There is a lot of head scab in the wheat this year in Indiana.
Severity appears to be increasing almost daily.
The persistent rainy weather we had a couple of weeks ago provided a favorable environment for infection. The warm weather since then favored continued development of the fungus in the spike, so that more and more spikelets become blighted each day. Farmers are advised to adjust their combines to get rid of shriveled grain, rather than have it mixed in with plump kernels. Trying to salvage small, shriveled kernels will just lower test weight, increase the frequency of tombstone kernels in the grain, and reduce the value of the crop at the elevator. Because of the potential for mycotoxins in scabby wheat, we have listed below the answers to several questions that wheat producers might ask.