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July 6, 2001

Karnal bunt's brunt

Texas wheat growers hit with scourge at harvest time...

By Lana Robinson
Field Editor

If it isn't a drought, a flood, a boll weevil or a Hessian fly, it's cotton root rot, aflatoxin, and now, Karnal bunt. Texas producers never seem to run out of natural enemies, and this most recent one—a fungal disease which attacks wheat—not only lowers production and quality, but potentially places at risk wheat and wheat product exports to 80 countries.

Portions of San Saba and McCulloch counties have been quarantined for Karnal bunt since 1997, and an outbreak again this spring means those counties will be subject to another five years of restrictions. Young and Throckmorton counties were quarantined June 8 and Archer County on June 19. Two days later, Baylor County was placed under a temporary regulated status because officials fear wheat seed from one of the neighboring counties may have been planted there and/or some producers possibly farm across county lines.

Under the quarantine, any wheat leaving the quarantined counties must be tested and found free of Karnal bunt before it can be moved. Inspectors from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, working in cooperation with the Texas Department of Agriculture, will be testing the wheat.

"Unfortunately, the majority of the wheat harvest was well advanced when they started. We were told at a producers meeting that they (USDA-APHIS) plan to reduce the quarantine area down to a restricted area `as small as possible as rapidly as possible,'" Brad Morrison, Young County agent, reported June 25, noting that elevators at McGargle and Elbert are both affected.

According to Morrison, wheat producers within the quarantined counties are not only concerned about the immediate situation, but future options, since they will be subject to regulation for the next five years.

"We have the option of not growing wheat and instead growing cotton, grain sorghum, hay grazer, oats or barley. Or we can graze out our wheat or we can bale our wheat, or raise wheat in a noninfected area," he said.

Wheat producers have had four meetings to date to get a better grasp of what the quarantine means and how to get their wheat cleared for movement out of the county. Morrison said another meeting is planned for July 12 at the Olney Community Center in Olney.

In the short term, producers with quarantined wheat have few options. USDA-APHIS is taking aggressive, preemptive measures to stop the possible spread of Karnal bunt.

On June 26, Rodney Mosier, executive vice president of the Texas Wheat Growers Association in Amarillo, said, "At Seymour, there were two bins that were positive. Some producers hadn't sold their grain, so they thought they might put it in the government loan program, but they've shut off that avenue and are refusing wheat from growers in adjoining counties as well."

Mosier said cool, moist conditions at the time of flowering, like those in North Central Texas this year, likely triggered the outbreaks.

Elevator suspects infection

Kelley Adair, co-owner with Michael Bryant of Farmers Milling Company in Graham, was the first to alert USDA officials of a potential problem that set off the quarantines.

"I first saw this wheat on the afternoon of May 24," Adair recalled. "After we first saw it, we started searching the Internet for mildews to see what in the world this stuff was. We finally came across a picture of Karnal bunt, and it looked a lot like it. We turned off the computer and had a fairly lengthy discussion about the ramifications of it. We were somewhat aware of Karnal bunt, and its export issues. We realized at that point that were this grain to enter the export stream, it would have the potential to affect the entire Texas export business, and that of other states like Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Louisiana that use the Houston port. We decided the only right thing to do was to notify the officials and try and get this contained as quickly as possible."

In many ways, Adair and Bryant are living to regret "doing the right thing." As a result, their facility is stuck with two grain bins, or about 75,000 bushels, of quarantined wheat.

"Much of this wheat I already had marketed to an end user. The value of that wheat to the end user exceeded $300,000. Right now it's quarantined, and as yet, I don't have a buyer for it," Adair reported June 26.

While Adair was complimentary of the USDA-APHIS teams now in place, he said the agency was very slow responding at the outset and in his opinion, there were delays—costly delays for his elevator and customers—that could have been prevented. He cited a time line in which he submitted samples to USDA-APHIS and a private lab on May 25, yet it was a week before APHIS arrived to test bins and June 8 before Throckmorton County was quarantined and the regulatory crew in place. Although the private lab's test showed a positive result as early as May 29, APHIS would not accept their test and insisted on sending samples to Kansas State and then to Riverdale, MD.

"We received wheat for a full two weeks prior to there being any testing procedures available, with them telling us we should continue our normal operation. The speed with which they move is disturbing, considering this is the same agency that will move in, should there ever be a foot and mouth case discovered," Adair observed.

Three, four-pound samples were taken from one of Adair's bins. Out of 12 pounds, six kernels tested positive.

According to USDA-APHIS guidelines, wheat infected with the fungus must be: 1) manufactured into animal feed subject to heat treatment of 170 degrees to kill the spores (steam flaked or pelleted); 2) sold to a flour mill, to be processed into flour for human consumption and all wheat waste converted to by-products subject to heat treatment of 170 degrees; or 3) disposed of.

"From our standpoint, only one of the options is viable. First of all, no flour millers are willing to accept the wheat because of flour mill standards and the fact that APHIS requires the mill that buys the wheat to heat treat the by-products. They're not set up for that, at least not the ones I've spoken with. And according to the proposed regulations, compensation for disposal of the grain is a maximum of $1.80 per bushel. Money-wise, that prevents us from putting wheat in an approved site."

Although regulations were written to include the 1999-2000 crop year, they are still in the proposal stage. Thus, producers experiencing Karnal bunt outbreaks last year still have not been compensated.

"Part of our frustration comes from the fact that APHIS moves as swiftly as they can to set up a regulated area through quarantines, and yet the compensation package lags in Washington because of bureaucratic channels. It's awaiting final approval, still on someone's desk a year later. Our position is if the government is taking a zero tolerance approach to Karnal bunt and quarantining crops, affecting handlers, producers, seed growers—everyone involved in the wheat industry—there should be a compensation rule which is available in a more timely fashion," said Adair.

Farmers Milling Company serves customers within about a 20-mile radius of Graham.

Adair and his partner, Bryant, are Farm Bureau members and have been working through the farm organization, as well as with the Texas Wheat Producers Board and the Texas Grain and Feed Association, to seek remedies for those impacted by the quarantine. They have also been in contact with and have ongoing dialogue with the offices of Congressmen Larry Combest, Charles Stenholm, and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs concerning the matter.

"Right now our focus and our efforts are centered on compensation, not only for myself but for my producers in this area that were infected. We here in North Central Texas have just gone through severe drought and low wheat prices to begin with. It doesn't look like it's improving in the near future. The financial losses both to my company and many of my producers are going to be devastating. It would be flat wrong if a government quarantine forced anyone out of business. I don't think that's what the people who set this up had in mind. But that's the road we're headed down." Adair stated. "I've written letters up the APHIS chain and sent direct letters to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman. I'm sad to say, however, I have not received a response one yet."

Is containment working?

Producers and millers are also learning the hard way that government-quarantined crops are ineligible for insurance coverage, according to Texas Farm Bureau District 7 Director Regan Kirk of San Saba.

"But it's not just about money. It's about the future of wheat farming in Texas," Kirk insisted.

Kirk disagrees with conventional thinking that Karnal bunt is an exotic fungus that only recently entered the U.S. Instead, he believes it could have been here for 15 years or longer, emerging under the right climatic conditions.

"I think it's like black leg. It's always there. And I think it's everywhere, it's just not being tested and detected," said Kirk. "We were the sacrificial lamb here in San Saba County. We only have 10,000 acres of wheat. Now, we have more USDA employees than wheat farmers. I'm not kidding. USDA-APHIS has 8-10 full time employees and 25 or so part-timers who follow combines and drive back and forth. This idea of containment is hooey. We're not going to contain it. We have to find a way to live with it."

Kirk met with six or eight farmers in his county recently to discuss possible solutions.

"Wheat is one of the only things we can grow here. We've got to come up with something," he said. "These guys are making leasing decisions now. It's serious."

Kirk said last year, wheat brought $3.10 per bushel and $2.40 for bunted wheat at San Angelo, which is a considerable discount.

"The thing is, there is a perimeter line around San Saba County, and producers with wheat growing outside that line didn't have to be tested. Some of that wheat was infected, but it went right to the elevator, so they're not controlling it. They need to quit using those words," Kirk said.

Kirk believes the tolerance for Karnal bunt is unrealistic.

"If the sample turns up one bunted kernel or spore, the whole sample is positive, that's 1/10th of 1,000 percent in a 4-lb. sample. I think the threshold for Karnal bunt should be the same as aflatoxin in corn. It should be treated the same. It's not a human health threat."

TWPB's Mosier maintains the position that infection should be contained to preserve the wheat export market. In the long term, he suggests more attention must be paid to how seed is handled and inspected.

"We must make sure it is Karnal bunt-free seed. We are working with TDA and APHIS to come up with some form of seed registration, some kind of seed assurance program. Producers are getting ready to plant seed for the coming year. We need to make sure it is of the best quality, to prevent the spread in the future. That's really one of the few ways it is spread—contaminated seed and contaminated equipment. We need to take a look at the seed planting in those areas and see if quality seed will help alleviate the problem," he said.

At press time, reports that Karnal bunt had been discovered in a bin at an elevator in Wichita Falls were unconfirmed.