Wheat Harvest Heavily Infected With Mosaic, Maize Red Stripe Viruses - AFP

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Wheat producers have more than the drought cutting into their yields this year, said two Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers. Dr. Tom Allen, Experiment Station assistant research scientist and plant disease diagnostician, saw more than 150 wheat samples sent to the Great Plains Diagnostic Network lab this growing season, in addition to 400-plus samples the plant pathology staff gathered across the Panhandle.

Ninety-five percent of these samples were diagnosed with the wheat streak mosaic virus. In addition, 50 percent of the samples contained maize red stripe virus, more commonly known as High Plains virus. Both diseases are vectored by the wheat curl mite, Allen said. And so far, there's no treatment for either the viruses or the mite.

The Great Plains Diagnostic Network is a part of a national plant disease monitoring system, which is divided into five regions. The Amarillo facility, a satellite lab to one at Kansas State University, is operated under the Experiment Station's plant pathology program, headed by Dr. Charlie Rush. Samples came by mail, through Texas Cooperative Extension agents or were dropped off by producers, Allen said. They came from as far north as Nebraska and as far south as Dallas and the Hill Country, Rush said, making this one of the most widespread years for wheat streak mosaic damage.

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We're trying to develop some cultivars that can be resistant to wheat streak mosaic and could be planted early and then grazed out," Rush said. "They would be popular in this region and serve an important purpose." The problem now, he said, is any resistance breaks down in high temperatures. And not enough is known about the wheat curl mite to tell producers when or what to spray. "There are big gaps in our knowledge," Rush said. "But we are making progress and have things working in the field that should provide answers in the next couple of years."

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/More_Than_Drought_Affecting_Wheat_Yields.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. But no ergot?

That would helpful to certain, um, home-based industries.