Fusarium has been a big problem for farmers this year, the fungal disease is showing up in almost every corner of the province.

Saskatchewan Agriculture’s Fusarium meeting in Moose Jaw yesterday attracted about 225 people.

G3 Canada’s Farm Business Rep Patrick Weatherald says there is a large percentage of farmers that have fusarium levels higher than 2%, grading the crop in some cases anywhere from #3 to feed depending on the % of infected kernels.

He notes as a result producers will want to look at conditioning their grain in an effort to try and improve their grade:

"Whether it be air, gravity, colour sorting, traveling to a further location that may not have the same problem in it - you need to explore because there are several dollars per bushel on the table," he said.

Weatherald says the discrepancy in price from feed to a #3 can be as much as $4 a bushel which adds up quickly.

He also says the CGC and the Canadian Grain act defines how grain should be graded but notes it’s still the human eye that’s interpreting that :

"One elevator may interpret it this way, and one elevator may interpret it slightly differently, and in addition to that it also comes down to the sample," he said.

"The sample that was provided at each elevator, after it was divided down, was it still the same grain? One kernel alone can make a significant difference if you are looking at a 25-gram sample and picking it for the fusarium."

He notes CDC standards are that anything with 2% or more fusarium is considered a number 3 or more up to feed, which is where a large percentage of the grain is falling into.

He adds spending the money to have it cleaned can be well worth it.