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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.

The funding is part of a $3.5 million national wheat and barley scab research initiative involving dozens of crop scientists in 20 states. The Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, Minnesota Barley Growers Association, and South Dakota Wheat Inc., all played a role in establishing the National Scab Initiative, and securing the $3.5 million in funding.

The initiative involves research that focuses on six areas: variety development; germplasm introduction; chemical and biological control; epidemiology and disease management; food safety, toxicology and utilization; and biotechnology.

North Dakota’s share of that funding should total about $825,000; Minnesota, $487,000; and SD, $230,000. The federal funding will augment state-funded research, funding new projects or existing programs that need more resources.

Specific research projects in the Northern Plains will include breeding and testing more scab-resistant durum, spring wheat, winter wheat, and barley varieties; the development of a scab forecast system; alternate hosts and moisture effects on inoculum; the inoculum potential of crop residues, evaluation of fungicide products and applications; utilization of contaminated grain; DON sampling, and using biotechnology to insert and evaluate anti-fungal genes into varieties for better scab resistance.

"It’s important to note that although the research is taking place in many states involving many scientists at many different institutions that often compete for research funding and accomplishments, this initiative is a coordinated, cooperative effort with one objective in mind, and that’s to find solutions to scab as quickly as possible," says Tom Anderson, a Barnesville, MN, farmer, and co-chair of the Initiative. Anderson also serves as chair of a small grains research advisory committee to the Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council, which administers the state’s wheat checkoff that helps leverage more federal dollars for wheat research.

Larry Lee, North Dakota Wheat Commission board representative from Velva, ND (top center) makes a point in a meeting producers had with senior USDA Agriculture Research Service officials at the National Scab Forum held recently at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich. Clockwise from Lee are Lawson Jones, U.S. Durum Growers Representative, Webster, ND; Doyle Lentz, ND Barley Council representative from Mylo, ND; Marv Zutz, executive director of the Minnesota Barley Growers Association; Rick Vallery, executive director of SD Wheat Inc.; Rick Ward, MSU wheat breeder and co-chair of the National Scab Initiative; Judy St. John, associate deputy administrator of the ARS National Program Staff; David Torgerson, executive director of the Minnesota Wheat Growers, and Roy Gingery, ARS National Program Leader for Plant Health.

Preliminary results in on 1998 scab fungicide research

Preliminary results from 1998 uniform fungicide trials are showing that commercially available fungicides are effective in reducing the severity of scab on hard red spring wheat. The research was conducted by a team of researchers from seven states working through the US National Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative.

"Our data indicates the foliar fungicides to suppress scab and leaf diseases gave positive economic results in 1998, even with the low prices," says Marcia McMullen, NDSU extension plant pathologist.

Based on early data from trials held in the Dakotas and Minnesota, commercially available fungicides produced yield increases on hard red spring wheat ranging from 4% to nearly 50%, McMullen says. In four North Dakota trials involving hard red spring wheat, commercial fungicides produced average yield increases from 12.2% to 19.2%.

McMullen is coordinator for the fungicide technology network of the US National Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative, a federally funded research effort the purpose of which is to stop scab from damaging US wheat and barley crops.

Surveys Show Scab Severity Drops in 1998

Disease surveys conducted by NDSU researchers indicate that scab took less of a toll on wheat yields than in previous years. The effect of scab on this year’s barley crop was related largely to quality, with levels of vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol or DON) in barley often too high for use by malting and brewing companies.

"The disease was again the most damaging in the northeast on hard red spring wheat," says Marcia McMullen, extension plant pathologist at NDSU. "Durum fields in the north central and northwest parts of the state also had economic losses."

McMullen estimates that ND producers lost about 5.2 million bushels of hard red spring wheat and about 4.6 million bushels of durum. "This is considerably less than in previous years," she says.

Even so, McMullen says hard red spring wheat producers could easily have lost twice as many bushels had acreage in the northeast been at the 1992-1996 average. Instead, 1998 wheat acreage in the northeast was nearly 31% smaller than that five-year average.

The use of more scab-tolerant varieties and later plantings also helped reduce this year’s scab problem, McMullen says. In addition, a relatively dry July helped reduce scab severity for some, although the rain that came in June when some of the wheat crops were flowering was responsible for the scab problems other producers experienced.

The area included in the barley disease survey stretched beyond the northeast crop reporting district to Ward County in the west and to Cass County in the south, McMullen says. Scab was present everywhere within the survey area, but as with hard red spring wheat, the severities were greatest in the northeast district. Also as with wheat, later-planted barley showed slightly less-severe scab infections.

.Crop scientists review scab research results presented at the National Scab Forum held recently at Michigan State University. Six years ago in Moorhead, MN, the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers and Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council organized the first scab forum.

NDSU Scab Research Report available

More than 20 individual reports on research efforts at NDSU relating to scab are in an October 1998 publication titled "Current Research on Fusarium Head Blight of Small Grains." Producers and others interested in finding out more about scab research at NDSU should contact their local extension office for a copy of the report.