Our
winter wheat and winter barley crops have broken dormancy very early - I’d say
we are 3 - 4 weeks ahead of “average" and almost all of our spring wheat
is planted.
About
3 weeks ago, we started having symptoms of BYD showing in winter cereal fields.
Two times in the last two weeks I have taken a tour through the southern part
of the state. In most areas, 85-95% of our winter wheat fields are showing
95-100% incidence. Some are severe, and growers are removing (spraying and
plowing) some of these fields and replanting spring grain or dry beans. Growth
stages are tillering to jointing.
Contributing
factors include unusual rains last August, high populations of aphids in the
fall (especially in the corn that was green chopped), a long fall, and we have
had one of the warmest winters / earliest springs on record. Full rates of
insecticidal seed treatments have been ineffective due to a long warm fall and
high aphid populations.
Dr.
Arash Rashed and I have been wiring very hard to obtain ELISA and qPCR
confirmation before sending out too many alerts to the growers. I did send an
alert March 16th, but didn’t want to do another until we had proof positive -
double - that what we were seeing was totally accurate. It is so widespread
that even I was questioning myself. It is EVERYWHERE - from Parma to Idaho
Falls and Ririe.
We
also have severe drought conditions, which makes mitigation more difficult and
damage potentially more severe. Many growers will not be able to apply
irrigation for another 1-3 weeks.
We
have virus in wheat, barley, timothy and field borders, roadsides, ditch banks,
and farmyard grasses.I expect greater than 30% losses, in some fields greater
than 60% losses. Winter malt barley fields will not make malt. Many winter
wheat fields will have to go for feed.
Please
use the University of Idaho CIS bulletin as a reference: http://www.cals.uidaho.edu/edcomm/pdf/CIS/CIS1210.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment