b'distribution or the seed multiplication sites were in areas that had fusarium, Oatway says. It was extremely difficult for seed growers in Alberta to get seed the first year of a new variety.New seed varieties would launch in Alberta a few years after they had launched in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. AAC Brandon wheat launched in Alberta a year after the rest of the Prairie provinces because the stock seed had some fusarium in it, Whiting says. AAC Brandon is now the most widely grown variety in Alberta.Managing Fusarium on the FarmNow that the regulation has changed, farmers and agronomists in Alberta can focus on how to manage the disease to limit the spread of it.A test tube with extracted DNA to be tested.According to Whiting, it all starts with planning what crops you are going to plant. It is critical a crop rotation has at least two years between fusarium host cropsmeaning a crop rotation of wheat, canola, wheat, canola, etc. doesnt work.Select a variety that meets all of your needsbe it maturity, standability, disease, etc. Always use the best quality seed available, he explains. Ask for a seed test, get it seed tested Use a proper seed treatment and make sure its applied properly.And even if you pick a variety which is fusarium resistant, this doesnt mean its 100 per cent tolerant and the crop will still need to be sprayed if the weather conditions are right for the fusarium development, Whiting adds. The Alberta Wheat Commission has a website, managefhb.ca, which looks at humidity and environmental factors to predict fusarium risk across the province in real time for your specific area. Seeding into slightly cooler soils may also help limit for early season development of fusarium, Kelly Turkington, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at the Lacombe A Fusarium graminearum colony on a plate test. Research and Development Centre, says. Fungicides can also help to manage Fusarium graminearum. Its important to use Advancements Hindered the right rate at the right time and target the right plant tissue, Prior to the changes, research work had been limited in AlbertaTurkington explains.which was making it hard to find ways to manage fusariumThe thing to keep in mind with fungicides is that its infections under Alberta specific conditions. Researchers couldsuppression at best, and its not equivalent to the level of control only conduct tests on fusarium if it was naturally in the soil, andthat you may have experienced when using a fungicide for other they couldnt run controlled trials as they werent allowed toplant diseases such as cereal leaf spots and rusts, he says. plant fusarium infected seed. Harvest management is another way to handle Fusarium We havent been able to come up with an Alberta approachgraminearum. To reduce the number of fusarium damaged on how to really manage it because we cant do any of thekernels (FDK) in grain, farmers can blow out lighter weight testing of variety, screening, or even testing of products here,FDKs through the combine, Turkington says. He adds this can because were never able to even introduce the inoculum intobe counterproductive though as it returns the infected material a trial, Whiting says, adding Alberta is a large province withto the field. New technology is being researched where the chaff widely varying conditions compared to its Prairie counterparts. is ground up, which may help for more rapid decomposition. Whiting is also the parent seed coordinator for SeCan inIt also important to clean up infected crop residues in the Western Canada and is in charge of planning seed trials. Due tofield, this can be done through effective straw chopping and the Alberta fusarium restrictions, he would find himself pickingdistribution during harvest.Post-harvest grain cleaning may growers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba over Alberta to try outalso help to reduce FDK levels.new varieties. By reducing the amount of seed trials done in Alberta, it limited the release of new varieties.Fusarium TestingWe were finding that even if a variety had better resistanceFusarium management isnt just about what you do yourself on to fusarium and everything, the breeding program in the seedthe farm, it also includes testing to see if there is fusarium present 12seed.ab.ca'