Economic impact of the improvements on Fusarium head blight management in winter wheat in relation to modernization of agronomic practices

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is an important disease of wheat that causes significant economic losses. Since a major FHB epidemic in Ontario in 1996, FHB management strategies, namely genetic resistance and fungicides have improved significantly. The value of these improvements along with the modernization of agronomic practices was uncertain. Field experiments were conducted in 2017 and 2018 to estimate the impacts of these improvements to FHB suppression and wheat performance. The combination of moderately resistant cultivars and fungicides reduced total deoxynivalenol by 67%, Fusarium-damaged kernels by 49%, FHB index by 86%, and increased test weight by 11% and yield by 21-32%. If adopted in 1996, these modern practices would have increased farm revenue by 58% and profit by $206.55 ha-1. Up to 54% of the loss in 1996 would have been mitigated, suggesting significant improvements were made, leaving about the same amount of room for improvement.