In my view

arable & root crops Root and yieldboosting seed treatment gains UK approval for spring wheat

UK spring wheat growers have a new seed treatment option for this season’s plantings, with news that the SDHI-based fungicide seed treatment, Vibrance Duo, has gained UK approval for the crop.

This adds to the list of cereal crops that the seed treatment can now be used in, says Vibrance Duo producer Syngenta, a list that has increased since its launch in 2017, which was chiefy into winter wheat.

“This new approval marks an important milestone for UK spring wheat, which can often be planted in challenging growing conditions,” says Gillian Colman, seedcare marketing manager for Syngenta.

“Vibrance Duo controls a range of diseases that threaten crop establishment. However, as well as doing this and improving early vigour across a range of cereals in trials, it has also repeatedly been shown to boost root growth and, even more importantly, to increase yield.

“In spring wheat specifcally, independent university research showed that seed treated with sedaxane, the SDHI active ingredient in Vibrance Duo, produced plants with greater root and shoot mass, even in the absence of known disease. Improved rooting effects were also long-lasting, still evident when the crop was coming into ear.”

Establishing good root structures can be particularly important in spring cereals with their short growing season, says Mrs Colman. It is associated with improved access to soil moisture and nutrients, she notes, and greater resilience to drought.

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By John Cameron Balbuthie, Kilconquhar, Fife

A BROAD FRONT

These last few weeks have seen the industry having to tackle not just Brexit but also a number of other critical issues which have now moved into the front line!

First of all the future of support for the LFA’s which in 2018 amounted to £65M is required to support a sector of the industry worth more than £1B to the economy as well as being the backbone of the social fabric in these areas. The present Government gave a pledge in their manifesto to maintain the CAP rate of funding – but since then - silence!

However trying to be impartial, I do think the Government received some unfair criticism recently regarding their recent Agricultural Capital Grant Scheme when it was criticised for being ‘excessively bureaucratic’. Personally, I didn’t consider it to be bureaucratic bearing in mind it could support a 50% grant – to a limit of £20k per holding – for a range of new equipment to allow better control of environmental impacts. My retort would be if you don’t want to avail yourself of the scheme – then fine, but don’t criticise an offer of financial help!

Some good news on the Marketing front with an announcement from the new owners of Asda that they would join Lidl. Aldi and Morrisons and sell only ‘British Beef’. Let’s hope these commitments will be sustained.

There is currently a new demand from Europe for meat ingredients and terms to be replaced by plant based products. Unfortunately – thanks to the ‘green lobby’ – plant based products are now more attractive politically and we will all have to counter this argument whenever we can.

And finally to our ‘old friend’ Brexit! It does appear that there is now a spirit – by no means a certainty – but a spirit of compromise in the air.

However before we all start clapping let us also note in passing that at the recent ‘virtual Conservative Conference’ the Prime Minister’s main speech on environmental matters made no reference to agriculture!

What do we have to do to get the message across that without the co-operation and participation of farmers – the environmental targets set by both Edinburgh and London will simply not be achievable. As I have said before – time will tell!