UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- As farmers across Pennsylvania begin to harvest their wheat crops, a specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences warns that the state's wheat is being threatened by a disease that could cause serious trouble for farmers already struggling after a difficult, wet spring.

Erick DeWolf, assistant professor of plant pathology, says the state has been hit hard by a disease called Fusarium head blight, or "scab," this season. He says the disease is likely to cause serious losses by limiting crop yields and may also result in grain that is contaminated with mycotoxins, or poisons produced by fungi.

"Scab affects the heads and grain of the developing crop directly, resulting in moldy, shriveled kernels and severely reduced yields," DeWolf says. "In addition, the fungus that causes scab also can produce significant levels of mycotoxins in the diseased grain, and federal regulations prohibit that grain's use in flour.

"The severe disease observed in some fields this season is unusual in Pennsylvania, but can occur if rainy-humid weather prevails during the grain's latter, flowering growth stages when the wheat is most susceptible to infection -- as it did during late May and June in the state." De Wolf says little can be done to prevent the disease at this time, but growers can help reduce the impact of scab by harvesting wheat as quickly as possible to limit exposure to additional rains that could allow the disease to further damage the crop.

"Wheat producers may want to increase the airflow on combines," he says. "That will separate the lighter diseased kernels from healthy ones and limit the number of diseased kernels retained by the harvester. Producers also may want to consider harvesting grain at 20 percent moisture, then artificially drying and cleaning the grain to enhance quality this season.

"Buyers also may want to be ready to test loads of grain that appear to be damaged by scab for the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) so that grain can be unloaded as quickly as possible.

DeWolf says the state grows about 190,000 acres of soft red winter wheat annually, and the grain is used to make flour for pretzels, cookies and crackers. The state's crop had overcome some weather delays during planting last October to come through the winter in good condition, only to have the wet spring create favorable conditions for scab, which is also affecting the barley crop.

"These disease outbreaks are coming at a difficult time for Pennsylvania farmers, since the frequent rain also has complicated the planting of corn and soybeans and the timely harvest of hay," he says. "While scab may limit the yield in many wheat fields this year, I remain optimistic about the yields for fields that have only low to moderate levels of scab."

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EDITORS: Contact Erick DeWolf at 814-865-9620 or at edd10@psu.edu.

Contact:

Gary Abdullah gxa2@psu.edu 814-863-2708 814-863-9877 fax #198