Southern Australia's cropping regions face their worst cereal disease risk in nearly 40 years

Southern Australia's cropping regions face their worst cereal disease risk in nearly 40 years.

Already, reports are emerging of the first cases of stripe, stem and leaf rust in Victoria, southern NSW and South Australia.

Department of Primary Industries senior plant pathologist Grant Hollaway is urging growers to monitor their crops and consider spraying earlier than normal.

Stem-rust and leaf-rust infections have been reported in Mallee wheat crops and stripe rust has been found in wheat crops near Horsham and Bendigo.

Experts expect a higher than normal risk of outbreaks this season due to the high inoculum load in last year's crops and carryover rust on volunteer plants due to an abnormally wet summer.

It comes as the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program begins a Rust Bust campaign to encourage grain growers to think about managing rust infections by planning their management strategies early.

It also coincides with the DPI's launch of Crop Alert, an email-based early disease alert system similar to the PestFacts service for reports of invertebrate pest outbreaks.

Dr Hollaway, chairman of the ACRCP consultative committee, said early rust infections in crops increased the risk for yield loss if control strategies were not implemented.

"Growers need to take an active approach to rust management," he said.

"Farmers and agronomists should now be monitoring wheat crops for stripe, leaf and stem rust.

"At this time of the year, it is necessary to look closely at plants to detect the small pinhead-size rust pustules. If rust is detected, they should check the rust-resistance rating and implement their rust management plan."

Growers and agronomists can send suspected rust samples to the Plant Breeding Institute for identification.

Infected leaves can be placed in paper envelopes and sent to Australian Cereal Rust Survey, Plant Breeding Institute, PO Box 4011, Narellan, NSW, 2567.

Stripe rust has also been found in southern NSW wheat crops, but there have not yet been reports in SA.