Farmers have options to keep their crops healthy
Stewart’s bacterial root, Phytophthora root and Fusarium head blight don’t get the same attention as Influenza A, tuberculosis and whopping cough. But the impact of those diseases can be just as devastating.
Each year, plant diseases cause declines in crop production and jeopardize the United States’ food supplies. What’s more, plant pathogens threaten the livelihoods of farmers and endanger our country’s ecosystem.
Locally, farmers who grow corn, soybean and wheat are especially at risk, said Carolee T. Bull, Ph.D., professor and department head of plant pathology and environmental microbiology at Penn State University.
“Last year, Northern corn leaf blight and gray leaf spot accounted for about 82 percent of the region’s losses in corn production,” she said. “Seeding diseases also accounted for approximately a 2 to 4 percent loss for soybean crops, at about a $10 to $12 cost per acre. Plant diseases are a problem that farmers in southwestern Pennsylvania have to take very seriously.”
Fortunately, farmers can combine a variety of approaches to keep their crops healthy.
“Farming is all about risk management and making choices that help minimize the risk,” said Alyssa A. Collins, Ph.D., a Penn State plant pathology and environmental microbiology assistant professor and director of the Southeast Agricultural Research & Extension Center. “We call this integrated disease management because there is no one thing that works in every crop/disease system on its own.”
Collins often recommends that farmers select varieties of crops that have been bred to have some resistance to common disease problems, when available. She also advises farmers to sow seeds farther apart to increase airflow around plants and lower harmful humidity and she cautions farmers not to plant the same crop in the same field, year after year. In addition, she tells farmers to watch the weather and to use forecasting tools to know if and when to spray an effective fungicide.
“When they combine all these approaches, farmers end up with high-quality grains that are free of toxins,” said Collins. “It’s always challenging but farmers know that’s what they have to do to make sure we have abundant and safe flour, pet food and beer.”
Even when farmers take all these precautions, there is still a chance that farmers may experience a bad year.
“We can’t control the weather and that can have a big impact on how our crops and diseases develop,” said Collins. “But when things go wrong, a good farmer learns from that experience and adapts. Farmers are constantly learning, adapting and changing, because crops, pathogens and the environment are always changing.”
Paul D. Esker, assistant professor of epidemiology and field crop pathology at Penn State University, agrees that assessment skills are important to farmers who want to protect their crops.
“Farmers have to make two types of decisions: tactical and strategic,” he said. “One can think of a tactical decision as what we may be able to do during the growing season while strategic decisions are those that develop over time based on knowledge of fields and previous management decisions.”
Farmers can also get diagnostic help from the Plant Disease Clinic, a service and education function of Penn State’s Department of Plant Pathology.
“We provide clinical diagnoses of plant diseases for approximately 2,000 samples submitted annually by Pennsylvania agricultural producers, urban gardeners and homeowners,” said Bull. “There is no charge for this service but we only accept samples that have been collected from gardens or landscapes within the state of Pennsylvania.”
Visit http://plantpath.psu.edu/facilities/plant-disease-clinic to download a specimen submission form from the Plant Disease Clinic.
In addition, Rachel Milliron, a local field and forage crops educator for Penn State University, is available to visit farmers, answer their questions about plant diseases and point them to helpful resources. To contact Milliron, call 724-919-4314.