Based on weather data from November 1st to February 29th, Washington State University is forecasting the stripe rust level to reach the severe epidemic level this growing season for the inland Northwest. Dr. Xianming Chen says he predicts highly susceptible varieties to have 44% to 53% loss this growing season. This figure is quite a bit higher than the 44% forecasted in January based only on the November-December weather conditions.

Chen said, susceptible and moderately susceptible commercially grown varieties will likely to have up to 24% yield losses.

As of last week, WSU crews were checking wheat fields in Lincoln, Douglas, Grant, Adams, Franklin, Benton and Walla Walla counties of Washington, as well as Umatilla County in Oregon.

Since stripe rust has already been reported, management of the disease on winter wheat should start at the time of herbicide application based on the stripe rust ratings in the Seed Buying Guides.

As stripe rust will be likely severe, planting spring varieties with ratings 1 to 4 may void using fungicide.

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