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Know How / Disease management

Get advice on managing disease in wheat, barley, oilseed rape, potatoes, and sugar beet. Find the best ways to combine cultural and chemical controls and how to deal with fungicide resistance. See tips, insights and farmer case studies focusing on major disease threats such as septoria, yellow rust, ramularia, phoma leaf spot and blight and how to combat them.

Advice and tips

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Why growers need flexible T2 plans as dry spell continues

As the T2 spray timing approaches, keeping enough flexibility in spray programmes as the dry spell continues is occupying the minds of growers and agronomists alike. With T1 sprays completed…

CROP MANAGEMENT

6 steps to achieve correct sprayer setup this spring

A well-maintained sprayer is essential for accurate applications. We offer six handy tips to help achieve this. The busy spring spraying season is just around the corner, which means sprayers…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Fungicide tips for variable wheat this spring

With winter wheat at a wide range of growth stages coming out of winter, extra care will be needed to manage crop development and disease pressure this spring. Such variability…

CROP MANAGEMENT

Advice for growers dealing with ergot this harvest

The fungal pathogen ergot is reported to be widespread across UK cereals this harvest, with some growers identifying the disease for the first time in decades. The greater incidence is…

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Case studies

CROP MANAGEMENT

Irish farmer ditches fungicides on marginal crop land

Irish arable farmer Samuel Deane is successfully growing fungicide-free crops on what is considered the very limit of viable arable land in the rain-drenched landscape of County Cork. Sam is…

CROP MANAGEMENT

How integrating livestock in rotations cuts crop inputs

As sustainable farming practices become increasingly important, some agronomists and farmers are exploring how integrating livestock into arable systems can bring both environmental and economic benefits. By combining rotational grazing…

ARABLE

Velcourt trials reveal distinct benefit of fungicide at T2

Independent trials carried out by farming company Velcourt have revealed a distinct benefit from including the fungicide RevyPro at the T2 timing in winter wheat. Initial trial work in 2023…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Signature seed dressing helps grow fungicide-free crops

Irish farmer Tom Tierney has been no-till farming for a decade and is using a specialist seed dressing to kick-start crops into action and grow them without fungicides. The signature…

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Community

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Twitter round-up: Spring drilling and wheat T0 race is on

The recent spell of warm, dry weather has allowed many growers to get into full the swing of spring drilling and take on the first fungicide application timing in winter…

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Insights

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Cereals 2025: Growers given alert for yellow rust next season

Winter wheat growers are being urged to be vigilant about yellow rust next season and be prepared to use an early spring fungicide after a new race of the disease…

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News

PEST MANAGEMENT

Cereals 2025: Send in aphid samples, growers urged

Rothamsted Research appealed for growers and agronomists to send in aphid samples taken from wheat crops at Cereals 2025. Researchers developing species-specific pest management solutions are building a picture of…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Tests confirm yellow rust has overcome major gene in wheat

A major resistance gene used to protect winter wheat from yellow rust disease has been overcome by evolving strains of the pathogen, according to the AHDB and its research partners.…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Spring barley growers face greater ramularia risk this year

Spring barley growers are advised to stay alert for the yield-zapping disease ramularia, as the dry start to the season could make the disease more apparent. “We know ramularia starts…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

New wheat fungicide to offer growers unique mode of action

Wheat growers are to benefit from a new fungicide for cereal crops, after confirmation that Adama’s latest active undergoing Chemicals Regulation Division approval has a unique mode of action. This…

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Video

WEED MANAGEMENT

Video: Phone app is cheaper way to monitor crops with a drone

A new smartphone app offers farmers a cheaper and easier way to monitor their crops, simply with a mobile phone and a cheap drone. Developed by Northumbria-based Drone Ag, the…

POTATOES

Video: Early potato harvest start is worst for 40 years

Brothers Peter and Philip Le Maistre are sixth-generation Jersey farmers and for them this potato season has been the worst since covering spuds with plastic started to be used on…

POTATOES

Video: Jersey early potato yields dip 20% after frosty February

Jersey’s early potato harvest is almost a month late this spring, with yields expected to be down one-fifth after the Beast from the East frosted off young plants barely out…

ARABLE

Video: Crop Doctor sees septoria rising to worrying levels

Disease levels are rising in the nation’s wheat crops with the wet weather likely to encourage septoria to spread and put growers on alert to make sure their fungicide programmes…

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Webinar

OILSEED RAPE

How to balance high inputs and market prospects for OSR

Although the price of oilseed rape has risen sharply largely due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, so too have input costs such as fertiliser, fuel and energy costs. Therefore, oilseed rape growers…

ARABLE

Webinar: Combating fungicide resistance

Farmers need to find ways to combat problems in crop protection that are caused by development of resistance to fungicides. Pathogen resistance to fungicides is widespread. This is especially true…

ARABLE

Expert advice on maximising OSR yields in a difficult season

After such a wet autumn and winter, the big question over oilseed rape this spring is: "What can farmers do to maximise yields in a very difficult season for oilseed…

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