The Wheat Scab forecasting system (www.wheatscab.psu.edu) is up and running and is now available for use in Ohio. This is an excellent tool to help guide fungicide application decisions. Based on the flowering date of your crop and the weather conditions leading up to flowering, you can estimate the risk of scab occurring and make a timely fungicide application to reduce scab and vomitoxin. This year, the forecasting tool looks a little different, but it still works in essentially the same way. Now in addition to selecting your flowering date (day when anthers are first seen sticking out of the heads) and wheat type (winter wheat in Ohio), you can also selected the scab susceptibility of your variety. This is an interesting new feature that allows you to assess the risk of scab for varieties of different levels of susceptibility. Once you select your flowering date, wheat type, and cultivar susceptibility, color patterns across Ohio (and neighboring states) will then indicate the level of risk in the region for the flowering date you select: Red = High Risk; Yellow = Moderate Risk; and Green = Low Risk. You can then use the zoom tool to take a closer look at the risk in your area.
The commentary section at the top of the forecasting website, provides up-to-date information to help producers assess the risk of scab and decide if a fungicide should be applied. You can also gain access to these commentaries directly on your cell phone or via email. Commentaries will be updated regularly and sent directly to the emails or cell phones of those who sign up to receive the alerts. Once there is cell phone coverage and email access, you will receive the alerts anywhere in the country. You can then visit the website to see whether your crop is at risk and contact your state specialist for more information. To sign up, click on this link: http://scabusa.org/fhb_alert.php and complete the form with your name, email address, cell phone number and other requested information. You can choose whether you want to receive the scab alert via email, text message (on your cell phone), or both. You can also choose whether you want to receive alerts from all regions covered by the system or only from the Mid-West / Mid-South Soft Winter Wheat region.