The Canadian Wheat Board has found a way to deal with this year’s fusarium problem in winter wheat, a problem that was further complicated by a higher than usual concentration of DON in the fusarium infected crop.
Mark Thibeault is the Senior Manager of Supply Optimization for the Board and he says the crop is being blended with uninfected crop in a closely monitored program.
“All of our customers have great concerns about fusarium and DON concentrations but because there is was a good quality crop in other areas of the prairies we are able to blend it and still meet the sales requirements.” The concentration of fusarium was highest in eastern Manitoba and the relationship with DON was higher than usual in the 2008 crop.
Thibeault says the winter wheat crop from Manitoba is being blended with non-infected winter wheat and CPS Red wheats in shipments leaving Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
“We have sales on the books that allow for the blending of these wheats and we don’t see a problem moving them this crop year, we are well over halfway there (in terms of volume of the crop) and only five months into the crop year,” he said.
He rates the problem as the greatest that the CWB had this year in terms of production and movement of the crop.
“There was also a problem with spring wheat and it is being handled the same way,” he says. “The further west you go the better the quality of the crop and that has allowed us to blend the crop and still meet quality requirements.”
He says while the problem was similar in spring wheat it was not as serious because the infestation was not as bad and the relationship to DON was not as high. The spring wheat crop is a considerably higher volume which allows for more blending of the crop as well.
The Wheat Board did establish a special program to handle fusarium infested wheat which dealt with crops that had a higher than Canadian Grain Commission standard of infestation. The program allowed for delivery of the crop and if the sample graded beyond what was allowed in a #2 sample it was treated as dockage and the volume was reduced by a factor of the infestation.
