Stripe rust has surfaced in SouthEast Idaho after a cool, damp, spring.

AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho — Cereal crop experts have discovered stripe rust infections in three areas of southeast Idaho and warn cool, wet weather could result in heavy disease pressure this season.

“Last year was a moderate year for stripe rust, but the susceptible varieties were hit hard,” said University of Idaho Extension cereals pathologist Juliet Marshall. “I suspect higher disease pressure this year.”

Marshall said the potentially devastating fungal disease, spread by orange and yellow airborne spores, has been widespread in Logan, Utah, with infections continuing north into Preston, Idaho.

Stripe rust has also been reported in the Seagull Bay area near American Falls Reservoir and in Arbon Valley.

“If it’s locally established very early in the season, there’s a higher chance of it exploding,” Marshall said. “Our (recent) cool, wet weather and cool nights are really good for stripe rust to continue to expand.”

In recent weeks, Marshall said stripe rust has spread into California, Oregon and Washington, and heavier spore loads could soon blow into Idaho.

Marshall said no stripe rust has been found yet in UI cereal variety trials in Aberdeen and Tetonia.

About a month ago, Chris Merrigan, a crop consultant with J.R. Simplot, Co., confirmed stripe rust in a field in the Seagull Bay area near American Falls Reservoir. Merrigan said between 10 and 20 percent of the irrigated field, planted in a resistant wheat variety, was infected.

However, Merrigan said the field was planted in wheat for consecutive seasons, elevating the infection risk, and he doesn’t believe a fungicidal seed treatment was used. Merrigan said spring grain growers still have time to mix fungicides with their herbicide sprays to prevent the spread of stripe rust, and he urges them to do so.

Lonnie Sparks, a crop consultant with CHS Bingham Cooperative, identified stripe rust in downy brome growing between two irrigated spring wheat fields in Arbon Valley. Based on the discovery, Sparks said the grower mixed fungicide with herbicide used on fall wheat fields planted in a susceptible variety, Brundage, and plans to spray fungicides on his spring wheat as well. Sparks also advised the grower to kill the weeds with a mixture of glyphosate herbicide and fungicide.

Marshall said she’s beginning to see cases of root rot in fall wheat fields that were heavily saturated with moisture, as well as pythium outbreaks in spring wheat. Pythium is a water mold that thrives when crops are planted in cool, wet soils, and can cause heavy damage to newly emerging crops with undeveloped root systems.

The good news, Marshall said, is that barley yellow dwarf virus doesn’t appear to be widespread in Idaho this year, as it has been during the past few seasons. Marshall said the virus, which is spread by aphids, has been confirmed in a few fall barley fields in the Murtaugh, Rupert and Burley areas. She believes growers have minimized the spread by delaying planting of fall crops until aphid migrations have passed and by using insecticidal seed treatments.

This story was originally printed by John O’Connell at the Captial Press: http://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho/20170523/se-idaho-growers-brace-for-stripe-rust-pressure

ARBON VALLEY, Idaho — Grain merchandisers in Southern and Eastern Idaho say upwards of half of the regional dryland wheat production has been sold into feeder channels, due to widespread problems with low protein levels.

In a typical year, buyers would blend low-protein wheat with high-quality grain and sell it to millers.

But there’s a glut of wheat on the market now, and prices of milling wheat are so low, growers are finding they can get a better deal by selling their wheat for feed, once discounts for low protein are factored in, explained Denis Capson, an Eastern Idaho merchandiser with Scoular.

With so much good wheat to choose from, Capson said, feed lots are being more selective and have been turning away wheat with a low test weight, which they would normally buy. In the American Falls and Aberdeen area, Capson said feed wheat is selling for $3.40 per bushel.

“We’re moving huge volumes of feed wheat — a couple of hundred thousand bushels per month (in Eastern Idaho),” Capson said.

According to an Oct. 9 USDA report, projected U.S. ending wheat stocks for 2016-2017 are 1.14 billion bushels, compared with ending stocks of 752 million bushels from the 2014-2015 season.

“The mills are filling up quickly,” Capson said, adding a decline in exports has contributed to the surplus.

For several reasons, the region’s dryland growers had an especially hard time meeting protein benchmarks this season. Arbon Valley dryland grower Hans Hayden explained his yields were up 25 to 50 percent, leaving less nitrogen for each kernel. Nitrogen is needed to boost protein levels, and irrigated growers have the advantage of applying nitrogen throughout the season in their water. Hayden also suspects a lack of summer rain prevented nitrogen from moving deeper into the soil profile to plant root zones.

Hayden had hard red winter wheat protein levels at 8 percent — buyers start to discount below 11.5 to 12 percent — but he had enough good spring grain to blend up his protein levels to just meet milling standards.

“Most of my neighbors found the price at the feed lot better than the price at the mill,” Hayden said.

Arbon Valley dryland grower Ken Campbell sold about 90 percent of his wheat to feeders.

“They’re giving me a better price, and you don’t have to make grade,” Campbell said.

Soda Springs dryland grower Sid Cellan sold 30 percent of his crop as feed.

“It was protein levels that caused me to sell for feed,” Cellan said, adding his spring crop had much lower protein than his fall crop. “I had great yields, and that is probably why protein was so low.”

For feed lot owners such as Dwayne Skaar, of Lewisville, an ample supply of feed wheat cuts costs significantly. His ration is typically half wheat and half corn.

“We can get wheat in there cheaper than corn because of the freight,” said Skaar, who buys corn mostly from the Midwest and is now feeding his cattle locally sourced soft white wheat.

A truck is loaded Nov 8 at Scoular's Bancroft elevator with dry-land wheat being shipped to feeders due to low protein content. Much of hte dry-land crop in Southern and Eastern Idaho will be used as feed this year.

This article was written by John O’Connell from Capital Press. The article can be found online, here: John’s article