Ergot, a fast-spreading disease that recently caused million-
dollar losses in Australia, is
now in Georgia, says a U.S. Department of Agriculture
scientist.
Jeff Wilson, a USDA plant pathologist, has found the disease in
sorghum fields at the
University of Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station in
Tifton, Ga.
Georgia farmers grow sorghum mainly as a hog, poultry and wild
bird feed. Each year
they harvest an average of 30,000 acres of sorghum for grain.
Also known as honeydew disease, ergot attacks sorghum florets
before the seeds are
formed. The infected flowers don’t produce grain, which reduces
the grain yield.
The obvious external sign of the disease, Wilson said, is a
sweet, sticky fluid exuding from
the flowers. As the disease progresses, the sticky honeydew
drops onto the seeds, leaves
and ground, making the grain hard to harvest.
Ergot was found in Australian sorghum fields in 1996. Less than
a year later the disease
has spread across the continent into all sorghum-producing
areas.
Today, after living with the disease for two seasons, Australian
sorghum growers are
reporting losses from 10 percent to 100 percent in hybrid seed
production.
“They’ve been spraying with fungicides which have added $20 to
the grower’s cost of a
50-pound bag of seed,” Wilson said.
Wilson identified the first report of ergot in Georgia on Sept.
8 in a Tifton field. The first
sighting consisted of “a few isolated seed-heads.”
Ten days later, the disease had spread across the entire
field. “This is evidence of the
disease’s tremendous capability of spreading,” he said.
Ergot is spread by wind, rain, insects and humans. It can be
transferred from field to field
on clothing and farm equipment.
The disease was first found on the Western Hemisphere in 1995 in
Brazil. By ’96 it had
entered Mexico. Ergot was found in Texas in March ’97. One month
ago, it was reported
in Kansas.
Wilson said this is the first time he has seen a disease
progress from “insignificant to global
impact” in just two years.
The good news for Georgia growers is the disease’s timing.
“It most likely won’t affect this year’s crop,” Wilson
said. “I’d be surprised if any farmers
even see it this year.”
In future years, however, Wilson said farmers may have
harvesting problems with their
late-planted sorghum due to the disease’s sticky nature.
Preliminary reports from Australia include several detrimental
affects on animals fed
infected sorghum grain. Dairy and hog producers report poor
weight gain, feed refusal and
reduced milk production in their animals.
“When it costs more to produce grain,” Wilson said, “it costs
more to feed animals and
buy meat products.”
Researchers expect the disease to spread through Georgia. But
it’s unlikely to greatly
affect meat prices here, said George Shumaker, an Extension
Service economist with the
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“Georgia sorghum is no more than 1 percent of the grain used for
feed in the state,”
Shumaker said. “It is hardly fed to cattle at all. Georgia
farmers grow sorghum grain
mainly as a feed for hogs and poultry.”
