Growers urged to invest in backward crops
Investing in backward wheat crops will be critical this season to ensure high yields, according to experts, who warn growers not to cut corners on fungicides.
Large amounts of crops were drilled late and are struggling following a sustained period of wet weather and will need close care to avoid the disease problems of last year.
Daniel King, who farms 480ha in south Lincolnshire, says learning from last year’s wet growing season will be critical to keep crops clear of disease.
“I spent around £155 a hectare on my T0-T3 programme and I’m 100% sure my yields shone because of that. I got my money’s worth and if this year turns out wet I’ll do the same again,” he says.
“The key last year was getting the timing right, choosing the right products and then very robust rates and I’ve no doubt this will again be key,” he adds.
Agronomists agree that growers may have to spend to protect crops once the weather warms up and prevent the low levels of disease in crops taking an early hold.
“It’s going to take a robust programme this year to mitigate the disease threat and pull these crops through the winter,” notes independent agronomist Sean Sparling.
“You’re going to have to invest in the crop. If you set yourself up for a bad year and do not invest then that is exactly what you will get,” he adds.
Nick Wall, agronomist at Crop Management Partners, says growth stimulants in modern fungicides make them important even when disease pressure isn’t high.
However, growers are being urged to be cautious when using the new generation of SDHI fungicides in order to protect one of the most important bits of new chemistry.
SDHIs are a key addition to the backbone of a grower’s fungicide armoury, the triazoles, but resistance to SDHIs has recently been spotted in northern France and northern Germany prompting a wake-up call of possible troubles ahead in Britain.
Experts highlight incorporating a protectant such as chlorothalonil at the T0 or T1 timing as important. An older SDHI boscalid is also another key tool for growers at T1 while a triazole-SDHI combination is seen as a must at T2.
Difficult conditions have already thrown up dilemmas for growers with limited chances to get on the fields. Mixing the triazole fungicide Opus (epoxiconazole) with Atlantis (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron) herbicide is something Mr Sparling sees as likely this year. However, Prime Agriculture’s Bill Barr disagrees.
“I don’t want to stress these crops more than they already are because they are very vulnerable. The only thing I might put with Atlantis is a bit of manganese,” he says.
Speaking at the BASF-organised round table meeting in south Lincolnshire, BASF UK fungicide product manager Peter Hughes notes his core recommendations for this year includes his group’s triazole-SDHI product Tracker (epoxiconazole + boscalid) for high eyespot susceptible varieties and including chlorothalonil alongside this.
Where septoria pressure is high he suggests BASF’s triazole-SDHI Adexar should be considered.
