Confusion extends trial for 12 months
Confusion extends trial for 12 months
CONFLICTING information between trials conducted by Arable Research Centres on behalf of the HGCA and work for ARC members has led to the HGCA-funded experiments being extended for a further year.
A key message, relayed at a recent HGCA/Masstock open day at Cullompton, Devon, was that there is no evidence of any benefit from extra fungicide spraying of early drilled winter wheats.
But ARC director, Mike Carver, believes two seasons of unusually low disease pressure may have produced misleading results at the sites chosen for the HGCA early drilling work.
"ARC believes a pre-T1 is essential, and we do not think that we have been getting the right answer [from the trials]."
As a result he has secured funding for a further years trials in what he hopes will be a more "normal" season. *