RESULTS FROM a six-year trial show that treating seed with silthiofam (Latitude) can help reduce the impact of yield losses in second and subsequent wheats.

The Home-Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) funded project looked at the effect of the treatment on wheat grown in different rotational positions.

“The results show that using Latitude helped combat the usual dip in yields due to take-all in the second and third wheats in the rotation,” said John Spink from ADAS, who led the project.

“The classic pattern is for good yields from the first crop followed by a drop in yields in the subsequent crops before take-all decline sets in and yields recover.”

“The exciting result from this project is that using silthiofam to combat the losses in the second to fourth wheats still appears to allow take-all decline to develop.”

Mr Spink said that growers could apply the treatment to get through the yield dip and then stop using it for later wheat crops.

He found that using silthiofam in all four years increased yields by an average of 0.47t/ha, “more than offsetting the cost of the treatment.”

Jonathan Blake, also from ADAS, added that growers could normally expect a drop in yield of about 1t/ha from second wheats.

Although take-all was “very difficult to predict,” earlier sowing of both current and previous crops could lead to greater autumn build up of the disease, he said.