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Wheat breeder says look for Fusarium resistance in new varieties

A wheat breeder and geneticist says the best way to combat fusarium head scab in wheat is through genetics and fungicides.

“The entire soft wheat region in the Eastern U.S. has really been at risk for fusarium this year, so states like Missouri and Illinois are seeing very high levels of scab right now.”      

Eric Olson with Michigan State University tells Brownfield a late harvest last year and cool, wet 2019 are likely to lead to a lot of problems if not managed well.

“Some of the late harvest issues can cause preharvest sprouting and falling number issues can happen particularly when we have excessive rain events and also wild temperature fluctuations.”        

He says growers can mitigate their disease risk by selecting varieties with different maturities and points to scabsmart.org which provides variety trial results from the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative for next year’s planning.