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Time for a fresh approach – South East Farmer – David Ellerton

Dr David Ellerton, Hutchinsons’ Technical Development Director, considers early T0 fungicide strategies designed to maintain yield potential while ensuring sound product stewardship practices ...

This season has seen two distinct drilling periods; late September/early October and late October into November, following an extremely wet period at the beginning of October.

Different drill dates can have a significant effect on disease risk and should influence early disease control strategies. In addition, revocation of some established fungicide active ingredients means that early cereal disease control is likely to be very different in 2021 compared to previous seasons.

 

Dr David Ellerton, Technical Development Director

In Hutchinsons’ 2019/20 winter wheat variety trials, fungicide treatment produced yield increases averaging 1.66 t/ha across all sites and varieties, compared to a 2.49 t/ha response the previous season. There were extremely large differences in responses, with varieties such as KWS Kinetic and KWS Kerrin giving average responses of around 3.5 t/ha, while Skyfall averaged a response of around 2.5 t/ha – all directly related to Yellow Rust infection in untreated plots.

This year’s difference in drilling dates is likely to lead to significant changes in disease risk this spring, with the earlier drillings at greater risk of Septoria, Eyespot and Take-all, while the later drillings are more at risk of Yellow Rust. Septoria is often driven by rainfall in April and May, so it is important to be aware of the potential risk of the disease developing in later drilled crops.

VARIETAL SUSCEPTIBILITY

Varietal disease susceptibility is a vital component when deciding fungicide strategies. AHDB Recommended Lists provide the latest information on varietal susceptibility to diseases.

Septoria:

Elation (4.1 for Septoria tritici), KWS Barrel (4.2) KWS Jackal, KWS Kerrin and RGT Gravity (4.8) are all particularly prone to Septoria infection, with a rating of less than 5, and will need to be prioritised for protection. At the other extreme, varieties such as Theodore (8.3) KWS Extase (8) and LG Sundance (7.9) are at significantly lower risk and fungicide programmes will need to be tailored
accordingly.

Yellow Rust:

There have been significant changes to the Yellow Rust ratings compared to last season, with many ratings significantly lower. The highest risk varieties are Skyfall (3), KWS Kinetic and KWS Kerrin (4) and KWS Zyatt, SY Insitor, Gleam, RGT Wolverine and Shabras (5). Yellow Rust has already been reported from a number of crops so all crops should be closely monitored to ensure rust is not allowed to take an early hold.

When considering disease control programmes, it is vital that all the above factors are taken into account, not just to ensure that the most appropriate cost-effective programme is chosen, but also to reduce selection pressure on our fungicide active ingredients.

AVAILABILITY OF ACTIVES

This season we will be without one of our most established active ingredients, chlorothalonil, which has been the backbone of early disease control in winter wheat for many years.

Where Septoria is a risk, from the late tillering/stem extension (T0) timing, early use of alternative multi-site fungicides such as folpet, or bio stimulants which boost varietal resistance such as Scyon, should be considered.

An important part of integrated crop management is providing adequate nutrition in order to optimise plant health and enable plants to respond to disease pressure.

Established rust should be controlled with tebuconazole or cyproconazole, while products containing bromuconazole and flutriafol will also give a level of control. Strobilurins azoxystrobin or pyraclostrobin will give long lasting protection against rust, as well as providing physiological benefits. Other diseases such as mildew, Eyespot, Fusarium and Take-all should also be considered.

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