STRIPE rust will spread like bushfire through Victoria if the conditions are right, a cereal rust expert has warned.
University of Sydney associate professor Col Wellings said recent scorching temperatures should not lead to grain growers being complacent about the risk of stripe rust this season.
Prof Wellings said parts of NSW and southern Queensland were hit hard last season, partly because of the good summer rain that helped self-sown wheat survive, creating a "green bridge" for the rust.
The epidemic was one the most intensive in the 30-year history of the disease in Australia.
Prof Wellings, who is also a principal research scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries, said early sown wheat and triticale were the most susceptible.
He said the intense heat in South Australia and Victoria might have helped stop the green bridge, but it only took a few plants around a dam or an irrigation ditch for the rust to survive.
He said the rust spores could be blown great distances.
"It's like a bushfire," Prof Wellings said.
"When a bushfire is raging even green timber can burn and it will move further than you can imagine."
Stripe rust has been a problem in Australia since 1979, affecting wheat quality and yield.
Prof Wellings said there were large epidemics in the mid 1980s and in 2002-03.
"We've had it under control with good breeding, but we still have a way to go," he said.
Prof Wellings said early management of the disease was vital.
He said a fungicide applied to seed or fertiliser could cost as little as $5/ha, while spraying fungicide in the paddock could cost up to $25/ha.
Prof Wellings will be speaking at the Grains Research and Development Corporation Grains Research Update for advisers in Wagga Wagga in NSW on February 10-11 and in Ballarat in Victoria on February 24-25.
For more details, visit www.grdc.com.au
