Cereal Seminar at Farm Fair

We are excited to announce that the Columbia Basin Cereal Seminar and Sustainable Ag Forum is joining forces with the Farm Fair and Trade Show in Hermiston this November 29^th to present a full day of cereal educational presentations.  The cereal sessions will feature topics about diseases, insects, and production practices for both dryland and irrigated cereal producers from cereal experts from Oregon and Washington. Get the latest information as researchers and extension specialists share results from 2012 field trials along with the latest information on new variety development and a variety of other topics.

  If you have not ever attended the Hermiston Farm Fair and Trade Show – it will run from Wednesday, November 28, through Friday, November 30, 2012 at the Hermiston Conference Center, 415 S. Hwy 395.  The Farm Fair is an agricultural forum co-sponsored by OSU Extension Service, the Agriculture Committee and the Greater Hermiston Chamber of Commerce. More than 50 agriculture-related businesses from around the region will be displaying their wares and services, both inside and outside the Conference Center. Agriculture-related seminars are offered all three days.

  The Potato Production Seminar is all day Wednesday on the main stage. The General Session will run concurrently in the Altrusa Room.  As mentioned, Thursday the Cereal Session will cover wheat and corn on the main stage.  Thursday morning in the Altrusa room in the General Session continues.  Pesticide Core credits can be earned Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.  Friday morning the general Pesticide Session will have pesticide recertification credits on the main stage.

  All sessions are free to attendees except for a $10.00 fee for Core Programs. No pre-registration is required. Oregon, Washington and Idaho pesticide recertification credits will be available, in addition to CCA credits. An at-a-glance agenda is available and a full Farm Fair agenda with pesticide credit hours will be available by mid to late November.

  The Hermiston Farm Fair Banquet will be held on Thursday night at Desert River Inn. Dinner will be prime rib, $25 per person.  A no-host social hour will begin the evening at 6:00 p.m. Entertainment will be by the Buttercreek Boys. Tickets are available from the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce. 

  The Farm Fair is also a great opportunity to gain knowledge and visit with friends and neighbors over a variety of freshly prepared refreshments courtesy of our local food processors.  Come and treat yourself at the 39^th Annual Hermiston Farm Fair.

Early seeding canola -follow up question

One of our blog readers asked the question, "How did the rains and temperatures affect the results in 2011?"

The following is Don Wysocki's reply:

 

In my opinion,  results of early planted winter canola are subject to the same variation that wheat yields are each year.   The 2011 harvest was a good year for yield.  The 2012 harvest year was not quite so good, but still a good year.

The difference in early versus Sept 1 planting is the ability to get a consistent stand.  The early planting does not increase yield over a September 1 planting if the September 1 planting establishes and has an adequate stand.  It is just that its much more difficult to get a stand September 1  than it is June 15.   We see yield potential loss after September 20 even with good stands.  The two most important factors for canola yield are 

• stand establishment and 
• bloom period.   

Planting early gets over the first.  Mother nature is still in charge on bloom and available water for the crop.

Sincerely, Don

New OSU wheat releases & yield trials

New OSU Variety Releases Kaseberg and Ladd

Kaseberg is a 2012 soft white winter wheat release. It is primarily adapted to dryland and irrigated production areas of western and eastern Oregon, southeastern and south central Washington. Its strengths are excellent yield potential across a range of rainfall zones, resistant to current races of stripe rust at a level similar to Skiles, medium stature, a maturity date similar to Legion and Skiles, and to top it all off – excellent milling and baking quality for our end customers.

Weaknesses of note for Kaseberg is that it is similar to Stephens in the disease package – it is susceptible to strawbreaker footrot, Cephalosporium stripe, Fusarium crown rot, and Soilborne Wheat Mosaic Virus.

Ladd is a second new soft white winter wheat release for OSU in 2012. It is primarily adapted to dryland and irrigated production areas of eastern Oregon and southeastern and south central Washington. It is an excellent yielder under irrigation and high rainfall. It is resistant to Soilborne Wheat Mosaic Virus, and strawbreaker footrot. It is moderately resistant to current races of stripe rust – similar to Legion. It is short stature with a maturity similar to Tubbs 06. Both new releases are open releases with PVP pending.

2012 Oregon Soft White Winter Elite Yield Trials

Jacob & Micheal Hales celebrate successful harvest!!

On my website, you will find yield trial results from across the region, and it is updated with new information as it is available. For Umatilla County there is excellent info from an irrigated trial in Hermiston, and dryland trials from east of Pendleton and east of Milton Freewater. The Rugg site did not have any irrigation before or during the season. The Milton Freewater site is a new location. The notes on each location are important for putting the data in perspective. The severe lodging and late season lodging impacted yields at the Milton Freewater site, while the Hermiston location had very little stripe rust. The Hermiston site was impacted by Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus. If you are planning to seed early this fall, I recommend seed treatment for the control of aphids as BYDV can have a significant impact on yields. We have seen increased fall flights of aphids with the increased acreages of field corn in the area and would expect that trend to continue if we have an open and extended fall.

Result from my Drill Strip Variety trial at Hales near Midway will also be available online and are in my newsletter that we are mailing hard copies of today.

 

Early seeded canola gains traction in Oregon

  Early seeded canola – now why didn’t I think of that? Thankfully, Oregon State University Soil Scientist Don Wysocki has never given up on canola, even when acreages dropped and prices were in the tank. The result of his dedication, and perhaps just plain stubbornness, is the idea of seeding winter canola in June, instead of August and September, and this idea has gotten some traction in the region.

 Don first seeded canola in June and again in July of 2010 in a trial at Pendleton on non-irrigated land. He presented his research trials testing the idea in June 2011, and has continued the research project in 2012.

  Preliminary results from the 2010-11 trial were promising with the June seeding yielding in the 2500-3000 lb. range. The June 17^th seeding had a good stand, while the July 7^th seeding had a spotty stand but still resulted in positive yields. These results confirmed again what Don already knew – that if you can get a stand established before September 20^th you general will have a good yield. Delay seeding until October 1^st waiting for moisture and the yield potential drops by 30%. This research vastly expands the window for successful seeding winter canola. Fields generally have good soil moisture in June.

  These preliminary results have resulted in some growers experimenting with the idea in their fields. We have observed a few things to date worthy of note:

• A uniform stand is desirable, but plants in an erratic stand have the ability to branch and fill in over time. Average plant populations as low as 2 plants/sq. ft. can produce full yields when planted early.  Stands of 4 plants/sq. ft. are ideal,
• There is no effective broad leaf weed control in canola, so time of early planting and field selection are important.  The target is to plant while there is still good seed zone water, but avoid the flush of Russian thistle or kochia.  Also avoid fields where these weeds have been a significant problem,
• Aphids may buildup in the summer or fall – but no treatment is recommended because those leaves will be lost during the winter any way,
• Flea beetles may be a problem at emergence, an insecticide seed treatment is an inexpensive method to avoid this, and
• When planting, be sure to plant winter type canola that has a vernalization requirement so bolting and bloom does not occur until after the winter period.

  Research has shown over the years that canola in a wheat fallow rotation has benefits for breaking disease cycles and provides an opportunity to do weed control of grassy weeds. With higher prices and a less risky seeding window, we may continue to see canola acreage increase around the area. ~Mary K Corp & Don Wysocki

For more information on canola - check out this Extension publication: Canola Production Guide

Wheat variety trials updates

Yield results from the OSU statewide variety trials continue to come in. Results from the Lexington site are now available at my Cereal Central website.

As a clarification on last week's post, it appears that I misspoke and that indeed the trials at Hermiston did not include an insecticide in the seed treatment. If you are seeding early in the fall, I do recommend using an insecticide treatment on your seed.

The last couple of years we have seen an increase of aphid flights. With the increase of corn fields distributed widely throughout the irrigated acres in the region- we are likely to see continuing pressure from aphids which act as transmitters of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus.

Thunderstorms and lightning impact area farms

Helix City Hall, Helix, Oregon

Fallow field erosion

Last week's thunderstorms and lightning impacted area farms in Umatilla County. Fields north of Pendleton had erosion in sheets which is very unusual, and also following the tillage lines which is more common.
As fallow fields this time of year have been tilled and prepped for fall seeding, the level of residue left on the soil surface offers little protection from the type of deluge of rain that a thunderstorm cell drops on a concentrated area.

In the rolling hills of our dryland farming area, the water, surface residue(straw pieces from last year's crop), and soil ends up collecting in roadside ditches and concentrating into significant amounts as the city of Helix can attest to.... In the case of thunderstorms - the rate and intensity of the downpour overwhelm the soils ability of capture the water and thus the fields at the heart of the storm saw some significant levels of soil loss.
On my drive home Friday, I was watch yet another thunderstorm and lightning event. The lightning started a fire in a field of wheat causing about $30,000 in losses according to local new media.

To finish the day, a double rainbow appeared during my evening walk...which really explains without words why I love living here in eastern Oregon...for life is certainly never boring, and if you don't like the weather, just wait an hour and it will change.

Cheers, Mary

Yield results from Oregon State University Statewide Variety testing

The harvest results are starting to come in from the 2012 OSU Statewide Wheat Variety Testing program. The first results are from the Hermiston Research and Extension Center. These trials are for soft white and hard winter varieties. 

There was a severe and uniform infection of barley yellow dwarf virus at the Hermiston site which significantly reduced grain yields, plant height, and maturity.There were some visual differences in the disease expression seen during the Wheat Field Day early this year. While the seed was treated with an insecticide at planting, with a long open fall with significant aphid pressure the seed treatment did not last long enough to prevent infection last fall.

OR08047P94 tops the list for the second year in a row, and "Mary" makes a good showing after being rank 11th last year. 

We will be posting the variety trial results on my website OSU CerealCentral as they are available.  So be watch for future updates.

Stripe Rust Update with a focus on Spring Wheat

Dr. Chris Mundt speaks on stripe rust resistance at the Pendleton Field Day, June, 2012

With winter wheat headed into it's final stages of maturity in dryland regions of eastern Oregon, we may see some stripe rust develop on the wheat heads, but the impact of this type of infection is less likely to impact yields and we are well past our application window for fungicides. 

Stripe rust on spring wheat is still a factor to be considered as noted in Dr. Chen's latest report. He notes that we have reached middle jointing (Feekes 5) to flowering (Feekes 10.5) in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.   In his experimental fields, stripe rust had reached 50% severity near Wall Walla and 30% near Pullman on highly susceptible varieties by June 27.  In commercial fields, stripe rust was found in much lower levels (1-10% severity and also incidence).  

The widespread rain on July 26 has created ideal conditions for stripe rust infection.  Such infection should have occurred since then and will occur at the nights during a week or so as the moist condition will produce adequate dew on plants for stripe rust to infect at night.  In the next 10 days, the forecasted night temperatures (mostly in the 50s and low 60s F) will be ideal for stripe rust infection (rust spore germination and penetration into leaves) and the daytime temperature (mostly in 70s and low 80s F) will be ideal for the fungus to produce spores (sporulation), especially in the Palouse region and further north and east.   

Under such very favorable moist and temperature conditions, it just takes about 10 to 14 days for stripe rust fungus to develop from infection to sporulation.  Fungicides should be applied before sporulation occurred on most leaf surface (using 5% plants infected or 5% leaf surface observed rust as a general fungicide application guideline).   Fields grown with susceptible and moderately susceptible varieties should be sprayed from now to before the crop reaching flowering time, the earlier the better as rust infection has already occurred and the weather will become dryer and warmer in July.  

If a field of susceptible or moderately susceptible variety was sprayed with fungicide more than three weeks ago and the crop has not passed flowering stage, a second application may be needed.  This year, high-temperature adult-plant (HTAP) resistance in many varieties has worked and will work better as the weather is relatively warmer than the same period of last year in most PNW areas.  For assisting you to make decision if a fungicide application is needed or not, I include an early stripe rust note taken yesterday for spring varieties in the 2012 WSU Wheat Variety Trials grown in our experimental fields near Pullman.  In general, varieties with infection type (IT) 5 or higher, severity over 10% should be sprayed.  Varieties with ITs 0 to 3 or severity less than 10% may not need spray.  Please check your fields for rust before spray.

Barley stripe rust

Stripe rust was found on susceptible spring barley entries in his experimental field near Walla Walla and Pullman.  No rust was found in commercial barley fields.  Barley fields may not need fungicide application as the rust pressure is still low.  However, please check your fields for stripe rust and use the 5% rust level guideline to determine if the fields need to spray or not during the next two weeks.

Wheat stripe rust in other states

Dr. Chen also notes that we are not facing the stripe rust problem alone, but are sharing the experience with wheat growing regions across the US and Canada. The widest distribution of wheat stripe rust throughout the country in recorded history is just like the situation in 2010, from the west coast to the east coast and from Texas to North Dakota, entering into Alberta and Ontario, Canada.  However, the disease has caused and is continually causing more damage in North Dakota and eastern Montana than 2010, due to the high moisture and low temperatures.  In these regions, stripe rust has occasionally showed up and stopped quickly, but the disease has lasted so long and developed so severe this year.  Most wheat-producing areas throughout the country have got stripe rust levels high enough to justify fungicide application.  

Our greatest thanks to Dr. Chen for providing this excellent summary and timely information!!  Mary

OSU Field Days

We started a series of Field Days in Umatilla County, last Friday at the Hermiston Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Hermiston. We looked at a series of different variety trials, plus some other interesting studies being conducted at the experiment station.

Highlights included a very low level of stripe rust at the location, but a significant level of barley yellow dwarf virus across the plots. There were some notable differences by variety interaction across the different varieties in the expression of BYDV. It will be interesting if it turns into an impact on yield. OSU researchers are also doing some interesting work on soil bourne wheat mosic virus in the Hermiston area, and should have some results to share following harvest.

Remember all the details for the upcoming field days in Pendleton and Moro are available on my newsletter page on the OSU CerealCentral website.

Pacific Northwest stripe rust update

Stripe Rust Update, May 23, 2012

excerpts from Dr. Xianming Chen's Report

Wheat Stripe Rust in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon

Yesterday, I was checking wheat fields in Whitman, Columbia, Walla Walla, Benton, Franklin, and Adams counties of Washington and the Pendleton and Hermiston areas in Umatilla county of Oregon.  Winter wheat ranged from late jointing (Feekes 9) to flowering (Feekes 10.5) with most fields at boot (Feeks 10) to heading (Feeks 10.2).  Spring wheat ranged from not emerged to early jointing stage (Feekes 4).  In Walla Walla Co., stripe rust was found about four out of ten fields.  However, the disease developed to 40% severity in susceptible spreader rows and some entries in our stripe rust monitoring nurseries near Walla Walla, where stripe rust was found to be just started a month ago.  In Umatilla Co., stripe rust was found in two fields near Milton and one field near Pendleton and was not found in about other four or five fields checked.  Very low levels of stripe rust was found in fields of Pendleton and Hermiston stations.  Overall, the incidences (less than 1% to 5%) and severity (1 to 10%) of stripe rust were low.  Most infected leaves are upper leaves with just a single stripe, and only one hotspot of 1 foot in diameter with infection from the bottom to the top was found in a field with plants at flowering stage north of Walla Walla, indicating overwintering. 

 

Other Problems

Physiological leaf spot (PLS) was a common problem in winter wheat fields in Columbia, Walla Walla, and Umatilla counties.  Crown rot was severe in Horse Heaven Hills.  Barley yellow dwarf (BYD) was common in early planted fields.  Some fields had herbicide damage.  These problems caused spots (PLS), yellowing or dead leaves (crown rot, BYD, herbicide damage) in patches or stripes in fields, which can be confused with stripe rust in distance.   Please make sure to distinguish them from stripe rust as fungicides controlling stripe rust have no effect on these problems.

   

Weather Conditions Related to Stripe Rust

The current stripe rust pressure is relatively low, compared to the same time of both 2010 and 2011, but will increase quickly during the next two to three weeks based on spore availability and weather conditions in the last three weeks and forecasted for the next 10 days.  The average temperature in May so far has been and is predicted for the entire May to be lower than normal (more favorable for infection and little bit less favorable for producing spores), but the precipitation has been and is predicted to be lower than normal in May (less favorable for infection).  However, the widespread rains and showers this week should increase stripe rust infection.  The low temperatures this week and forecasted for next week are not high enough for high-temperature adult-plant (HTAP) resistance to work at its best.  

Recommendation for Control of Stripe Rust

Winter wheat.  As winter wheat in most fields are approaching flowering stage, from now to next couple of weeks will be critical for fungicide application.  The previous general recommendation remains the same for wheat cultivars in different reaction categories.  The following winter wheat cultivar in the susceptible or moderately susceptible categories may need fungicide spray: 

• AgriPro Paladin, 
• Eddy, 
• Esperia, 
• Whetstone, 
• Declo, 
• WB-Tucson,
•  AP Legacy, 
• Tubbs 06, 
• UICF Brundage (CLEARFIELD®), 
• Boundary, 
• Mary (OR2040726), and 
• Xerpha.  

The following cultivars in the resistant category may not need fungicide application:  

• Norwest 553, 
• Legion, 
• Madsen, 
• Skiles, 
• Bruehl, 
• Cara, 
• Chukar, and 
• Coda.   

 The following moderately resistant cultivars may or may not need spray depending upon stripe rust situation: 

•  Bauermeister,
•  Finley (used to be susceptible, but was resistant in the last two years due to race changes, better to spray this year),
•  MDM, 
• UICF Grace,
•  UI Silver, 
• AP700 CL (CLEARFIELD®), 
• ARS-Amber (ARS960277L), 
• Brundage 96, 
• Bruneau, 
• Eltan, 
• Masami, 
• ORCF-102  (CLEARFIELD®), 
• ORCF-103  (CLEARFIELD®),
•  Rod, 
• Stephens, 
• WB-528,
•  ARS-Chrystal, and 
• ARS-Crescent.  

It is very important to check your fields, no matter which categories of the cultivars, and apply a registered fungicide at the full rate when stripe rust reaches 1 to 5% incidence with active rust spores.  Hopefully, one time application between boot and flowering stages can provide adequate control, depending upon the weather conditions in June.

Spring wheat.  Early planted spring wheat is approaching the stage for herbicide application.  For susceptible and moderately susceptible cultivars (Nick, Hank, Tara 2002, Macon, Otis, Alpowa, Babe, Bullseye, Hollis, Jefferson, and Westbred 926), it may be better to spray with fungicide together with herbicide. For resistant and moderately resistant cultivars (JD, Clear White, Diva, Louise, Wakanz, Whit, Eden, Buck Pronto, Kelse, Scarlet), it may be unnecessary to spray with fungicides.