March 1997
Minnesota Wheat sponsors national briefing on scab
By Tracy Sayler
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
Marcia McMullen, NDSU extension plant pathologist, pointed out that scab is not a new disease; losses are well documented in the last century. However, severe outbreaks in the Northern Plains and the soft red winter wheat growing area have renewed interest and research efforts.
Total losses to producers in North Dakota alone in 1996, in hard red spring wheat, durum, and malting barley, have been estimated at $200 million.
"I do think that this disease has the potential to be an export concern, and a greater food safety concern because of it’s by-product, vomitoxin," said McMullen.
In 1996, an estimated 12 bushels per acre or 1.3 million bushels were lost to scab in Ohio, with discounts of 65 cents per bushel for harvested grain because of poor quality, said Greg Shaner, a plant pathologist at Purdue. Michigan suffered an estimated 22 bushel-per-acre drop in yield, and in Indiana, vomitoxin levels climbed as high as 50 parts per million. Significant losses in other soft red winter wheat states occurred as well.
"Until 1986, we figured scab to be only a periodic problem in this region. There’s been four years since where there’s been major problems." Shaner said that conservation practices do need to be heeded, but reduced tillage and corn residue have made soft red wheat fields more vulnerable to scab.
Bob Busch, a USDA/ARS plant breeder based in St. Paul, said that major yield losses due to scab have occurred in 14 states in the last six years. "It’s not a localized problem anymore," he said. Crop breeders are working toward resistance, but Busch said that it’s difficult to breed for scab resistance without sacrificing other traits, such as quality, rust resistance, and shattering.
"We need to know more about the inheritance of this disease," he said. "Two to three years of work on a problem of this magnitude is not sufficient. This needs to be a nationally-focused issue."
"Reasonable prospects for enhanced support"
Ed Knipling, Deputy Administrator of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, said that USDA has become more aware of scab as a problem since the 1993 epidemic in the Northern Plains.
"The problem goes well beyond wheat producers. It impacts markets, jobs, the economy, and public health, and those are the types of criteria that really get the attention of policy makers and funding allocators," he said. Knipling was optimistic that the FY98 federal budget will pay more research attention to scab and other wheat diseases.
"There are reasonable prospects for enhanced support," he said. However, he pointed out that some funding may be "a reallocation of existing resources, rather than net increases to the research establishment." Long-term funding of ARS is important, said Knipling, along with supplemental funding for special projects like scab.
McMullen pointed out that Busch, as well as NDSU’s wheat breeder and the University of Minnesota’s barley breeder, are all nearing retirement. "There are backup quarterbacks, but there are no backup wheat breeders," she said.
Jim Miller, the NAWG’s executive vice president of government affairs, said that the NAWG will focus on wheat disease research as a priority in the 105th Congress. Congressional hearings on reauthorization of the research title of the 1996 Farm Bill will be held in March. Miller says the NAWG will advance research policy positions approved by wheat growers at the 1997 national convention.