Anyone been to one of the BASF grower meetings introducing its new fungicide Adexar? From my walks around trials in Ireland last year, it certainly seems a very good product and sure to generate a lot of interest this spring. BASF has announced a price of £34/litre for this season, which at the 1.25 litres/ha (62.5% of full label) recommended dose puts it at £42.50/ha. By comparison Aviator Xpro was about £35/ha last season (at 80% dose - 1.0 litres/ha). At the moment I have no figures for where Aviator or Seguris, the other rival SDHI fungicides, will be priced this season. I'd be surprised if Seguris wasn't a bit cheaper though! Maybe a small price rise for Aviator? So what do you reckon? Priced right for its excellent performance, too expensive at this rate, so cut dose further, or use one of the others, or indeed something else completely? Brutus, for example, has looked pretty ahead of straight triazoles, although this is pretty expensive in its own right.

I haven't been to one of BASF's events.

I'm fairly sceptical about it as TAG/NIAB trial responses don't make it particularly good value given its pricing. BASF don't have a great track record when it comes to supply either. Whether or not the UK is a low value market given its size, cost of CRD requirements & currency fluctuations remains to be seen.

A good (75%+) dose of SDHIs could otherwise buy a lot of triazole & strobilurin. What is wrong with good old Opus + Amistar Opti for your T2 if we get another low septoria season & you aren't managing land capable of 11+ t/ha? Generic epoxiconazole is £20/litre now. 

 I just can't justify the spend on Brutus. They just don't seem to price it correctly for the amount of epoxy in the brew.

That said I have budgeted for 1l/ha of Aviator at T2 on my better yield potential land & less rust prone varieties, albeit without knowing what the pricing will be. A lift in new crop prices & a wet spring might justify the extra spend.

Aren't these manufacturers just relying on high crop values to justify the higher cost inputs? Give a farmer more for his corn & he will find a way of spending more to produce it...

HGCA T2:

0.75l Opus = about £18

0.75l Comet 200 = about £17

1l Bravo = about £5

0.15l Talius = about £9

So all in about £50/ha. Well worth costing the Recommended List protocols out as farmers often scratch their heads wondering why theit on-farm performance is lower, when they try to keep fungicide spends so low.

I dont think 0.75lt of Mantra plus a litre of Bravo is a bad starting point at about £25/ha. And suitable for T1 and T2. I would hazard a guess to say many T0s will have a triazole and mildewicide in this year which will strain budgets.

 

 Is that mixture a ready comparison for Adexar? I wasn't aware of any mildew activity.

Is Mantra still available? Kresoxym - methyl is no use for septoria disease control but provides good greening effect. Its pricing basically gave away the strob once you costed the Corbel & Opus out.

RL trials are the best 2/3 of the trials. The other 1/3 of plots are not counted, hence why RL levels aren't really a good comparison against field scale. Plots don't have wet corners or bottomless bits where there used to be a pond etc. Looking at an RL programme does give a good feeling for what might be possible even if you won't get all that expenditure back.

No, its not a comparable mix, it is what the HGCA use in their RL trials, which I consider the kitchen sink approach. I just priced it up to see how it compares to the cost of these new SDHI products at their sugested rates. 

Mantra still available, aka Asana. Old FIshers seeds trials were based on  0.75lt Mantra at T1 and T2 and thats your lot.

I'll stick with Opus/Bravo at robust rates.