Georgia wheat farmers figure to get some of the best prices
ever for this year’s crop.
That makes their losses to a viral disease even harder to
take.

“We can find barley yellow dwarf virus in just about
every wheat field across the
state at some level,” said Randy Hudson, an entomologist
with the University of
Georgia Extension Service. “Fortunately, not all the fields
have the same level of
damage.”

Hudson and Dewey Lee, an Extension feed grains agronomist,
figure losses will approach
$8 million, depending on the weather in the final days before
harvest, which starts in
late May.

Georgia’s wheat harvest is divided fairly evenly between the
part milled for flour and
the grain exported as livestock feed.

Farmers’ reduced yields won’t affect the price of your flour
or bread because Georgia
grows such a tiny part of the world market. But they’ll take a
bite out of an otherwise
healthy boost to the state’s rural economy.

Hudson said earliest-planted wheat in east-central Georgia
shows the most dramatic
symptoms of the disease. But it’s in other areas, too.

“We’ve
seen losses of more than 50 percent in specific fields in east
Georgia,” he said.

Other fields may show disease symptoms but not lose much of
their wheat.

Boyd Padgett, an Extension plant pathologist, said he’s seen
the disease in nearly
every wheat variety grown in Georgia. “Some may be less
susceptible, but that’s not immunity,” he
said.

Farmers planted wheat on about 400,000 acres in more than two-
thirds of Georgia’s counties this year.
Extension economist George Shumaker said low world grain
supplies have driven up prices
for wheat and other small grains.

Farmers have seen prices in the $6-per-bushel range for the
July 1996 crop. That’s nearly double last year’s
$3.50 wheat.

This virus relies on aphids to travel from plant to plant and
from one field to
another. Partly because they’re so small, aphids are hard to
control.

Hudson is working with David Buntin, a research entomologist,
to control aphids in
Georgia and the Southeast. But barring aphid control, he said,
farmers can’t do anything to prevent
infection or help infected plants.

“A virus causes barley yellow dwarf,” he said.
Plant viruses act like most
viruses in humans. You can’t prevent them or cure them.

“Farmers need to know this is out there,” Padgett
said. “But going out
and spraying fungicides for barley yellow dwarf is a waste of
time and money.”

The disease slows the flow of nutrients from leaves to the
forming grain head. As a
result, less grain is harvested. Hudson said the plant makes
lower-quality grain, too.

Even with the disease problem, this year has been very good
for wheat farmers.
“The crop condition is good,” Shumaker said. “And
farmers who have taken
advantage of the high prices are looking at a very profitable
year.”

So what can farmers do?

Very little besides preparing for next year. “Once
they’re aware of the
problem,” Hudson said, “they need to manage their next
crop with barley yellow
dwarf in mind.”

Experts hope ongoing research can provide controls for barley
yellow dwarf. Field tests
show that in-furrow insecticide treatments may help control the
aphids that carry the
virus.

“That could help us,” Hudson said. “But until
then, we’ll just grin and bear it. At
least the wheat Georgia farmers do make is valuable.”