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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

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Expert tips for T1 fungicide strategies in rain-battered wheat

Weeks of rain and higher-than-normal spring temperatures are creating challenges for T1 fungicide plans, with growers advised to be guided by drilling date and variety. In such a testing season,…

CROP MANAGEMENT

Why leaf layer emergence is key to accurate fungicide use

Growers will require “laser focus” to accurately monitor leaf layer emergence and hit critical fungicide timings in what has been an extremely variable cropping season so far. What’s more, cereal…

CROP MANAGEMENT

How to tackle hefty spring arable workloads after wet winter

Spring workloads are mounting on most arable farms, so sorting fieldwork priorities to ensure optimum return on investment where crops are variable and harvest profitability remains uncertain is a tricky…

BARLEY

How to get spring barley off to a good start

Whether it’s an option to replace missed or failed winter drillings, or a profitable mainstay in the rotations of committed malting growers, spring barley is expected to increase its area…

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Case studies

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Will Arable Insights Farmers cut fungicide spend this season?

Should growers consider reducing fungicide spend given the state of this year’s wheat crops? Farmers Weekly asks our Arable Insights Farmer panel about their disease control plans. Scotland: David Fuller-Shapcott…

CROP MANAGEMENT

How two farmers are cutting back on fungicides this spring

Two arable farmers are planning to dramatically cut back their fungicide spend this spring, helping to overcome rising chemical costs. Wiltshire grower George Hosier aims to spend the absolute minimum,…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Extra wheat yield prompts fungicide shift on Notts farm

Richard Cross trialled a new SDHI fungicide on his winter wheat last year and gained an extra 0.4t/ha in yield over his farm standard, prompting him to make this latest…

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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…

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Insights

POTATOES

Why industry-wide effort is needed to beat potato viruses

Across Europe, a recent rise in seed potato crops being downgraded due to virus diseases sends a very strong message that action must be taken now to arrest the upward…

POTATOES

Potato blight: What UK farmers can learn from Europe

A combination of wet weather, new double fungicide-resistant strains of blight and repeated block applications of fungicides resulted in 2023 being one of the worst late blight seasons in the…

SUGAR BEET

Sugar beet rubbery taproot disease: What farmers need to know

A disease that prevents sugar beet from being processed caused €43m worth of losses in Serbia last season. More worryingly for British sugar beet growers, it is spreading west into…

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News

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

New Syngenta fungicide a ‘game-changer’ for septoria control

An eagerly awaited fungicide that has delivered substantial yield gains in wheat and barley crop trials has been approved for use in Great Britain. Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta received notification…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Phoma resistance to azole fungicides found in western Europe

UK scientists have for the first time detected azole resistance in western European species of a fungus that causes one of the most important diseases in oilseed rape, sparking concerns…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Microbiology experts voice concern over omissions in SFI

Experts from the UK’s oldest microbiology society, Applied Microbiology International (AMI), have voiced concern over the new Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI), saying it lacks “microbiological considerations”. The organisation has particular…

ARABLE

Warning over loss of mancozeb for late blight in potatoes

A Norfolk farmer has warned of the serious effect the potential loss of the fungicide mancozeb will have on late control of blight in potato crops. Tony Bambridge, a sugar…

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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…

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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…

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