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Winter
2017
Grains
West
32
Feature
BY Geoff Geddes • IMAGES COURTESY OF MICHAEL HARDING AND THE SASKATCHEWAN WHEAT DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
Dreaded cereal disease coming soon to a field near you
Blight at the end
of the tunnel
t the movie theatre,
trailers for “coming attractions”
are designed to whet your
appetite. Unfortunately, for many years
in Alberta, the most hyped “coming
attraction” in the agriculture world was a
rapidly spreading cereal disease with an
appetite for destruction. After scathing
reviews in other provinces, the B-movie
thriller known as Fusarium head blight
(FHB) is taking Alberta by storm, and
producers have a front-row seat.
Also known as “scab” and
“tombstone,” FHB is a fungal disease
that affects wheat, barley, oats and other
small cereal grains, as well as corn.
“It is caused by a range of Fusarium
species, but the most damaging one is
Fusarium graminearum (F. graminearum)
,”
said Kelly Turkington, a plant pathology
research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-
Food Canada’s Lacombe Research and
Development Centre.
In the mid 1980s,
F. graminearum
was
rare in Western Canada. However, the
situation soon changed.
“1993 was a watershed year for
F.
graminearum
,” said Turkington. “Prior to
that, it was foundmostly inManitoba and
states like North Dakota andMinnesota.
Suddenly it was being detectedmore
frequently in Fusarium-damaged kernels
in eastern Saskatchewan in the late 1990s,
before spreading west and into Alberta.”
By the early 2000s, Fusarium became
more prominent in southern Alberta,
causing an increase in issues with grade
reduction. Then, five years ago, the
disease made its way to central Alberta
and beyond.
Hitting close tohome
Now that
F. graminearum
has become
more of an issue in Alberta, FHB risk maps
are in the works. The Alberta Wheat
Commission (AWC) will provide initial
seed funding to get the map project
up and running. Brian Kennedy, grower
relations and extension co-ordinator with
AWC, is spearheading that effort.
“The map isn’t a definitive tool,” said
Kennedy. “It provides more data and
awareness to growers to inform their
decisions.”
If all goes as planned, there may be
pilot maps available to producers by next
summer. “We need to review weather
and
F. graminearum
data from the last
couple of years to validate the model
for Alberta,” said Kennedy. “Getting
the maps out is important, but we’d
rather release no information than bad
information.”
Although the current focus is on
developing a map for wheat, it’s hoped
the project can be modified for barley
once a working model is established,
said Garson Law, research manager for
Alberta Barley.
A