When inspecting fields, confirm that adequate nitrogen has been applied or is available to the crop before assuming BYDV is the problem. Like BYDV, lack of nitrogen will also cause plants to look chlorotic and yellow. At this point, there is little that producers can do to prevent or control this disease. Yield reductions at worst were 25 percent and in many cases were far less. In a field situation, it's highly unlikely that we would have BYDV infections of the magnitude seen in the research plots.
Many plants are hosts to the virus.
These include other small grains, corn, and most cool season perennial and annual grasses. Current wheat varieties have little BYDV resistance although some varieties seem to tolerate the effects of BYDV better than others. Planting later in the fall seems to offer the most viable management practice for reducing infection risk. The problem is that we don't always know what long term weather conditions will prevail following seeding. For next fall's winter wheat planting season we start with a fresh slate.