Managing a Destructive, Episodic Crop Disease: A National Survey of Wheat and Barley Growers’ Experience With Fusarium Head Blight

Abstract

The main techniques for minimizing Fusarium head blight (FHB, or scab) and deoxynivalenol in wheat and barley are well established and generally available: planting of moderately FHB-resistant cultivars, risk monitoring, and timely use of the most effective fungicides. Yet the adoption of these techniques remains uneven across the FHB-prone portions of the U.S. cereal production area. A national survey was undertaken by the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative in 17 states where six market classes of wheat and barley are grown. In 2014, 5,107 usable responses were obtained. The highest percentages reporting losses attributable to FHB in the previous 5 years were in North Dakota, Maryland, Kentucky, and states bordering the Great Lakes but across all states, ≥75% of respondents reported no FHB-related losses in the previous 5 years. Adoption of cultivar resistance was uneven by state and market class and was low except among hard red spring wheat growers. In 13 states, a majority of respondents had not applied an FHB-targeted fungicide in the previous 5 years. Although the primary FHB information source varied by state, crop consultants were considered to be an important source or their primary source of information on risk or management of FHB by the largest percentage of respondents. Use of an FHB risk forecasting website was about twice as high in North Dakota as the 17-state average of 6%. The most frequently cited barriers to adopting FHB management practices were weather or logistics preventing timely fungicide application, difficulty in determining flowering timing for fungicide applications, and the impracticality of FHB-reducing rotations. The results highlight the challenges of managing an episodically damaging crop disease and point to specific areas for improvement.