It’s the end of July and we just finished applying fungicide. Normally, we are done with this by the Fourth of July at the latest, but, as with everything this year, we are a month behind.
As the wheat plant matures and pushes the head out of the stalk, it is succeptible to fusarium head blight, commonly called scab. The fungus basically takes a healthy kernel and robs it of its moisture. Therefore, a healthy looking plant can have kernels that are shriveled.
Scab came about in the early 90s. We would have wonderful looking fields, but when you threshed out the heads, there was nothing there. Sixty or seventy bushel straw would have 10 bushels of wheat in some cases. I remember a few years where we burned just about every field we had. Over time, the nations wheat growing groups funded research into this fungus found varieties that were resistant to the fungus and found a fungicide, that, if applied at the right time would protect the plant from the scab fungus.
The key to this is applying it at the right time. You need as many plants as possible headed out and for 10-15% to have started to flower. When the weather is nice, this can happen in a few hours.
The picture on the left shows wheat that is in the process of heading. This wheat will probably look more like the picture on the right in a few hours. The picture on the right is ready to be sprayed. The yellow flakes on the head are the pollen. They are yellow when they first come out and fade in the sunlight. Since these are yellow, they more than likely emerged just a few hours ago.
Forecast also has to be factored in. Last Friday we had 1000 acres of wheat that would be ready over the weekend. Ideally, we would scout the fields in the morning and spray what was ready as soon as the dew evaporated. However, the forecast for Saturday was for an inch of rain. The experts say it is better to be a little early than a lot late so we sprayed everything on Friday. it was a long day, we started at noon and didn’t finish until 10 at night, but we got it done, and sure enough, it rained early Saturday morning.
As with everything in farming, timing is critical. In a greenhouse or a controlled environment this would be a simple task. But our inventory is all outside and suffers at the blessings of Mother Nature. And she sure does keep us on our toes.
