Plain Talking: Fusarium Crown Rot

Riverine Plains Senior Project manager - Kate Coffey, gives an overview of new project 'Scoping the correlation between stubble management for subsurface acidity and Fusarium crown rot in cereal crops' and is joined by local farmer Paul Brown who has had first hand experience with PreDicta B DNA testing.

Transcript

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT 

PLAIN TALKING: FUSARIUM CROWN ROT PROJECT 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:00:00] Hello, I'm Camilla Plunkett. Consecutive good seasons along with stubble retention and tight cereal rotations, have favoured a build up of Fusarium Crown Rot across the Riverine Plains. Project officers have been busy investigating the potential link between Fusarium crown rot, subsoil acidity and stubble management techniques through demonstrations, surveys and trials to help farmers mitigate yield loss. As part of a Riverine Plains dry sowing, herbicide efficacy and crown rot field walk, seventeen Riverine Plains members came to look at trial sites near Murchison Victoria, and to discuss strategies to combat the disease moving forward. I caught up with Senior Project Manager, Kate Coffey to learn about the project and how it's affecting cereal growers across the Riverine Plains. 

Kate Coffey - Riverine Plains [00:00:58] So the project we looked today at the field walk was the, it's an NGN project, which is a National Grower Network project funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Riverine Plains are really grateful to the GRDC who have, supported us in this project in terms of the finances. So, the purpose of today was to introduce farmers to, the disease of crown rot and sort of explaining why we're seeing it as an emerging problem in our area. And then the second purpose was to show farmers, how to identify crown rot through DNA testing, PreDicta B testing. And then thirdly, to look at some of the management strategies they can put in place to reduce the risk of crown rot causing a problem in terms of yield loss. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:01:48] As part of the project, paddock surveys will be conducted annually across the Riverine Plains region for soil pH and PredDicta B DNA soil testing. Can you tell us a bit more about that? 

Kate Coffey - Riverine Plains [00:02:00] So the PreDicta B testing, is a soil sampling that's done sort of January, February prior to sowing. It can be done by agronomist or someone at Riverine Plains can do it and we take a series of soil tests as well as collect the previous year's cereal stubble. And we send that off for testing to SARDI, and the testing is a DNA test, and it tests for a number of different diseases, one of which is crown rot. But it does test for other diseases such Take-all. So what it does, it gives you an indication as to whether the levels in your paddock are going to cause the problem in terms of yield loss for that year, so if you do it in February and you know you've got higher levels, potentially you can do something about it, like it can change species or you can change variety because, you know, in February you can make it make a decision based on the result. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:02:50] And what are those management strategies for Crown rot that you've got at the moment? 

Kate Coffey - Riverine Plains [00:02:55] Yeah. So, there's a number of different strategy strategies. So if you are locked in to growing a cereal there's different cereals have different susceptibility. So durum wheat your most susceptible, then bread wheat, then oats then barley and then within your bread wheat, some varieties are more susceptible and others. So, by just looking at the species you're sowing within the cereals, you can reduce the risk of yield loss. The other option is if you do have high levels, you can switch out to a crop that actually decreases the crown rot. So a rotational crop such as canola or faba beans, or field peas or vetch because those diseases, those crops they are a break the Fusarium crown rot. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:03:42] And how long is this trial going for? 

Kate Coffey - Riverine Plains [00:03:45] So it was back in, 2023 that we found that we did have the high levels of crown rot. So we started the project in 2024 this year, and we have three years to go on the project, so it allows us to do some more testing throughout the region, build awareness with farmers and then hopefully increase their knowledge in how to manage the Crown and reduce the risk of loss in terms of yield. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:04:10] And what would you suggest if you suspect that you do have crown rot? 

Kate Coffey - Riverine Plains [00:04:14] Number one is to just monitor your crop and keep an eye on it, so you will see some symptoms towards the end of the year. The main symptom is, sort of a brownie colour on the bottom of the stem. Sort of around when the around when the crop starts to mature and then in the worst case scenario, you'll see the heads of the wheat turn white sort of as it's maturing. So that's a sign you've got crown rot. So I think the first thing is to just observe in the paddock, and if you do have a problem, consult your agronomist and I then would recommend post- harvest doing it and a PreDicta B test to just see what those levels are. As part of the GRDC project we can actually test a number of paddocks across our region, so if there's farmers in the region wanting to have a test done. Just contact our office and we can arrange that for you. We're looking for more farmers going into next season to do the testing, so contact our office. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:05:09] Where abouts has it been found in the Riverine Plains? 

Kate Coffey - Riverine Plains [00:05:13] So the main trial site we've got is at Murchison but the testing that we did back in February this year sort of went as far north as Rand, through to Savernake and then down south in the southern part of our catchment and we found that the, the crown rot was quite prevalent right across the region, so I think it's a region wide problem, and hence why this year we're having, we've got a few strip trials that are in, in the north and south part of that Riverine Plains region, just to try and cover the region and get the awareness out there. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:05:51] Paul Brown, a Riverine Plains member and farmer, is located 30km south of Shepparton at Moorilim. Paul has been involved with the Riverine Plains trial and PreDicta B testing after identifying some cereal paddocks at risk of the disease. 

Paul Brown - Farmer [00:06:08] We did some work with Riverine Plains to do some PreDicta B testing, and now identified a cereal on cereal paddock that had high levels. We didn't see any, examples of crown rot in the paddock. It was only through the testing we found had high levels of crown rot. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:06:27] Paul, what management strategies are you putting in place to manage it? 

Paul Brown - Farmer [00:06:31] At the higher levels that we identified, we still needed to stick with that cereal on cereal rotation as part of our cropping program. So we were burning the stables there, we were inter row sowing, so we thought we could manage it as best as we could through those processes. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:06:46] So starting with the inter sowing in the beginning, and how effective do you think the management strategies are? 

Paul Brown - Farmer [00:06:55] From what the research that we've looked at, that is about all we could do at this point in time with that as part of that rotation. So, so far, so good. But the proof will be once we get through the harvest and into spring. I think probably the break crop using the break crops is probably going to be our biggest tool in battling crown rot, moving to more legumes in the rotation. It just giving us a second break crops probably going to be pretty good. I think it's probably just working with the agronomist, to build that rotation out and having a strong rotation that's going to be profitable for us going into the future. So it's probably more than one approach still burning stubbles if we have to, but, using that tool as well. 

Camilla Plunkett - Riverine Plains [00:07:36] That was Moorilim farmer Paul Brown, sharing his recent experience of the PreDicta B DNA testing, and earlier Senior Project Manager Kate Coffey sharing details regarding the Riverine Plains project, looking at the link between cereal stubble, subsurface acidity and crown rot. If you are interested in participating in this project or require testing, please contact our Mulwala office and check out our other podcast with Doctor Stephen Simpfendorfer from the New South Wales DPI, Talking Crown Rot. Also, keep an eye out on our events page on our website at www.riverineplains.org.au for more updates, field walks and demonstrations. This is a Riverine Plains podcast and we believe in farmers inspiring farmers. I'm Camilla Plunkett. Thanks for listening.