County Agent Update

Rain and Warm Weather

With the rain and sunshine come many benefits, lush green lawns and potential high yields. But along with good there is always some bad such as mowing your lawn every few days and harmful diseases, fungus and pests. In Williams County, and a few surrounding areas, there have been reports of Wheat Midge and Fusarium Head Blight (FHB). Fusarium Head Blight, also known as scab, is a disease that thrives in warm and moist conditions. Scab is a fungi that is commonly seen on spring and winter wheat, durum and barley. Symptoms of scab are where any part or all of the head may appear bleached, but it may also infect the stem immediately below the head, causing brown/purplish discoloration to the stem tissue. Additional indications of scab infections are pink to salmon-orange spore masses which are often seen on the infected spikelets and glumes during prolonged wet weather. Scab causes the infected kernels to shrivel, become lightweight and turn color to a dull grayish or pinkish color. Scab appears differently in barley, the spikelets may be bleached or show a browning or water soaked appearance. Severely infected barley kernels at harvest will show pinkish discoloration. Scab is a fungus that has the crop lose yield because of floret sterility, quality reductions may occur if fungal toxins (mycotoxins) are produced in infected seed. Those toxins are unacceptable for certain end uses, so toxin-containing grain is downgraded at the elevator. When scab is present in your field, some recommendations for fungicide application techniques are the following; produce a fine- to medium-sized drop (300 to 350 microns) with an 80-degree flat-fan nozzle. Angle all (flat-fan) nozzles forward to 30 to 45 degrees down from horizontal, 30 degrees is preferred. Apply fungicide at a 10 gallon per acre for controlling FHB. Position angled spray nozzles 8 to 10 inches above the grain heads. This information and more can be found in NDSU Extension Service publications PP-804 and AE1314.

Project Safe Send

This is a program for farmers, ranchers, homeowners, pesticide dealers and applicators and government agencies to get rid of their old pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, and fungicides. If the containers are deteriorating or leaking, pack them in a larger container with absorbent material. This event requires no pre-registration, but you are encouraged to check the ND Department of Agriculture website prior to bringing in products to make sure they are still collecting. https://www.nd.gov/ndda/program/prokect-safe-send. For more information contact Jeremiah at (800) 242-7535. The local collection dates are Tuesday July 19th at the North Dakota Department of Transportation facility in Williston and Wed., July 20th at 8250 62nd St. NW, Stanley.