East Anglia – agronomy tasks to consider this June and July

Crop Progress

Settled weather from mid May, delivering some long overdue spring sunshine, moved crops along quickly after crops being held by the cool weather most of the spring.

The cool weather throughout March, April and May, has probably been a blessing given the inclement weather throughout April, because at warmer temperatures Septoria development would have been quicker leaving even less leeway for spray applications at T1 already challenged by wind and rain.

The settled weather enabled field work and agronomic decisions to catch up and things to settle down after a challenging April. June and early July should present some great opportunities to see differences and mistakes in fungicide programmes and timings.

Sam’s considerations for June and July

1)      Keep wheats going for as long as possible

There’s good potential in many wheat crops if we get the right level of sunlight throughout June. When considering a T3 fungicide, both product choice and timing will pivot around the primary objective of the T3. Is it a foliar top up or primarily about protecting grain quality?

Where foliar top up post T2 for Septoria and rust protection is the key objective then there is more flexibility on timing of the T3. However it has to be remembered that if weather becomes unsettled during flowering then Fusarium sp. and Microdochium sp. will be in the front seat and these can cause significant yield loss as well as loss of quality.

The correct timing for T3 to protect as best we can against Fusarium sp. is early-mid flower when you start to see anthers in the middle of the ear.

Setting the crop up to maximise yield potential is all about extending green leaf retention and grain fill for as long as possible. This means delaying natural senescence where soil moisture deficit allows. Don’t underestimate those final days generating significant yield and specific weight gains.

If the programme thus far has only incorporated a single SDHI then Aviator (bixafen + prothioconazole) at T3 presents an attractive proposition, not only for robust disease control but also providing the physiological benefits of bixafen improving chlorophyll content.

2)      Remember next season starts now for grassweed control

June is a good time to understanding and manage the key grassweed challenges ahead of next season. That means:

• Preventing seed return from herbicide failure, by either hand rogueing or spraying off with

   

  Roundup (glyphosate).

• Identifying and mapping areas, as well as specific species such as different bromes to help tailor the appropriate cultural controls such as primary cultivation and variable inputs of seed or residual herbicides. Climate FieldView is a great platform which can help here. We are offering the opportunity for a demo in the lead up to harvest so if you’re interested, please get in touch.

• Sampling seeds for resistance status to help inform decisions by knowing which chemistries will be most effective – don’t underestimate the diversity of population between fields, even within the same block or indeed within the same field. Make no assumption about a population’s resistance status. The only way to effectively deal with grassweeds is know the enemy well.

3)      Iblon – see our new fungicide in trials

We hope soon to have the authorisation of our new fungicide active ingredient, isoflucypram, branded Iblon.

A new type of SDHI, it sits within its own sub-group of the mode of action. The molecule’s unique properties provide a new molecule with broad spectrum disease control of not only strong protectant and curative Septoria activity but very strong yellow rust activity as well as brown rust activity.

The products will also come with the reliable Xpro formulation providing fast rainfastness. The active also delivers compelling physiological effects that extend greening. There will be the opportunity to see trials this summer so if you’re interested get in touch. 

4)      Consider signing up for a demo of Climate FieldView

Harvest is a great place to begin using FieldView. There is the opportunity to sign up for a FieldView demo ahead of harvest to give the opportunity to use it during harvest to get a good feel for what the digital platform can offer and how intuitive it is to use.

FieldView can help you easily visualise field variation at harvest and see the differences in real-time while combining, for whoever is watching on their smart phone or tablet, providing you’ve granted them access to your account. It offers a great starting point to making informed management decisions for next season.

Click here to request a FieldView Demo