News

Disease pressure remains low in the wheat crop for Kansas

An extension wheat and forage specialist says he hasn’t seen a lot of disease pressure in the Kansas wheat crop.

Romulo Lollato with Kansas State says there’s been an increase in the wheat streak mosaic virus the last couple of growing seasons, but not this year.  “Our lab here at K State, we are receiving a few samples and they have been testing positive. But in terms of sheer number of samples coming out, much less than what we had in previous years.”

He tells Brownfield stripe rust disease usually develops in the southern Great Plains and moves north. “In Texas and Oklahoma, it has been very low. We are not seeing that move up into Kansas yet. We have not had a single report of stripe in Kansas to date, even though right now the conditions are really good for the disease.”

Lollato says growers should monitor their fields for the disease and may need to consider applying a fungicide application if they identify it.