Profitability of Integrated Management of Fusarium Head Blight in North Carolina Winter Wheat.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most difficult small-grain diseases to manage, due to the partial effectiveness of management techniques and the narrow window of time in which to apply fungicides profitably. The most effective management approach is to integrate cultivar resistance with FHB-specific fungicide applications; yet, when forecasted risk is intermediate, it is often unclear whether such an application will be profitable. To model the profitability of FHB management under varying conditions, we conducted a 2-year split-plot field experiment having as main plots high-yielding soft red winter wheat cultivars, four moderately resistant (MR) and three susceptible (S) to FHB. Subplots were sprayed at flowering with Prosaro or Caramba, or left untreated. The experiment was planted in seven North Carolina environments (location-year combinations); three were irrigated to promote FHB development and four were not irrigated. Response variables were yield, test weight, disease incidence, disease severity, deoxynivalenol (DON), Fusarium-damaged kernels, and percent infected kernels. Partial profits were compared in two ways: first, across low-, medium-, or high-DON environments; and second, across environment-cultivar combinations divided by risk forecast into "do spray" and "do not spray" categories. After surveying DON and test weight dockage among 21 North Carolina wheat purchasers, three typical market scenarios were used for modeling profitability: feed-wheat, flexible (feed or flour), and the flour market. A major finding was that, on average, MR cultivars were at least as profitable as S cultivars, regardless of epidemic severity or market. Fungicides were profitable in the feed-grain and flexible markets when DON was high, with MR cultivars in the flexible or flour markets when DON was intermediate, and on S cultivars aimed at the flexible market. The flour market was only profitable when FHB was present if DON levels were intermediate and cultivar resistance was combined with a fungicide. It proved impossible to use the risk forecast to predict profitability of fungicide application. Overall, the results indicated that cultivar resistance to FHB was important for profitability, an FHB-targeted fungicide expanded market options when risk was moderate or high, and the efficacy of fungicide decision-making is reduced by factors that limit the accuracy of risk forecasts.

Efficacy and value of prophylactic vs. integrated pest management approaches for management of cereal leaf beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in wheat and ramifications for adoption by growers.

Cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus L., can be effectively managed in southeastern U.S. wheat, Triticum aestivum L., with scouting and a single insecticide treatment, applied at the recommended economic threshold. However, many growers eschew this approach for a prophylactic treatment, often tank mixed with a nitrogen application before wheat growth stage 30. The efficacy of a prophylactic and an integrated pest management (IPM) approach was compared for 2 yr using small plot studies in North Carolina and regional surveys across North Carolina and Virginia. Economic analyses were performed, comparing the total cost of management of each approach using the regional survey data. From a cost perspective, the prophylactic approach was riskier, because when cereal leafbeetle densities were high, economic loss was also high. However, fields under the prophylactic approach did not exceed threshold as often as fields using IPM. Total cost of prophylactic management was also $20.72 less per hectare, giving this approach an economic advantage over IPM. The majority of fields under the IPM approach did not exceed the economic threshold. Hence, from an economic perspective, both the prophylactic and IPM approaches have advantages and disadvantages. This helps explains the partial, rather than complete, adoption of IPM by southeastern U.S. wheat growers. Cereal leaf beetle was spatially aggregated across the region in 2010, but not in 2011. As a result, from an economic standpoint, prophylaxis or IPM may have a better fit in localized areas of the region than others. Finally, because IPM adoption is favored when it has a strong economic advantage over alternative management approaches, more emphasis should be placed on research to reduce costs within the IPM approach.

Multiple mid-Atlantic field experiments show no economic benefit to fungicide application when fungal disease is absent in winter wheat.

Strobilurin fungicides produce intensified greening and delayed senescence in plants, and have been claimed to enhance yields of field crops in the absence of disease. To help evaluate this claim, available publicly sponsored tests of fungicides on soft red winter wheat in Virginia and North Carolina (n = 42) were analyzed for the period 1994 to 2010. All tests were replicated and had a randomized complete block, split-plot, or split-block design. Each test included 1 to 32 cultivars and one to five fungicides (two strobilurins, one triazole, and two strobilurin-triazole mixtures). There was a total of 311 test-cultivar-fungicide treatment comparisons, where a comparison was the reported yield difference between sprayed and unsprayed treatments of a given cultivar in a given test. Parameters used to calculate the economic benefit or loss associated with fungicide application included a grain price range of $73.49 to 257.21 Mg(-1) ($2 to 7 bu(-1)), a total fungicide application cost of $24.71 to 74.13 ha(-1) ($10 to 30 acre(-1)), and a 0.14 to 0.21 Mg ha(-1) (2.3 to 3.4 bu acre(-1)) loss in yield from driving over wheat during application (with a sprayer 27.4 or 18.3 m [90 or 60 feet] wide, respectively). The yield increase needed to pay for a fungicide application at each combination of cost and price was calculated, and the cumulative probability function for the fungicide yield-response data was modeled. The model was used to predict the probability of achieving a break-even yield, and the probabilities were graphed against each cost-price combination. Tests were categorized as "no-disease" or "diseased" based on reports of the researchers rating the tests. Subsets of the data were analyzed to assess the profitability of the triazole fungicide and the strobilurin-containing fungicides separately in no-disease versus diseased experiments. From the results, it was concluded that, with routine fungicide application based solely on wheat growth stage, total fungicide application costs had to be <$24.71 ha(-1) ($10 acre(-1)) in order to average a ≥ 50% probability of breaking even or making a profit (compared with not spraying). By contrast, if fungicides were applied when fungal disease was present, total application costs of ≤ $47 ha(-1) ($19 acre(-1)) for strobilurins and ≤ $72 ha(-1) ($29 acre(-1)) for propiconazole alone were associated with a ≥ 50% probability of breaking even or making a profit at a wheat price of $184 Mg(-1). The results do not support the application of strobilurin or triazole fungicides to mid-Atlantic wheat crops for "plant health" in the absence of disease. Rather, they support basing the decision to apply fungicide on observation of disease, if an economic return for the input is desired.

Virulence in Hessian fly (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) field collections from the southeastern United States to 21 resistance genes in wheat.

Genetic resistance in wheat, Triticum aestivum L., is the most efficacious method for control of Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). However, because of the appearance of new genotypes (biotypes) in response to deployment of resistance, field collections of Hessian fly need to be evaluated on a regular basis to provide breeders and producers information on the efficacy of resistance (R) genes with respect to the genotype composition of Hessian fly in regional areas. We report here on the efficacy of 21 R genes in wheat to field collections of Hessian fly from the southeastern United States. Results documented that of the 21 R genes evaluated only five would provide effective protection of wheat from Hessian fly in the southeastern United States. These genes were H12, H18, H24, H25, and H26. Although not all of the 33 identified R genes were evaluated in the current study, these results indicate that identified genetic resistance to protect wheat from Hessian attack in the southeastern United States is a limited resource. Historically, R genes for Hessian fly resistance in wheat have been deployed as single gene releases. Although this strategy has been successful in the past, we recommend that in the future deployment of combinations of highly effective previously undeployed genes, such as H24 and H26, be considered. Our study also highlights the need to identify new and effective sources of resistance in wheat to Hessian fly if genetic resistance is to continue as a viable option for protection of wheat in the southeastern United States.