Uh-oh. This is not what we need right now:

The Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University are investigating the yellowing of upward of 40,000 acres of wheat in Umatilla and Morrow counties.

So far, the cause is a mystery, and researchers do not know if the problems in the two counties are related.

In early November, Umatilla County growers noticed wheat fields turning yellow and dying, OSU Extension soil scientist Don Wysocki said.

Sixteen fields from three to 10 miles northwest of Pendleton were affected, Wysocki said. They are “more or less but not completely contiguous,” he said. Not every field in the area was affected.

The area was predominately planted to soft white Clearfield variety ORCF-102, but other varieties were also affected, Wysocki said.

“There’s probably more than one thing going on in these particular fields, like in any field,” he said.

OSU Morrow County Extension associate professor Larry Lutcher said 30,000 to 40,000 acres of wheat in his county have plants with yellow or purple tips. The discoloration spreads inward and downward on the leaf. In some cases, plants are completely desiccated and will not recover.

The symptoms have been observed in many fields in the county, Lutcher said, but do not appear tied to any particular location.

“Most of the symptoms in Morrow County are unlike anything I have ever seen,” Lutcher said.

Lutcher said he doesn’t believe the problem will spread to other fields, but he can’t be certain.

“This does appear to be a new problem — a problem that no one seems to have experience with,” he said.

Read the rest. With other pressures on food crops this is something to keep an eye on.