Wheat Fungicide Considerations: Part of the area receiving this news column grows wheat for grain as it’s a great crop in rotation. The wheat has looked tremendous this year! Varieties that are susceptible to stripe rust are showing low to medium disease pressure. Wheat ranges from the flag leaf through late boot/early heading stages. Last week, the question was if growers should spray a fungicide to protect the flag leaf from stripe rust. I’m unsure how many still have that question this week but am writing about the tradeoffs I talked about with growers.

We did have a few growers choose to apply fungicide to protect the flag leaf as their wheat had good yield potential and the variety was very susceptible. That was most likely the best decision for these specific field situations with how quickly stripe rust was setting in in their wheat with the cooler conditions and the high humidity within the canopy. It’s important to know one’s economics to make that individual situation as there’s potential we may need a fungicide application for wheat scab (fusarium head blight) prevention as well. A map of where stripe rust has been observed can be found at: https://go.unl.edu/98zy Please note the map doesn’t reflect the fact that it’s also observed in Nuckolls and Webster counties.

With non-irrigated wheat and the economics of it, many try seeing if we could get by with one fungicide application at flowering. A fungicide app at flowering to prevent wheat scab will also kill any fungi present on the leaf surfaces. Fungicide options include:  Prosaro, Prosaro Pro, Caramba, Proline, Miravis Ace, and Sphaerex. Applying when 30% of the wheat is at beginning flowering (seeing yellow anthers in the center of the head) provides the best timing and efficacy. Applying too early before flowering or after the majority of the wheat is past 50% flowering doesn’t provide as good of efficacy. I realize the timing is tough. We normally have a 3-5 day window to get fungicides applied timely and efficacy isn’t guaranteed to be greater than 70%. Efficacy also improves when we can increase the gallonage of aerial apps to 4-5 gallons/acre. You can monitor the potential for wheat scab risk at: https://www.wheatscab.psu.edu/.

Roller Crimping Workshop May 22: For growers and ag industry professionals interested in learning more about roller crimping, Nebraska Extension is hosting a roller crimper workshop from 9:30-11.30 am. Wednesday, May 22 at the University of Nebraska Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center, 1071 County Rd G, Ithaca. We’re also seeking growers to speak about their experiences with roller crimping at this workshop, so please let us know if you’re interested in that.

Roller crimpers are used to mechanically terminate cover crops without soil disturbance and ideally create a thick mulch that will act as a weed barrier. Crimpers are used by organic farmers, regenerative farmers and others who, for various reasons, want to reduce herbicide inputs and/or improve weed management with their cover crops.

During this short program, we will show a roller crimper in action, invite farmers to share their experiences with crimping, and discuss what conditions must be met to be successful with this termination method. Demonstration plots with small grains of barley, oats, rye, triticale, and wheat will be showcased to compare the differences amongst them side by side. On-site registration begins at 9 a.m. For more information, please contact Katja Koehler-Cole at kkoehlercole2@unl.edu. This event is sponsored by Nebraska Extension and the USDA Transition to Organic Partnership Program.

Intro Crop Scouting: Also, for those interested in learning about introductory crop scouting, we’ll be having a clinic on May 21st at ENREEC near Mead. More info: https://go.unl.edu/29qk.