MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — You may not realize it, but wheat is part of most of our lives from the bread we eat to the flour we use for cooking and baking.
But a small insect, the Hessian Fly, is eating it up before it can even get to our kitchens.
Mark Wiethorn and his sons are farmers of many sorts, especially wheat.
Wiethorn said it’s too early to have the Hessian Fly in the crop right now but in recent years the fly knocked out a good bit of the wheat his family planted. Some of that was due to warmer winters allowing the Hessian Fly to grow and spread through crops.
He said, “A third to half of our yield—the year that it caught us by surprise and last year there were some other yield damage, up to half to little over a half percentage of the yield.”
Tyler Mays is the Extension Agent-IPM for Hill & McLennan Counties. He works with producers to help them make the best pest management decisions for their crops.
He said, "As of right now we have no real way to manage it once we know it’s in the field. So we have to be proactive on managing the pest. We gotta come into the growing season knowing or expecting we’re gonna have Hessian Fly issues and plan for that accordingly."
But there’s hope to fighting the Hessian Fly with research helping to identify pest-resistant crops like the one the Wiethorn family is already using. The family also planted later, rotated crops and are hoping for a colder winter to fight off the fly.
Mays said "We have very good varieties that have good tolerance, good levels of resistance. In a recent research trial planted last year, we harvested this past spring where we were looking at a resistant variety compared to a susceptible variety, we’re seeing anywhere from 20-30 bushel increase per acre in locations in McGregor and Hillsboro.”
In spring, the wheat will be ready for harvest. Then farmers will know how the Hessian Fly impacted their wheat. For Central Texas farmers it’s a waiting game and hoping for a colder winter.
