Some Willamette Valley wheat farmers were just hoping to break even this season, but a stripe rust outbreak has derailed that hope.
Stripe rust, a disease that lowers yields and quality of wheat, has arrived early this year due to an unusually cold and wet spring.
Yields have decreased between ten and 50 percent throughout the Willamette Valley, discouraging farmers, some of whom were just hoping to break even.
The outbreak in many cases is turning a marginally profitable crop into a losing venture.
“If you budgeted for one fungicide application and you’ve got to put on two, that can be the difference between making money and not making money,” OSU Extension agent Tom Silberstein said.
Read the whole story at the Capital Press.
{biztweet}stripe rust{/biztweet}
