Fusarium head blight (FHB), or scab, was again a major economic problem for North Dakota producers in 2005. Total losses due to scab in hard red spring wheat (HRS), durum and barley are estimated at more than $162 million, according to William Nganje, North Dakota State University (NDSU) agricultural economist.

Nganje and others in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics have studied the economic impacts of scab since 1993.

"Scab remains a major economic problem, whether measured in relative terms to other crop sales or measured by overall direct and secondary economic impact," Nganje says.

"For every $1 of scab losses incurred by the producer, $2.08 in losses are incurred in other areas of rural and state economies."

Nganje says that direct and secondary losses to North Dakota can be estimated at $4.49 billion from 1993 through 2005.

"Net farm income has decreased significantly since 1996 and losses due to scab are further depressing farm economies,"
Nganje says. "Scab occurs in many crop reporting districts in North Dakota that are not only reliant on agriculture, but are predominately dependent upon small-grain production."

Other findings:

• Direct economic losses from 1993 through 2005 were greatest for hard red spring wheat ($746.16 million), followed by barley ($472.04 million) and durum ($239.84 million).

• Significant decreases in direct production losses from FHB were observed for HRS from 2001 to 2003
  (-$34.85 million to -$10.66 million). This coincides with increased adoption of Alsen, a moderately scab-resistant HRS variety. Adoption of Alsen for 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 (years where data was
  available) were 0.4 percent, 6.7 percent, 30.8 percent and 37.4 percent, respectively.

"The magnitude and the geographic size of the problem suggest that continued research into developing scab-resistant varieties of wheat and barley is warranted," Nganje says.
"Clearly, expenditures on scab research would easily be offset by future benefits of a reduction in scab losses."

This year, the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station released Glenn, HRS wheat variety. Glenn has a higher level of scab resistance than Alsen or Steele-ND, according to Mohamed Mergoum, leader of the North Dakota State University HRS-breeding program.

Glenn combines two sources of genetic resistance to scab. Steele-ND, released by NDSU in 2004, has scab resistance from a wild wheat, while the resistance in Alsen, also an NDSU release, is from a Chinese spring wheat.

Another advantage of Glenn is its good milling and baking properties, according to Truman Olsen, NDSU cereal scientist. Glenn also exhibits the traditional strong dough-mixing characteristics that are needed when used as blending wheat.