GROWERS BRACE FOR DISEASE WITH EXTRA FUNGICIDE OPTIONS

High crop disease pressure in various agriculture regions last year has many growers on high alert this cropping season.

Fortunately though, when it comes to cereal and canola crops, they can now rely on some extra fungicide options in their arsenal against disease and, importantly, these come with added flexibility and improved crop safety.

Maxentis® EC and Proviso® fungicides from ADAMA Australia, which can be used in canola, wheat, barley and oat crops, now offer more options for controlling disease and managing disease resistance, flexible application timing and better crop safety when mixed with other protection and input products.

Maxentis is a unique co-formulation of prothioconazole and azoxystrobin, providing improved disease control spectrum, efficacy and resistance management in cereals and canola, as well as an important rotation option following commonly used in-furrow and seed treatment fungicides.

Rapidly absorbed by leaves, Maxentis controls key diseases including seedling and upper canopy blackleg and sclerotinia in canola, as well as rusts, powdery mildew, septoria, yellow leaf spot, net blotches, scald and ramularia in cereals, while it also features Australia’s first registered claim for control of physiological leaf spot (PLS) in barley.

Proviso is a novel prothioconazole fungicide featuring ADAMA’s unique Asorbital™ technology, which enables enhanced uptake and systemic activity for improved efficacy, compatibility and crop safety.

It can be used in tank mixes with a range of other crop protection and nutrition products to improve control of a broader range of diseases in canola and cereals, including fusarium head blight in wheat, and to assist disease management. Proviso is cost-effective and can be ideally applied as the first foliar application following the use of Succinate Dehydrogenase Inhibitor (SDHI) or strobilurin-based fungicides on seed or in-furrow.

In Victoria last year, a green bridge supporting crop disease over summer, the emergence of another two, virulent stripe rust pathotypes and the prevailing wet conditions presented big challenges for numerous growers. However, a move to multiple crop disease sprays including these recently released fungicides helped to keep crops clean.

At Maroona in Victoria’s south west region, the Conboy family has typically encountered rust and septoria in their wheat crops and this was enhanced with the wet conditions and additional rust strains last season.

Archie Conboy said they had also noticed a decline in effectiveness of some existing fungicides in recent years and this led to the decision to apply Maxentis in their Bennett wheat last year.

“In this south west district, we are always looking to rotate chemistry so diseases don’t develop immunity and Maxentis allowed us to introduce another chemical into the mix and extend our disease protection,’’ Archie said.

“Due to the wet conditions, we had to apply it by plane and it was really effective and showed no effects on the crop.

“After the application, we didn’t see much rust or septoria, so we were really happy. In comparison to other fungicides we have used in previous years, Maxentis provided really good length of control of the diseases, which is something we are looking for here.

“We are definitely looking forward to including it in our cropping program –it just adds another string to the bow,’’ he said.

This article was written by Elders supplier ADAMA for Seasons magazine.

For more information visit your local Elders branch.

Maxentis fungicide from ADAMA delivers best-in-category protection against key foliar diseases of cereals, oats and canola without compromising crop safety or compatibility.

Takes the headache out of foliar disease control.

• Broad spectrum control of key foliar diseases

• Excellent compatibility and crop safety

• Can be applied across a broad range of crop stages

• Two modes of action for optimal efficacy and resistance management

• Developed and proven for Australian conditions