Parson, Kansas — With the recent outbreak of stripe rust, wheat producers need to be concerned about what is in their fields. Doug Shoup, Kansas State University southeast area Extension agronomist, at the recent wheat tour in Parsons, Kansas, recommended producers start scouting their fields for potential disease concerns and also for stripe rust, as it has been a big problem this year.

According to Shoup, many of the wheat varieties are showing signs of stripe rust, which includes the stripe rust resistant varieties.

“There is a new strain of stripe rust that hit Texas this year and moved north, which has caused a lot of concern for wheat producers,” Shoup explained. “Many of the wheat varieties have not been able to ward off the disease, which is why we are seeing more of it this year.”

Stripe rust is a stemmatic disease, according to Shoup, which mean it moves up and down the veins attacking the plant.

“Producers need to be careful when looking at their fields because stripe rust and leaf rust look similar,” Shoup said. “We are seeing some leaf rust but  mainly seeing stripe rust. The difference in leaf rust and stripe rust is leaf rust attacks the leaves of the plant were stripe rust attacks the veins. And producers need to be concerned about stripe rust as it will also cost on yield.”

According to Shoup, this year we are not going to have an outstanding wheat crop.

“There are several uneven stands in the fields due to the bad weather we had last fall, which is not a surprise to many producers,” Shoup explained.

The Parson experiment station planted the wheat on November 6 and it was not fertilized in the fall, according to Kelly Kusel, K-State  Southeast Agricultural Research Center research technologist.

According to Kusel, the wheat was planted and had time to get a good stand before the snow moved in and covered the fields for most of the winter.

“The wheat looks pretty decent considering the weather last fall,” Shoup said.

Shoup suggested producers need to scout their fields and determine if stripe rust is a problem and determine what state their wheat is in.

“In this part of the state we are probably past the window to use fungicides as our wheat is passed the flowering stage, but if producers were later getting their wheat planted then they probably still have time to spray a fungicide,” Shoup explained. “There are several cheap options available on the market that will work well, however, if the plant has a longer grain fill period then additional protection is needed and a more expensive fungicide is a better option as the fungicide will last longer.”

Looking at the wheat variety trails conducted in Parsons, Shoup made conclusions on which varieties would work best in the area. He suggested wheat producers in southeast Kansas use Hitch, Art, Endurance or Everest varieties, as these varieties work well in this region.

Hitch is made by Agseco. According to Shoup, Hitch is a good option in fields with residue remaining on the field. It is a later maturing wheat and has a good head scab tolerance.

Art is made by AgriPro. Art has good leaf rust protection and scab tolerance, according to him.

“Art is one of the varieties that has been able to ward off a majority of the strip rust,” Shoup said.

Endurance is an Oklahoma State University variety.

“Endurance is the number one wheat variety grown in Oklahoma,” Shoup explained. “It can become ragged but has good yield potential. Endurance also has good barley yellow dwarf protection.”

Everest is a new variety from Kansas State University.

“This variety is hard to beat,” Shoup said. “It has done well in all the trials and has good scab tolerance and barley yellow dwarf protection. However, Everest does get some tan spot.”

Southeast Kansas was able to plant wheat earlier than other parts of the state, according to Kusel, and this part of the state is not seeing as many problems as the other parts.

The central part of the state is experiencing more stripe rust and barley yellow dwarf than southeast Kansas, Shoup added.

“I have seen wheat coming out of the boot stage with stripe rust on the head of the plant in central Kansas, and we are fortunate to not be anywhere that bad,” Shoup concluded.