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Oat Diseases
Two diseases of oats that have a potential to cause significant yield loss are crown rust and barley yellow dwarf (oat red leaf). Another disease commonly seen on oats in North Dakota is bacterial blight, but generally this disease is seen early in the season during a rainy spell, and then with a return to dry weather, the upper leaves do not show bacterial infection.
Crown rust of oats is caused by a fungus in the genus Puccinia. Spores of this fungus may blow in from southern states or come from the common buckthorn grown in many local shelter belts or home yards. Development of resistant varieties to crown rust has been an important part of oat breeders in the region, but the fungus has shifted races and virulence frequently in recent years. Consult the current oat variety descriptions for information on variety response to the prevalent races of crown rust. Reactions range from Susceptible to Resistant, depending on variety. Foliar fungicides could also be used to control oat rust on susceptible varieties, if yield potential and price received were high. Stem rust of oats could be damaging if a large population of stem rust spores were carried into the region in wind currents from southern states. A large number of the oat varieties developed for North Dakota are resistant to stem rust, but some varieties developed in other locations are susceptible to stem rust.
Some variation among oat varieties also exist for response to barley yellow dwarf virus. Reaction to barley yellow dwarf ranges from susceptible to tolerant. This virus disease is carried by cereal aphids and generally the disease is more damaging in late planted oats, because of the likelihood of greater aphids populations during the later part of the growing season. See oat variety description in the main menu of ProCrop for variety reaction rating.
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