Rust has been found in the eastern half of NSW’s grains belt and is working its way west, while it is a similar situation in Victoria, where stripe rust has been identified in Mallee areas such as Hopetoun and Culgoa, weeks earlier than usual.

This combines with a big year for fungal disease in pulses, with diseases such as botrytis grey mould, not an issue in the drier seasons, is expected to be a concern this year.

Department of Primary Industries (DPI) staff across the country are warning farmers to monitor crops for outbreaks.

However, even if they are found, farmers are in the difficult position of not being able to access paddocks to apply fungicide because of the wet.

The let-up in the rain earlier in the week allowed many farmers to put out fungicide, however it was still too wet in some parts.

DPI Victoria cereal pathologist Grant Hollaway said the season had been set up for a large outbreak of fungal disease earlier in the year when spores had survived on volunteer wheat plants which grew and survived with summer and autumn rains.

“Continued leaf wetness from winter rain has also provided the chance for rust spores to infect crops,” Dr Hollaway said.

The earlier outbreak is a cause for concern.

“The earlier that rust appears in a crop the more damage that it is likely to cause,” Dr Hollaway said.