Although the flowering period of wheat seems far away, the season is moving fast, and now may be a good time for you to sign up for the Fusarium head blight (FHB) alerts, which may be sent either to your mobile phone or to your email.

Sign-up directions are found at: http://scabusa.org/fhb_alert.php .

These alerts are triggered during the growing season when Extension specialists in ND, MN and SD want to provide you information about the risk levels of Fusarium head blight, as indicated by the FHB forecasting models. 

Updates on other wheat disease or barley disease risks also may be provided.

Currently, states in winter wheat producing areas to our south or east have indicated relatively low FHB risks this year, but they have reported occurrences of leaf rust, stripe rust, and barley yellow dwarf infections.

Most recently, some states have also reported freeze injury to their crops that are in the jointing to early head emergence stages, with less damage to those crops already past flowering.