FARMERS are being warned of high fungal disease loads carrying over from the 2022 season, one of the worst for disease in recent history.
Steven Simpfendorfer, senior plant pathologist for the NSW Department of Primary Industries said farmers would have to work hard on disease management strategies to help keep disease at bay this season.
Following a year where many growers were hit hard by disease outbreaks in untrafficable paddocks, Dr Simpfendorfer's primary advice was to "control the controllable".
Dr Simpfendorfer said growers needed to be on the lookout for disease such as stripe rust and white grain disorder in cereals, both which were observed in markedly higher than average amounts of crops last year.
"We're going into the season this year with a high potential for carry over of cereal pathogens," Dr Simpfendorfer said.
He said the lodging in late spring meant there was ample grain seed on the ground which would germinate with summer rain and create an ideal green bridge for disease inoculum to carry over on and create the potential of early in-crop infections.
But there were a number of practical management strategies he said could help minimise risk.
"Growers should look at varietal selection, consider using a product like (fungicide) Flutriafol on starter fertiliser in susceptible varieties and be prepared to apply an early foliar fungicide application to support seedlings if another early epidemic occurs in 2023," he said.
On the crown rot / fusarium front, which he said had been building up in soils over multiple seasons, he said growers need to be implementing multiple control measures like testing soils, stubble and seed for disease presence and making informed decisions based off results.
"Growers will need to be doing what they can to manage Fusarium crown rot now - they need to be considering their grain quality and what they retained in the way of seed. If they retained seed from any crop where they noted pink or white grain at harvest, they need to get it tested straight away."
"If tests show Fusarium grain infection levels between 1-5 per cent, then seed treatments could be used to reduce the risk of seedling death.
"Anything over that, then growers should be looking to use a cleaner seed. "
Dr Simpfendorfer will speak on cereal disease management at various Grains Research and Development Corporation updates in February.
During the updates, Dr Simpfendorfer will discuss the 2022 growing season, how ongoing wet and mild conditions changed disease management and how growers could expect this to be dramatically different if predictions of a drier and warmer spring come to fruition.
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
