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Wheat scab a concern in Illinois
Wheat scab has occurred again in many Illinois wheat fields this year. The wet, humid weather as wheat was flowering was a recipe for its growth. Carl Bradley, University of Illinois plant pathologist says he hasn’t been everywhere but has seen the disease in southern and central Illinois wheat fields.
Spores that cause the infection often come from corn stubble on the ground, Bradley tells Brownfield Ag News, “In a state like Illinois we always have that inoculum present because we have so much corn in our state. But, really, the thing that kind of changes each year would be the weather.”
He says there’s not much to be done about it this year but – for next year – farmers should check out information the University’s wheat breeder posts after screening the various breeds, “And he puts that data up on the U of I variety testing website so somebody could just do a Google search for ‘Illinois variety testing’ and then that should pop up and they could go to the small grains page to find that data.”
Wheat scab doesn’t necessarily reduce yield but it can greatly reduce wheat quality.
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