Posted on July, 18, 2024 at 10:53 am
A field crop specialist says vomitoxin has been a challenge for some Ohio wheat farmers this year.
Stephanie Karhoff with Ohio State Extension says the disease reduces yield.
“VOM is a mycotoxin, so it’s a toxin produced by a fungus,” she says. “It’s a fungus that infects that wheat plant at flowering and causes Fusarium head blight or commonly referred to as head scab.”
She tells Brownfield the wet spring makes the crop more susceptible to the disease and ultimately led to an earlier harvest.
“Yield was slightly lower than last year and some of that might be attributed to a shorter grain fill period. It seems like we accumulated growing degree days a lot faster than last year and had more units and that caused a shorter Greenfield period and an earlier harvest.”
Karhoff says growers should have a disease prevention plan looking ahead to next year.
According to the latest USDA crop progress and conditions report, Ohio wheat harvest is 97% complete.
Source: Brownfield