Fusarium head blight was a devastating disease across the prairies this year in the spring wheat crop.

The issue was up for discussion at the Manitoba Agronomists Conference held last week at the University of Manitoba.

Anita Brûlé-Babel is a professor at the university.

She talked about ways to mitigate the disease.

"I think the top ways to manage risk are to ensure that you're choosing varieties that are more resistant," explained Brûlé-Babel. "Breeders have put a lot of effort into developing those varieties and they are available, the information is available, so actually implementing those is a good choice."

Brûlé-Babel notes that using resistant varieties along with disease monitoring and fungicide applications will give producers the best chance of managing the disease.

It's also important to pay attention to environmental conditions at critical times as the wheat crop is most susceptible to Fusarium head blight infection at flowering.