Three experimental wheat varieties developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are showing yield increases of eight to 15 per cent over AAC Brandon wheat in registration trials, with two varieties potentially reaching commercial markets within two years.

The varieties, designated BW1167, BW1170, and BW1174, are in their second year of testing at 12 locations across the Prairies as part of the Central Bread Wheat registration trial process.

Santosh Kumar, a wheat breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, presented the results during a field tour at research plots near Brandon on Aug. 7. The tour was part of the agency’s “Ahead by a Century” celebration marking 100 years of plant disease and breeding research in Manitoba.

WHY IT MATTERS: Three experimental wheat varieties from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are outperforming AAC Brandon yield by up to 15 per cent in Prairie trials, with two potentially reaching farmers within two years.

BW1167, currently in its second year of testing, is a cross between Canadian line BW1052 and North Dakota line ND820.

“It’s 15 per cent high yielding than Brandon. It has similar maturity to Brandon. It’s two centimeters taller,” Kumar said.

The variety shows strong disease resistance, including against leaf rust, stripe rust, stem rust.

BW 170, a sister line from the same cross, also shows 15 per cent higher yields than Brandon while being just a bit shorter than BW1167. Both varieties are resistant to midge, a significant pest in the region.

A third variety, BW1174, developed through double haploid technology, shows eight per cent higher yields than Brandon despite being susceptible to midge.

“Even then, eight per cent higher yielding than Brandon is a decent yield advantage,” Kumar said.

Yield comparisons come from the Central Bread Wheat registration trial, where approximately 30 entries are tested annually at 12 locations across the eastern Prairies for three years, Kumar said.

“Multiple locations are tested across the Prairies, and then data is now statistically analyzed to figure out which variety has done well every year across all locations.”

Recently released AC Rivers wheat now yields 11 per cent higher than Brandon, according to registration trial data.

Technology advances breeding timeline

Double haploid technology is changing wheat development timelines, Kumar said. Traditional breeding takes seven to 10 years to reach uniformity, while double haploid technology achieves the same result in one year.

“That’s the technology we use to create the haploids and then use a chemical called colchicine to double the genome,” Kumar said.

However, Kumar noted that double haploids now comprise only 25 to 30 per cent of his program, down from 50 per cent.

“Because of the changing environment, the climate change, disease pressure is changing. We have to now do a little bit of a wider cross,” he said.

Historical genetic resource

The tour began at the Grow Canada population, featuring 350 wheat varieties from the 1900s to 2023. Kumar described this collection as genetic resource material.

“GROW stands for Genetic Resource of Wheat for Canada,” Kumar said.

Despite their appearance, with many plants tall and showing disease symptoms, their value for drought tolerance is high, Kumar said.

“A lot of the plants that are very tall, they have very deep root system, [which] helps in drought. They have a lot of waxiness to them. Some of them are really purple in colour, and that’s where the drought loss tolerance will come, because the wax layer prohibits water loss.”

The collection serves multiple research programs, with teams from the University of British Columbia studying the population in Saskatoon and Manitoba researchers using it for pre-harvest sprouting studies.

Disease resistance priority

Kumar and other research scientists are also focused on breeding genetic disease resistance to reduce fungicide dependence.

“In our breeding program, we try to give you the genetic resistance so you don’t need fungicides,” he said.

There are five priority diseases for wheat that Kumar considers: leaf rust, stem rust, stripe rust, fusarium head blight and common bunt.

“Every variety should have an optimum level of resistance before it’s actually released as a variety,” Kumar said.

However, there is a trade-off that’s involved in stacking multiple resistance genes.

“Plants are not very efficient,” Kumar said. “If I …bring in too many traits, now it’s a drag on the plant.”

Public breeding program goals

Public breeding programs play an important role in providing farmers with choices, Kumar said.

“That’s the beauty of it. In public breeding, we do not cater for the largest acres. We want to provide options, as many options as we can so that every farmer has a choice.”

This approach produces varieties with different trait combinations, including both midge-tolerant and midge-susceptible options for farmers in different regions.

Looking ahead

BW1151, derived from the same cross that produced AAC Spike but developed through traditional breeding methods, will be ready for public release next year. This variety shows a 6.5 per cent higher yielding than Brandon, Kumar said.

The post Meet the new yield-boosting wheat varieties being developed in Manitoba appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Infected wheat kernels, known as fusarium-damaged kernels (FDK), can be visually assessed by a producer, typically appearing chalky white, shrunken and sometimes covered in pink or white mycelium. But other cereals aren’t as easily assessed, such as barley, which has a hull that hides the infection.

The visual assessment is also subjective, labour-intensive and misleading, as contaminated kernels can appear healthy.

WHY IT MATTERS: Fusarium infection in cereals can become a serious marketing problem for the farmer.

Sheila Andrade, a PhD student at the University of Saskatchewan, has been working on developing a method of detection to ease the struggles of producers, agronomists and industry.

“DON is measured by chromatography and immunological methods, which is costly, destructive and also time-consuming,” she explained during her presentation at the Pan-American Light Sources for Agriculture conference.

The disease affects kernel development, and both DON and FDK are downgrading factors, with FDK often used as a proxy for DON contamination. However, those correlations are not consistent, since contamination is also influenced by the genotype isolate and the time of kernel infection. Because of this, Andrade has been studying an alternative method of detection.

Andrade is working with what she describes as “a synchrotron-based x-ray phase-contrast computed tomography” — essentially using powerful x-ray imaging at the Canadian Light Source (CLS). Her objective is to measure the physical traits of fusarium-infected wheat kernels, link those traits with DON contamination, and compare how fusarium symptoms differ between durum and bread wheat.

Once these parameters and the images are understood, they can be used to inform machine-learning technology to create an easy disease detection method.

Research process

There were four varieties of durum wheat and five varieties of bread wheat varieties used in the research. Each variety was planted in field nurseries and inoculated with Fusarium graminearum at the flowering growth stage. When they reached maturity, they were harvested and then went to CLS for Andrade’s research.

The wheat spikes were placed in test tubes, and scanned in batches of six using the biomedical imaging beamline at CLS. This beamline enabled Andrade and her team to non-destructively view the wheat spike from different angles and digitally reconstruct the kernels in 3D.

From there, the test tubes were separated and individual kernels were isolated. Researchers were then able to measure traits used to identify FDK, including total area, length, width and volume, as well as shape factor, density, grey mass and thickness.

“After we finish all the image processing and the segmentation, we wanted to know how the kernel was contaminated and the level of contamination of each individual kernel,” Andrade said.

However, to determine the contamination, the team had to manually thresh the wheat spikes and label each kernel to its corresponding image analysis. In total, they manually threshed 725 kernels and classified them into two groups: 369 DON-free and 356 DON-contaminated kernels.

This information was analyzed to learn how the parameters would shift between contaminated and non-contaminated. Andrade explained that a significant difference was found between the groups for most parameters, except for length. The DON-free kernels had high values in most traits, except for shape factor, as expected.

There were also significant interactions with the wheat type, where the physical differences were more evident in bread wheat.

Machine-learning model

By using the imaging from the synchrotron beamlines, Andrade determined that average size, density, shape, length and grey mass were the most important features in determining DON-contaminated versus DON-free kernels.

“We have some interesting results showing that, for example, density and gray mass and sometimes shape differ between the infected and non-infected kernels,” she said. “This why we got this significant difference, and why we use those parameters to train a machine-learning model.”

Using this information, Andrade and her colleagues tested four different machine-learning models. They trained the models with 70 per cent of their data set and reserved the remaining 30 per cent to test accuracy. One model performed best, correctly classifying about 80 per cent of DON-contaminated kernels and 82 per cent of DON-free kernels. However, it still missed about 20 per cent of the contaminated kernels.

Going forward

This was a “first step project” for Andrade. Its goal was to learn if X-ray images would be an effective way to separate kernels. So far, it’s been a success.

She said the next goal would be to use a portable machine to benefit wheat breeders, who have a lot of materials to analyze, and could eventually be used by agronomists, farmers and the industry.

A machine of this sort would be a game-changer in disease detection, helping better identify DON-contaminated kernels that may slip beneath the radar and cause a potential food security issues.

Andrade hopes that such a machine would be available in the next three to five years, based on machines similar to those used in the lab right now. The team already works closely with members of the engineering department, who developed a lab-level, portable RGB camera. She said she’d like to have something similar but for X-ray.

Potentially, there may be a need for combining more than one image type, such as X-ray and conventional photographic images, since colour can be important for identifying FDK.

Another part of the project is expanding to other cereals. Andrade has recently begun imaging and analyzing barley and will move on to other crops once that work is complete. Barley is a priority since the hull hides infection, leaving breeders, producers and industry “blind.”

“They don’t know what’s happening, so they need to test,” she said. “If we can use the x-ray image to predict DON, it will be really useful for them, because they don’t have the visual assessment to guide them.”

The method is proving helpful for wheat, and Andrade believes it could be even more valuable for barley. Once the key parameters are clear, much of the process can be applied to other cereals. Those should be quicker to image and segment than wheat, though still time-consuming. For now, Andrade has 1,500 samples — each with 100 seeds — from the past three years still waiting to be analyzed.

The post Detector in development to spot fusarium head blight’s signature toxin appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

WHY IT MATTERS: Fusarium head blight not only reduces crop yields, but can also produce mycotoxins that make grain unsuitable for human or animal consumption, leading to marketing penalties.

The Fusarium Head Blight Risk Mapping Tool, hosted by the University of Manitoba, is a major upgrade from previous forecasting systems, said Andrew Hector, agronomy extension specialist with the alliance.

The mapping tool is a more local take on the fight against FHB, says the alliance’s website. Before last year, it noted, the Prairie provinces derived their FHB forecasts from United States models that had been adjusted for the region.

“However, due to the differences between the models used in each province, the past maps could show different risk levels,” the website states. “This was especially an issue for producers along provincial borders, who could receive different risk levels depending on which provincial map they viewed.”

Building a fusarium head blight tool

The new tool looked local to build its forecasting model. Data was drawn from a research project led by the U of M’s Paul Bullock.. Between 2018 and 2023, researchers collected FHB data from over 1,800 plots spread across the Prairies, with an additional 300 producer fields used for validation.

“The models are (a) very much Western Canadian, Prairie-made model and risk mapping tool,” Hector said during a recent Crop Talk webinar hosted by Manitoba Agriculture.

The current system addresses several limitations of the old forecasting maps that frustrated farmers. Those documents, hosted on the Manitoba Agriculture website, were static images updated only on weekdays.

“This usually left a gap in time during weekends where no map updates were occurring,” Hector said.

And because they were static, they provided a good overview idea of FHB risk, but no ability for a farmer to really zoom in on specific parts of the province, he added.

The system itself was also long in the tooth.

“The models were over 20-years-old, so some questions were coming about its accuracy and just the need for updating it with the change of weather patterns,” Hector said.

The new tool, in contrast, allows users to zoom into specific regions, choose dates ranges and crop types, and export customized maps.

Fusarium risk by crop

For the first time, the tool also includes risk models for multiple crop types, including spring wheat, winter wheat, barley and durum. Previously, maps were only specific to spring wheat and applicable somewhat to winter wheat.

The tool also allows customization according to variety.

“The models are developed independently for each crop type and selected based off of their individual statistical accuracy,” Hector said. “Each algorithm uses different weather parameters as well, so the risk levels determined at a given location at a given day can actually vary between the models.”

Reading the risk maps

The mapping tool displays risk levels in colour-coded categories: low (green), moderate (yellow), high (red) and very high (black). Users can also view time-lapse animations showing how risk levels have changed over recent days, helping farmers understand disease pressure trends in their area.

The tool operates from May 15 to Aug. 31 each year and draws weather data from over 130 weather stations in Manitoba alone, including the Manitoba Agriculture weather station network and Environment and Climate Change Canada stations. Farmers can access the tool at prairiefhb.ca.

Farmers still have to scout

Despite the mapping tool’s sophistication, Hector said that it should work alongside, not replace, traditional field scouting. The risk maps only provide information about environmental conditions favourable for disease development. Farmers still need to determine if their fields match the crop susceptibility timing shown on the maps.

“The risk maps are based on models, and no models are 100 per cent accurate, so therefore this map needs to be used in tandem with traditional scouting methods to determine fusarium head blight risk for individual fields,” Hector said.

Future work on the digital tool

Researchers hope to address a number of remaining limitations in future versions of the mapping tool.

Unlike weather forecasting, the system cannot predict future risk levels beyond the current date, Hector said.

“At this point, this tool does not have that functionality. I believe that is something that the researchers have thought of, and depending on a lot of different aspects, would like to add to it, but it’s not available currently,” he said.

The risk parameters also vary by crop type. Winter wheat and barley currently only show fusarium head blight risk, while spring wheat includes additional risk categories for fusarium damaged kernels and deoxynivalenol (DON) levels—both determined through laboratory analysis rather than visual field symptoms.

“Maybe in the future, these risks will be rolled out for all crop types,” Hector said.

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On June 3, U.S. federal prosecutors accused two Chinese researchers of smuggling samples of the fungus Fusarium graminearum into the U.S., describing it as a potential agricultural terrorism weapon.

Yunqing Jian, 33, a researcher at the University of Michigan’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology has been chargedin connection with allegations that she helped her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, smuggle the pathogen into the U.S.

‘Pretty ineffective’ weapon

However, agriculture experts interviewed by Reuters this week said the fungus has been in the U.S. for more than a century, can be prevented by spraying pesticides, and is only dangerous if ingested regularly and in large quantities.

“As a weapon, it would be a pretty ineffective one,” said Jessica Rutkoski, a crop sciences professor, wheat breeder and geneticist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rutkoski and other researchers said extensive testing for the fungus’ toxin, widespread use of fungicides and the difficulty of intentionally creating an infection with the pathogen would make it a clumsy weapon. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI declined Reuters’ request for comment.

Since the 1900s, U.S. farmers have been battling the fungus, which causes Fusarium head blight, usually known as “scab,” which often infects wheat, barley and other grains on farms during rainy years. The telltale pink streaks on the grain heads contain a toxic byproduct called vomitoxin, which is tested for and tightly controlled by grain elevators where farmers sell their crops.

Constant testing and monitoring means that only negligible amounts of vomitoxin ever make it into the bread, pasta and cookies Americans eat, far below levels that would sicken a human, experts said.

Farmers have history with fusarium

“We have a long history of managing epidemics of scab,” said Andrew Friskop, professor and plant pathologist at North Dakota State University, noting that farmers have access to many tools to prevent and control the disease. Farmers began regularly spraying their fields with fungicide as early as the 1990s, and researchers have since developed multiple strains of fungus-resistant wheat.

Plant experts said that it would be difficult to fully assess the risks posed by the samples without more information on the particular strain. But Rutkoski, whose research involves intentionally contaminating wheat with the fungus, said that she isn’t always successful at infecting her test field’s wheat with scab. She said the pathogen is difficult to control, and her lab has to strike the right balance of temperature and humidity to create an infection.

In federal court in Detroit on Tuesday, Jian was charged with conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the U.S., smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements and visa fraud. Jian did not comment on the charges, and the lawyer who represented her in court was not immediately available for comment. Liu could not be immediately reached for comment.

The court scheduled Jian’s bail hearing for June 13.

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The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday identified the pathogen as Fusarium graminearum, a fungus it said was classified in scientific literature as a potential agroterrorism weapon. In a statement it said that the fungus causes “head blight” in some crops and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses globally each year.

Why it matters: Fusarium head blight hurts yields and crop quality, causing billions of dollars of damage globally each year

According to an FBI criminal complaint, Zunyong Liu, 34, a researcher currently in China, brought the fungus into the United States while visiting his girlfriend, Yunqing Jian, 33, in July 2024.

He admitted to smuggling in the fungus so he could conduct research on it at a University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend worked, according to the complaint.

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the complaint, an examination of electronic communications between the two indicated that they discussed shipping biological materials and research being done in the laboratory prior to Liu’s arrival.

Jian and Liu were accused in the complaint of conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements and visa fraud.

Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, said the pair’s actions “posed an imminent threat to public safety.”

Jian was expected to appear in court in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday. A judge appointed a public defender, who could not be immediately reached for comment, to represent Jian.

The post Two Chinese researchers accused of smuggling ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into U.S. appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

WHY IT MATTERS: Managing fusarium head blight is a yearly conversation for farmers on the Prairies.

The two primary weapons against fusarium — fungicides and resistant varieties — don’t offer the same measure of control as they do for some other important cereal diseases. That’s why Kelly Turkington, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada plant pathology researcher at Lacombe, Alta., recommends an integrated approach incorporating best practices that can be used from seeding to post-harvest to help farmers get a better grip on fusarium head blight.

Resistant varieties

Turkington notes resistance to Fusarium graminearium, the main species found on Prairie farms, is generally improving, with breeders continuing to make incremental advances in reducing the incidence and severity of fusarium damaged kernels (FDK) and deoxynivalenol (DON) mycotoxins in infected crops.

However, he says growers still need to have realistic expectations around resistant varieties. Wheat rated MR for F. graminearum, for example, won’t provide the same level of control as a variety with an MR rating for stripe rust would, for example.

“Under favourable conditions, like we had in the eastern Prairie region this year, that MR rating reduces the amount of disease,” Turkington says. “You might have five parts per million of DON where you have a susceptible variety, but with your MR variety, you’re still looking at probably two to three parts per million of DON. It doesn’t eliminate it completely, so that’s something to keep in mind.”

Crop rotation

Fusarium can survive on the residue of infected plants, and in very short or continuous rotations of cereal crops, the pathogen can build up and cause serious infestations. Longer rotations of least two years between host crops allows more time for crop stubble to break down and therefore reduces the risk of fusarium infection.

Turkington also recognizes, however, that disease control isn’t the only concern for farmers. They also have commodity prices, reliable markets and management issues for non-host crops such as field peas (which have different fusarium issues, largely from the pathogens Fusarium avenaceum, Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum).

“I always emphasize that I’m recommending a rotation based on my knowledge as a plant pathologist. But at the same time, I understand there are many factors that will influence what crops you decide to plant,” Turkington says.

Turkington says in areas with farmland where F. graminearum is well established, longer rotations may not be enough to prevent a fusarium head blight outbreak. The pathogen’s presence in a nearby field is enough to create a wind-blown spore problem. That’s why it’s recommended to try to avoid planting small grain cereals right beside cereal or corn fields where F. graminearum levels are known or suspected to be high, he said.

Seeding

Using good-quality certified seed, and seed that has been tested for the fusarium pathogen, is thought to be helpful in fighting fusarium head blight in cereals.

Turkington says for farmers in those parts of the Prairies where fusarium is already well established, the primary concern is how much F. graminearum is present in a seed lot and its likely effect on seed performance.

“It’s very important in that situation to have a seed test done to look at germination and perhaps vigour, and then, of course, the disease load on the seed. That will give you some clues as to whether there are some issues with that seed lot,” he said.

“You have to have pretty high levels of seed infection to start to see a significant drop in germination and ultimately field performance. Typically, once you start getting above about 10 per cent seed infection rate, that’s where a lot of these seed performance issues start to show up.”

Turkington said research has shown fungicidal seed treatments don’t provide complete control of seed to seedling transmission of F. graminearum, but they can give crops a better chance of withstanding the disease and establishing a more uniform stand.

If pathogen levels aren’t too high in seed, he says, good-quality seed treatment that’s applied using good application technology can help ensure rapid uniform seed germination, resulting in uniform seedling emergence and growth and a uniform plant stand.

This in turn will lead to uniform head emergence within the crop and a more uniform target for fusarium fungicide applications during the growing season.

Turkington says farmers wishing to protect cereal crops from fusarium should be mindful of seeding rates as well.

“Seeding rates relate to the uniformity of the target you’re trying to hit with fungicide, which is the head tissue. Lower seeding rates will result in more secondary tiller development and a potentially wider window for potential infection to occur,” Turkington says, acknowledging that challenging weather or soil conditions at seeding may also result in variable emergence and non-uniform crop development.

“It makes it much more difficult to get good coverage of all the head tissue in that field [and] that may increase your risk in in terms of having some issues with fusarium head blight,” he says.

According to Turkington, limiting irrigation at certain times on irrigated fields can also help. Since fusarium head blight thrives in moist conditions he says, reducing or withholding irrigation water for as long as possible after head emergence can help reduce the risk of disease development.

Limiting residue

Because F. graminearum can overwinter in crop stubble, practices that facilitate decomposition of this residue will help remove a potential source of inoculum. This can include using combine straw choppers/spreaders or other implements after harvest to chop up crop residue and distribute it widely over the field.

Turkington notes the smaller residue pieces are, the faster they will decompose. He adds making sure there’s a good spread of material across a field will help prevent those thick swaths of chaff and straw that may contribute to fusarium buildup in subsequent years.

According to Turkington, adjusting equipment so that disease damaged kernels are blown out the back of combines during harvesting can be another effective control measure.

U.S. research shows that by removing smaller, lighter weight fusarium-damaged kernels this way, it can lead to grade improvements and also reduce DON levels in infected grain, he says. The practice typically works better for wheat and durum than for barley and oats, because of the type and extent of kernel shrivelling that occurs in these crops.

A potential drawback of this approach is it may increase the fusarium risk to subsequent crops, since it means highly infected material is going back in the field.

Turkington says the decision then for farmers is whether the benefit they hope to gain by having a more marketable grain crop outweighs the disease risk from FDKs, which are very prolific producers of the wind-borne spore stage of F. graminearum.

Turkington notes weed seed destroyers mounted on the back of combines could be another useful tool for limiting the spread of fusarium inoculum since, in addition to weed seeds, they can crush FDKs.

“I look at the research my colleague Breanne Tidemann had done with harvest weed seed destruction technology and feel it has a potential role to play. Here, you’re basically pulverizing that FDK tissue and facilitating its more rapid decomposition in the field. So there’s a much more rapid disappearance of that as a source of the disease,” he said.

The post Building your 2025 plan against fusarium head blight appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“I think it is really important to emphasize that it’s a complex issue and complex issues just take time,” said Sabine Banniza, a professor of plant pathology with the University of Saskatchewan.

Research into root rots like aphanomyces and fusarium is like studying ways to beat cancer in humans, she said. It’s a big job.

“Researchers have worked on (cancer) for decades and it’s not as if we are cancer-free by now. So some of these really complex diseases in plants also require a lot of time to get a handle on them.”

Why it matters: Diseases like aphanomyces require long rotations to manage, hitting at potential pulse acres and production on the Prairies.

In the meantime, she said, researchers need producers to use all the best practices in their toolboxes — particularly effective rotations — to hold the soil-borne diseases at bay.

“They have to be more aware of rotational impacts on root rots if they have infected fields, and then act accordingly,” she said.

”I totally understand that there are always economic drivers in making decisions on what crop to grow, but maybe there should be a little bit of a question about short-term benefit versus long-term risk.”

In the win column

In one of the biggest breakthroughs of the last few years, researchers found that many species of fusarium are actually “complexes” of several fusarium species. Combined, they can cause more damage than a single species.

“We knew that aphanomyces, Fusarium avenaceum, Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum are the main pathogens on … pea and lentil,” said Banniza.

Her focus is F.solani and F.oxysporum.

“There are four separate species that were thrown together in the past and called Fusarium solani,” she noted.

F.oxysporum is also a complex of various fusarium species.

The specific fusarium species might not mean much for the farmer in the field right now, but it’s invaluable information for breeding resistance, she said.

“It’s very important for us to understand whether we are dealing with one species or whether we are dealing with four species. We now have to figure out whether all of these species equally infect all of the pulse crops or not,” she added.

Wheat in the equation

Several fusarium species, particularly F.avenaceum, are also wheat diseases.

A group of scientists with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge is isolating F.avenaceum from wheat and then inoculating those isolates onto pea and lentil to see if the same isolates virulent on wheat are also virulent on the pulses. The concept also works the other way, with F.avenaceum from pulses giving insight into the pathogen’s behaviour on wheat.

“That is really the important information for breeding and also for agronomy, because that may influence rotations,” Banniza noted. “If you have different populations on wheat and on pea and lentil, maybe then the rotation can still have some effect on at least not increasing F.avenaceum from pea and lentil where you’ve grown wheat.”

Genetic gains on aphanomyces?

Another significant achievement has been the development of pea lines with partial resistance to aphanomyces.

Resistent varieties would be a game-changer for the crop. Historical best practices have said that, if a field is infected with aphanomyces, the farmer might need to skip seven or eight years between pea crops.

There is still a lot of work before pea genetics reach that bar, the Saskatchewan researcher said.

“It’s only last year that we were able to do the first screening in the field. They do reduce root rot, but only a little bit because they are not resistant to the fusarium species.”

Unfortunately, Banniza and her USask colleague, Tom Warkentin, found this first generation of partially resistant peas lacking in yield potential. That can be explained by the narrow focus of the project, said Banniza.

“This was a research project focused solely on resistance and not yield or lodging or any of the other traits that you want to see in an elite pea variety. You can only do that in the context of the general breeding program. This was a research project very much focused on moving the resistance into the background of our varieties.”

Banniza said there will only be a dramatic reduction in root rot once researchers find a way to combine resistance to aphanomyces, F.avenaceum, F.solani and F.oxysporum.

“That’s what Tom Warkentin is doing now. He’s started to combine the aphanomyces root rot resistance with Fusarium avenaceum resistance,” she said.

Multi-pronged attack

They’re not the only research team taking aim at aphanomyces and other root rots.

In 2016 and 2017, an AAFC Lethbridge study led by Syama Chatterton studied a variety of chemical seed treatments on pea crops at Lethbridge and Taber, Alta. None were found to be a viable solution.

A Japanese fungicide seed treatment called hymexazol, registered in the U.S. for sugar beets, turned out to be the only tested chemical to control some forms of root rot, but was deemed too expensive in the context of Western Canada’s pulse and wheat industries.

Other than that, the best chemical contenders can control root rot when combined with something else. Rancona Trio — a seed treatment registered in Canada for early season suppression of aphanomyces in lentils, peas and faba beans — is one such example.

Chatterton tested the product (a combination of carbathiin, metalaxyl and ipconazole active ingredients) in 2021, 2022 and 2023 on fields in five locations (Lacombe and Taber in Alberta and Redvers, Scott and Swift Current in Saskatchewan).

She investigated Rancona Trio on its own, as well as combined with partially aphanomyces-resistant pea germplasm from Europe.

The first two years were a bust. Sites were too dry for the moisture-loving pathogen. In the third year, though, they saw significant reduction of disease at four out of five sites, but only when the treatment was combined with the European pea germplasm. Results appeared to go beyond suppression and into active control of root rot.

“As we move towards releasing pea varieties with some partial resistance, maybe Rancona Trio will be an option to improve root rot problems,” said Banniza.

Michelle Hubbard, also a researcher with AAFC Lethbridge, has tested several products and combinations of products — including lime, gypsum and MustGrow (a mustard-based product that controls soil-borne pests and diseases in fruits and vegetable crops) — throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan. Her results have found highly variable suppression, but it’s unclear what might have happened if partial resistance was added into the picture.

Banniza hopes a five-year strategic research initiative supported by the Saskatchewan government, Research Driven Agriculture Research, the Western Grains Research Foundation and provincial pulse grower organizations will allow more chance to investigate these potential solutions.

The grower organizations include Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Alberta Pulse Growers and Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers.

“Michelle will be looking at combining treatments like gypsum or lime or MustGrow and then, once we have more (pulse) lines with partial resistance, combining partial resistance with these treatments,” Banniza said

Ultimately, she doubts there will be a “single-tool solution” to aphanomyces and fusarium root rots.

“It will be a more complicated way of management that will involve resistance. It will involve, hopefully, some seed treatments or soil treatments, and so it will be more complex than just going out and liming or whatever.”

Another major component of the initiative will be a long-term rotation study across several sites in Saskatchewan. This goal is to gather data on the effects of six- to eight-year rotations.

“It’s to look at what exactly is happening over six years or eight years in these locations, because we really don’t have any hard data from Saskatchewan on that,” said Banniza.

The post Research lays siege against pulse root rots appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

A website, rootrot.ca, has been launched through the Pulse Root Rot Network. Users can access information on agronomy, breeding and pathology to advance research and management practices.

Why it matters: Root rot diseases like aphanomyces are a major challenge for producers who want to grow more peas in Manitoba.

The website is part of the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers’ collaborative efforts against root rot diseases affecting peas and lentils. The group partners with other western Canadian pulse organizations, such as Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and Alberta Pulse Growers, to pursue a national research strategy.

The initiative seeks knowledge, methods and tools to fight pathogens like aphanomyces and fusarium.

“As root rots are a top priority, this website was developed to allow consistent messaging and increase the collaborative approach to addressing this issue by connecting researchers,” Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers said in a Sept. 11 release.

“This website includes resources, tools and research to create a central location for growers, agronomists, researchers and the pulse industry.”

Site content will range from practical tools for root rot risk management to information on biology and behaviour of pathogens and the latest breeding efforts to develop genetic resistance.

While focused on peas and lentils, research also offers insights into root rot in dry beans and soybeans.

Since 2018, the Manitoba group has dedicated more than $1 million to root rot research, backed by federal-provincial programs and the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. It has pledged an additional $150,000 in 2025.

The post New website launched to fight pulse root rots appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Some cereal growers are grappling with high levels, while others report little to no trouble with the fungal disease. Some in central Manitoba report cereals downgraded to Grade 2, the Sept. 3 provincial crop report noted.

Why it matters: Fusarium levels in Manitoba are affecting grain quality for some growers, influencing market prices and harvest decisions.

“We did see fusarium throughout the province, and the actual incidence of fusarium — the amount of fusarium that we saw in a field — ranged from zero, some fields had no fusarium, upwards of fairly high levels of fusarium,” said Anne Kirk, cereals specialist with Manitoba Agriculture.

Incidence should not be confused with severity, she cautioned. Recent surveys identified a number of fusarium instances, but severity in most cases was low.

“Maybe only one spikelet on each spike actually had fusarium-infected kernels on it.”

Infected kernels tend to be lighter and are often blown out the back of the combine at harvest, Kirk said.

Despite the notation in the provincial crop report, most grain elevator managers in Manitoba say they haven’t seen significant fusarium issues in initial samples and downgrades are few.

Jeremy Pullinger, operator at the Delmar Commodities elevator in Gladstone, Man., said few samples have had a fusarium problem so far, similar to what he saw in 2023.

At Linear Grain Elevator in Carman, Ryan McKnight has noticed more fusarium in spring wheat than in other years. That led to some declines in grade, he noted, but that hasn’t been common.

“We are hearing a little bit about some higher (fusarium levels) found in barley, but … we haven’t had any real problems so far in the Carman area,” he said.

A more comprehensive picture of fusarium severity will emerge in October, when the province publishes its crop diseases surveys, Kirk noted. She and other specialists have been collecting samples and investigating disease across Manitoba.

More data will also be available in quality reports from the Canadian Grain Commission.

The post Manitoba wheat sees mixed fusarium levels appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

But that also means disease of all kinds — including cereal leaf diseases — are coming out to play. And now is the time to get them, said a plant pathologist.

“For disease this is our peak season. That’s when fungicide decisions are made,” said Randy Kutcher with the University of Saskatchewan. The big cereal leaf diseases in the province tend to be tan spot in wheat and durum and net blotch in barley, he said. Durum has also attracted some septoria in the past as well as bacterial leaf streak, particularly among seed growers under irrigation. Cereal crops are usually sprayed for leaf diseases at the fully-unfurled flag leaf stage. However, most crops in Saskatchewan have already passed that benchmark, said Kutcher.

The good news is that many (if not most) cereal producers today use one fungicide pass to take out fusarium head blight (FHB) at flowering and hope that it will also have some impact on leaf diseases. Kutcher recommended that practice.

“I see there’s lots of spray tracks in some of the fields,” he said. “I would think a lot of that is for fusarium head blight, but that application of fungicide will also help to mitigate the leaf diseases to some effect. Generally we like to hit the leaf diseases a little earlier.”

When that flowering takes place, of course, depends on when growers seeded. Due to the cool, wet spring interfering with seeding in some cases, that timing may vary, said Kutcher. Regardless, it’s just nice to have moisture, he said. “We’ve had quite a number of dry years. so I think everybody’s pretty happy. We’ve had a bit of replenishment of moisture in the soil and pretty good growing conditions.”

Watch this space for more coverage of cereal leaf diseases on the Prairies.

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