By Bruce Cochrane.
A Cropping Management Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture reports the ongoing wet weather throughout the growing season across much of the province has resulted in considerable downgrading of cereal crops due to Fusarium Head Blight.
Saskatchewan Agriculture's weekly crop report issued yesterday indicates this year's harvest is about 80 percent complete, slightly behind the five year average of 86 percent complete due primarily to ongoing rain throughout the harvest.
Daphne Cruise, a cropping management specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, says, for most of the province, the rain started at the end of June and has continued right up until now so Fusarium has been a factor in cereal grain quality.
Daphne Cruise-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
The Fusarium levels differ depending on where we are in the province and they're all over the map.
Some producers saying they have very little and others quite high amounts.
Fusarium is the one thing to deal with but it's also the vomitoxin that can be in Fusarium, called DON, which affects feed quality when it comes to feeding those grains to livestock.
Of course chickens and turkeys are the most susceptible.
Swine, pigs are quite susceptible as well to any kind of level.
Cows can handle a bit more DON levels but again there they're set on certain parameters and certain percentages that producers shouldn't go over.
Again there it requires a little bit more management when feeding Fusarium grains to livestock.
You can't feed everything to a four legged so it's one of those things people are going to have to manage and look at their grain samples to see what their grades are coming out at and what their Fusarium percentages are.
None the less Cruise remains confident there will be a market for some of the Fusarium durum and some of the Fusarium wheat.
Source: Farmscape