Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

A collaboration between WSU & OSU to establish field plots to evaluate winter wheat varieties for resistance to Soilborne wheat mosaic virus was established. The plots have been tested for two years so far and the third plot is in the ground. The PNW Barberry Working group has been formed, which is composed of scientists from ID, OR, MT & WA who are coordinating educational activities on the role of barberry in black stem rust and the need to identify plants and eradicate them (website is a work in progress - http://cahnrs-cms.wsu.edu/pnwstemrust/Pages/default.aspx). A field plot was established in 2011 testing different methods of eradicating barberries using chemical and physical methods. This also includes the development of a GIS database of historical barberry eradication records to help locate potential sources of stem rust inoculum from barberries that have either regrown since the eradication program ended or escaped eradication. In Kansas, screening of breeding material for Fusarium Head Blight (wheat, barley and oat), leaf rust (wheat), stem rust (wheat), net blotch (barley), bacterial leaf streak (wheat and barley) and loose smut (oat) was conducted on up to 5,000 wheat, 12,000 barley and 1,500 oat lines in 2012. The data are used by small grains breeders and geneticists to make selections for improved resistance. Testing of fungicides on wheat and barley for efficacy to Fusarium head blight was conducted as part of a national cooperative effort and recommendations of the best management practices are made available to growers through the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI) and MAES websites. As in previous years, estimates were made for yield losses due to wheat diseases for 2011. Wheat diseases were an important factor influencing wheat production in Kansas in 2011. Moderate winter temperatures favored development of virus diseases and low rainfall inhibited the development of foliar diseases. Viral diseases were of importance in 2011 as barley yellow dwarf virus and wheat streak mosaic had numerous reports. Lesion nematodes were common to Kansas fields and 2011 sampling again verified levels consistent with previous intensive surveys. Barley yellow dwarf was estimated to have caused 2.7% loss, wheat streak mosaic 1.7% loss, and lesion nematodes 1.6% loss. All other diseases including leaf rust and stripe rust accounted for less than 0.2 % combined losses. Disease phenotypes were determined in the greenhouse for numerous wheat accessions of importance to breeders, geneticists, and extension specialists. Phenotypes were determined for reaction to tan spot, Stagonospora nodorum blotch, Septoria tritici blotch, and Fusarium head blight. 13 field experiments were completed including wheat disease phenotyping nurseries (barley yellow dwarf, Cephalosporiuim stripe, and Fusarium head blight), fungicide efficacy trials (foliar and seed-treatment for control of tan spot/leaf rust, Fusarium head blight, take-all, Fusarium-damaged kernels, barley yellow dwarf, and common bunt), and epidemiological studies. Kansas coordinated the update of the nation-wide cooperative fungicide efficacy tables for wheat disease management. Cooperative development and deployment of disease prediction models continue development for Fusarium head blight in 30 states where this disease has been a serious production problem. Improvements included new technologies to communicate disease risk and timely management information to wheat and barley producers throughout the region. Kansas organized multi-state extension efforts to prepare for potential arrival of Ug99 stem rust in North America. These efforts included development of multi-state publications targeting identification and management of stem rust and other rust diseases of wheat and barley. Idaho growers were alerted in the fall of 2010 and throughout the winter and spring of 2011 to the potential impact of stripe rust in wheat. Disease alerts were sent and multiple presentations at grower meetings warned of the fall infection of Brundage soft white winter wheat with stripe rust and the potential for overwintering of the disease. Confirmed in the spring, overwintering infections continued to develop into major epidemics in both spring and winter wheat production throughout the state. Extension variety trials in Aberdeen were converted into stripe rust impact trials by spraying two reps with fungicides and allowing two reps to remain untreated. Documented results of up to 80% yield reduction were presented at grower meetings. Growers following fungicide application recommendations prevented 60-80% yield reductions in susceptible varieties. In the fall of 2011, no fall infection occurred in the area. Growers were again kept informed throughout the winter and into the spring of 2012. Fungicides were not recommended, saving growers significant application costs. As I predicted, stripe rust did not show up in southern Idaho until very late in the spring crop production and only in the most susceptible spring wheat lines. This was past the time that fungicide applications would have provided an economic benefit would have provided an economic benefit. Also in Idaho, reports were written for numerous trials, including Commodity Progress Reports such as Production Systems and Wheat Varieties for Dryland Grain and four Plant Disease Management Reports of seed treatment and foliar fungicide trials in wheat and barley. Growers were educated at various meetings of the potential impact of a re-emerging disease in Idaho, Fusarium head blight (FHB). A previous study of an FHB epidemic in the Magic Valley area in 1982 and 1984 identified F. culmorum as responsible for 76% of sampled FHB infections and F. graminearum for 2% of infections, with 22% of infections attributed to various other Fusarium species. An increasing incidence of FHB on wheat and barley in the Intermountain west (up to 40% FHB in some fields of WestBred 936 hard red spring wheat in 2012 and many truckloads of wheat tested over 5 ppm DON in 2011) is of great concern. In fact, we have documented a switch of FHB-causing organisms. Of the more than 700 FHB samples collected in 2011, 65% were identified as F. graminearum and only 12% were identified as F. culmorum with the remaining 23% attributed to various other Fusarium species. Samples collected in the Magic Valley region in this 2011 study (Rupert and Burley) resulted in 76% of all samples identified as F. graminearum, 7% of all samples identified as F. culmorum, and the remaining 17% of all samples identified as other Fusarium species. An almost exact flip in the dominant FHB-contributing fungi has occurred in the last 25 years in the Magic Valley. This switch in dominance is likely attributed to the increases in maize acreage in the region recorded over the past two decades in Idaho (from 165,000 acres in 1984 to 390,000 acres in 2011) with similar results in Montana (Alan Dyer, MSU, personal communication). Research was performed at the Aberdeen Research and Extension Center on various seed and foliar fungicide treatments to control foot rot disease, loose smut, and stripe rust. A screening nursery for varietal resistance to Fusarium dryland foot rot was also conducted in an inoculated field on station. Variety trials were conducted on farm in St. Anthony, ID, at a site previously documented to have very high pressure from the Cereal Cyst Nematode (CCN). Directed by Dick Smiley, these trials were planted to determine levels of resistance and tolerance to the CCN among hard white, hard red and soft white spring wheat. A variety with resistance comparable to the resistance Australian spring wheat Ouyen was identified in Idaho. WestBred-Rockland, a hard red spring wheat developed by WestBred, a unit of Monsanto, suppressed development of cysts. This is significant in that it is the first documentation of the first North American spring wheat cultivar known to be resistant to this cereal cyst nematode. WestBred Rockland, which will likely be used in breeding other resistant varieties, supported one cyst per plant root system at St. Anthony, comparable to an Australian variety in the trial known for its resistance to the nematode. A very susceptible variety, the hard red Westbred 936, supported 25 cysts per root system. Chemical treatments tested to control the nematode, however, haven't led to immediate yield improvements. Washington State University (Tim Murray and Xianming Chen) continues to provide invaluable Stripe Rust, Cephalosporium Stripe and Eyespot evaluations for Montanas winter wheat varieties as well as regional varieties of interest (See: accompanying tables). Bolstered by these studies, MSU Breeders and Pathologists (Phil Bruckner, Luther Talbert, Bill Grey and Alan Dyer) have renewed efforts to incorporating disease resistances identified by Drs. Tim Murray, Richard Smiley and Xiangming Chen into Montanas spring and winter wheat cultivars.

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