- Kansas wheat farmers are facing a severe outbreak of wheat streak mosaic and Triticum mosaic virus, potentially causing significant crop losses.
- The viruses, spread by wheat curl mites from volunteer wheat, can cause yield losses ranging from 10% to 100%.The outbreak is widespread across western Kansas, impacting even resistant varieties in some cases.
- While some fields are already showing severe symptoms, later infections are still possible, increasing the overall potential damage.
- If being $2/bushel below cost of production isn’t enough, now Kansas wheat farmers have what could be a very serious disease problem on their hands with wheat streak mosaic, as well as Triticum mosaic virus.
In worst cases, entire fields may be lost.
Dennis McNinch, who farms in northern Ness County, says his Whistler variety is really being clobbered and may not be worth cutting. He was going to have the field sprayed with a fungicide for leaf rust but canceled the order because of the viral disease that is just now starting to show up.
He points out that there is probably a very strong difference between varieties in their resistance, adding, “I’ve got the new KS Bill Snyder planted right beside the Whistler and it looks green as Ireland.”
Here on our farm in Lane County, I’ve seen fields that are solid yellow. I’d say those fields are going to be a total loss. In addition, I talked to a farmer in western Scott County, and he was also reporting a lot of wheat streak mosaic.
As we all know, once the plant is infected with the virus, there is nothing you can spray on the crop like a fungicide. And the penalty can be severe — it can range from a mild 10% loss on up to the entire crop. Too, the infections frequently occurred last fall when the wheat curl mite moved from neighboring fields of volunteer wheat to the newly planted crop.
