Archive Article: 2002/03/01

1 March 2002

Extra-early sprays could be a rip-off

Do your cereals need an ultra-early fungicide spray this season? The answer could depend more on the desire of your adviser to sell sprays than the true need of your crops.

Admittedly, some forward, lush, early-sown, septoria-prone wheats and rhynchosporium-prone barleys could benefit from a low-cost fungicide application at growth stage T0.

But with new crop wheat worth less than £63/t next winter, many crops will not deliver a cost-effective response to such early treatment. So test your adviser to see whether his advice is driven by his product sales targets or your crop margins.