A third new SDHI fungicide will be available for cereals growers to use next spring after the Chemicals Regulation Directorate approved BASF’s Xemium – the brand name for new SDHI active ingredient, fluxpyroxad.

It will join an increasingly crowded cereals fungicide market, which last year saw the additions of alternative second generation SDHI fungicides in Aviator Xpro (bixafen + prothioconazole) and Seguris (isopyrazam + epoxiconazole).

Xemium’s primary strengths in wheat are its “extraordinary yield contribution and tremendous septoria control,” says Peter Hughes, cereal product manager for BASF. “It is co-formulated with epoxiconazole so it will also plug the rust gap seen with some of the existing SDHIs on the market.”

It is approved for use in wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale and will be sold as Adexar.

In barley it is a very strong allrounder, giving excellent control of all barley disease including rhynchosporium, net blotch, rust and ramularia, Mr Hughes says. “It is the strongest fungicide we have ever developed for barley and 2011 trials are more often than not showing it to be the highest yielding treatment of the SDHIs.”