Western Australian graingrowers can gain easy access to stripe rust control strategies for this year and into the future after results of new stripe rust research were posted on the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s GrainZone weblink.

Developed from research conducted within the GRDC initiative, the Southern Agribusiness Trial Extension network, the “Stripe Rust Management in Wheat” report provides in-depth but easy to read strategies on managing stripe rust.

The take-home messages are:

• Avoid rust susceptible varieties

• Fungicide application timing is more important than product choice

• Where possible, use resistant wheats with stripe rust ratings of 1-5.

According to CSIRO, stripe rust infections are estimated to have cost Australian growers between $40 and $90 million a year in fungicides alone since 2003.

GRDC Western Region Panel Chairman and Hyden grower, Dale Baker said the wheat stripe rust weblink, along with GRDC’s Harvest Radio, was part of GRDC’s commitment to provide relevant, timely information to growers and their advisers.

Mr Baker said it could be more economical for many growers to spray for stripe rust this year due to lower fungicide costs and potentially higher grain prices.

“In the past few years growers might not have sprayed if they thought they were going to get less than two tonnes a hectare, whereas this year it might be viable to spray at one tonne,” Mr Baker said.

“Many parts of Western Australia have had reasonable rainfall in the past week so there is a chance of better yields, but there will also be increased risk of stripe rust because crops will stay green for longer.

“The economics of controlling and spraying for rust this year are quite a bit different from last year,” he said.

The weblink report includes the history and biology of stripe rust, when to apply fungicides and at what rates, how foliar fungicides work, the difference between triazoles and strobilurins, product comparisons and a stripe rust management plan.

The “Stripe Rust Management in Wheat” report is available on the GRDC website at http://www.grdc.com.au/news/striperustmgt.htm