Endemic Cereal Diseases

The 2026 disease guides for Victoria provide Victorian growers and advisers with current information on field crop diseases in cereals and pulses, including disease management advice, resistance ratings and fungicide resistance considerations for the coming season.  Due to the below average rainfall during 2025, there is a reduced potential for disease to […]

Crown Rot Update – 2025: Dry Spring Driving Whiteheads in Victorian Cereals Whiteheads due to crown rot, caused by Fusarium pseudograminearum and Fusarium culmorum, have been increasingly observed in Victorian wheat crops during 2025. The dry spring across much of the Wimmera and Mallee has placed crops under moisture stress, […]

CropAlerts provide timely information for crop diseases to Victorian growers and agronomists. Alerts are sent out via email during the cropping season. To receive these alerts please contact [email protected] Current and historical CropAlerts can be accessed on this page. CropAlerts 2025   2024   2023   2022   2021   […]

Barley loose smut has been widely reported across the Mallee and Wimmera this season. Affected plants are found with black heads which disperse spores and appear to ‘disintegrate’. This webinar provided an update on the current loose smut situation in Victorian and West Australian barley crops and what the best […]

Have you seen similar symptoms in your crop this year? Chances are you have barley loose smut in your crop. Barley loose smut has been widely reported across the Mallee and Wimmera this season. Affected plants are found with black heads which disperse spores and appear to ‘disintegrate’. Higher than […]

The Victorian pulse and cereal disease guides provide the latest information on disease management and disease resistance ratings. 2023 Disease Management – Pulses There will be a high risk of disease carryover into the 2023 season from infected seed and stubble of crops that had high disease levels in 2022. […]

Welcome to another episode of the Field Crop Diseases Victoria podcast series. In episode two, Luise caught up with Grant Hollaway to talk about the risk of stripe rust heading in to the 2023 cropping season and what growers can do to manage this risk. You can find the episode […]

The following papers were presented at the GRDC Updates in Bendigo in February 2021. This article includes a summary of key points from each paper, click on the title to find the full text. Cereal disease update 2021 Authors: Mark McLean, Grant Hollaway and Hari Dadu (Agriculture Victoria), Robert Park […]

In this video, Dr. Hari Dadu from Agriculture Victoria walks through an oat plot in a red leather leaf trial and demonstrates the symptoms of red leather leaf early in the season. This video was recorded on 11th August 2020. All information was accurate at the time of recording. Transcript […]

In this video, Dr. Hari Dadu from Agriculture Victoria discusses the impact of red leather leaf (caused by Neospermospora avenae) on oaten hay varieties during 2020 and provides key take-home messages. This video was recorded on November 8, 2020. All information was accurate at the time of recording. Transcript – Impact […]

Welcome to the first episode of the new Field Crop Diseases Victoria podcast series. We hope you enjoy. In episode one, Jemma Pearl caught up with Steve Marcroft, Grant Hollaway and Josh Fanning to talk about disease in 2020 and their thoughts on what growers should be thinking about for […]

  Red leather leaf is a common foliar disease of oats in Victoria. In this video, Dr. Mark McLean discusses the symptoms and grain yield impact from red leather leaf. This video was recorded in October 2020. More information on red leather leaf management can be found on Field Crop […]