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

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…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

5 steps for managing 2024’s winter wheat disease challenges

Wide variations in drilling dates, the after effects of the wet winter on crop growth, and the early appearance of disease are set to make winter wheat disease control challenging…

See all

Case studies

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…

POTATOES

How farmers in potato 'world capital' deal with soil erosion

Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada claims to be the potato capital of the world based on production per capita, with an annual harvest of 1.45m tonnes. This equates to…

PEST MANAGEMENT

Three practical IPM strategies to help growers cut costs

Independent agronomist Ben Burrows of Crop Management Partners has been working closely with Hampshire farm manager David Miller to implement a number of IPM strategies and cut input costs at…

See all

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…

See all

Insights

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Pea crop yields being lost to previously undetected virus

Virus disease levels are rising in a range of crops, and a recent research project has found that asymptomatic infection by a virus previously not associated with peas is causing…

CROP MANAGEMENT

How climate change may increase pest and disease threats

The changing climate is already bringing new challenges, and 2022 served as a prime example, with sugar beet crops hit by a moth while oilseed rape crops in the east…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Best options for septoria disease control in wheat

The most effective fungicide for controlling septoria in wheat has been found to be Univoq, which is slightly ahead of SDHI-azole combinations, according to independent trials carried out by crop consultant Niab.…

See all

News

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Microbiology experts voice concern over omissions in SFI

Experts from the UK’s oldest microbiology society, Applied Microbiology International (AMI), have voices 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…

CROP MANAGEMENT

Free IPM tool adds crop types and review feature

A group of organisations has launched an updated version of its free integrated pest management (IPM) planning tool, which features more crop types and the ability to review and reproduce…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

New SDHI fungicide shows good disease control in AHDB trials

AHDB’s fungicide performance trials show that the new generation SDHI from Bayer offers good broad spectrum control of septoria and rusts. It also reveals that, of the approved actives tested,…

See all

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…

See all

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…

See all