Menu

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

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…

SUGAR BEET

Tips to tackle foliar sugar beet disease in high risk season

Virus yellows is not expected to be the major issue feared in the spring – when aphid migration started earlier than usual – sugar beet growers have been reassured by…

See all

Case studies

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Wheat grower goes for broad-spectrum disease control at T1

Suffolk wheat grower Richard Duchesne looks to select an early fungicide spray with a good broad-spectrum of disease control, and is pleased with his first use of the new SDHI…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

How a farm cut nitrogen by 60kg N/ha with no yield detriment

An Oxfordshire farm has successfully slashed nitrogen rates by 60kg N/ha with no yield detriment thanks to the addition of a carbon rich crop spray and urease inhibitor to each…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Eliminating chemicals helps future-proof pig and arable farm

Nick Dymond’s journey to chemical-free crop production began 10 years ago when he decided to escape the chemical conveyor belt and focus on soil health at the family pig and…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Dorset grower hopes for lift from septoria-hitting SDHI

Bob Rowe is turning to a new hard-hitting septoria fungicide across all his 700ha of winter wheat at the crucial T2 flag leaf timing later this month to gain from…

See all

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…

See all

Insights

CROP MANAGEMENT

How tech trial is helping Lincs estate improve wheat inputs

Lessons learned from a technology trial are being rolled out across the rest of the cropping area on one Lincolnshire Estate, as part of an ongoing drive to improve nitrogen…

ARABLE

What the latest fungicides bring to wheat disease strategies

Arriving at different stages of the season and in various guises and quantities, both Bayer’s Iblon and Syngenta’s Adepidyn were available for the first time in 2024. This brough two…

See all

News

POTATOES

Notifiable potato disease detected in Polish imports

Two consignments of ware potatoes imported from Poland have tested positive for ring rot, a notifiable disease that could pose a serious threat to domestic production if allowed to establish…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Agronomists advise T0 winter wheat spray to ward off rust

Fungicide sprays at the T0 timing are a cost-effective tactic to control early disease, but the loss of epoxiconazole and flutriafol in the past five years has limited chemical options.…

ARABLE

Scotland’s first drone crop-spraying service set to launch

Sky-Pin Drones, a Scottish business led by entrepreneur James Braid, will become the first in Scotland to offer advanced crop spraying services using a drone. This new service, set to…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Adama launches three new fungicide co-formulations

Ahead of the critical spring spraying season, Adama has launched three new fungicide co-formulations in the UK, all of which contain the active prothioconazole partnered with either an azole, an…

See all

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…

See all

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…

See all