter Johnson says dry growing conditions tend to drive down fusarium head blight and other disease pressure, resulting in less yield loss, but the fungicides also increase the... Read More
There are a few different scenarios to look at when it comes to deciding whether or not to spray a fungicide on wheat. Jeremy Boychyn, agronomy research extension manager with the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions, says there are four key times that producers are either already going over the field, or there is potential... Read More