FORAGE AND ARABLE
The future’s green for savvy beet farmers Beet has been a bit of a fodder rock star in recent years. While technically difficult to grow, a well grown fodder beet crop provides excellent feed value in terms of dry matter yield and metabolisable energy across a range of climatic zones.
Custodia is effective against foliar diseases in both fodder and sugar beet including powdery mildew, rust, and the major fungal pathogen Cercospora leaf spot, which can cause significant yield losses if unchecked. ADAMA New Zealand Marketing Manager Elisabeth Johnston says while the focus was previously more on beet bulb weight, poor leaf health has an appreciable knock-on effect. “When the leaves are diseased, there’s reduced photosynthesis. That has an impact on crop growth, yield, leaf palatability, and feed quality.”
Recent dry spells and droughts have seen feed shortages in some regions and while early access to fodder beet crops would have helped significantly, chemical withholding periods had to be taken into consideration. With current dry weather conditions already causing concern in some regions this season, it is timely that crop protection company ADAMA New Zealand has released Custodia® for the 2020/2021 season. Custodia is an innovative beet foliar fungicide, which not only supports greener, healthier and more vigorous leaves, but also provides greater grazing flexibility in situations when there is pressure on feed supply. New Custodia has a withholding period of just 28 days, compared to the industry standard of 42 days. As ADAMA New Zealand Commercial Manager Bryce Simpson says. “2 weeks when feed is short can be like a lifetime.”
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Strong beet leaf production adds to the dry matter of a crop and provides grazing stock with protein, phosphorous and calcium. Elisabeth says the protein from healthy leaves helps provide nutritional balance in beet crops, reducing the risk of metabolic issues. “It will not be enough on its own but it definitely does help.” Bryce says Custodia did a “fantastic” job in the company’s trials. “You could see the textbook, checkerboard effect between the treated and untreated plots. The foliage on the treated plots was clean of disease and a healthy green with a significantly greater number and volume of leaves.”
ADAMA New Zealand has an extensive beet protection toolbox with Custodia being one of two products launched recently. The other is Goltix® Gold. This beet herbicide has a unique formulation, which reduces the hazard profile without compromising the proven efficacy of its industry-standard parent Goltix Flo. In fact, it is even more effective on certain hard-to-kill weeds such as fathen and wireweed. With beet yellow virus becoming a significant issue, particularly in Canterbury, insecticide Pyrinex® 500EC, is also part of the specialist beet portfolio. Pyrinex 500EC can be used to control aphids, which transmit the virus in beet. Other products in the ADAMA beet programme include; Goltix WG Herbicide, Goltix Uno Herbicide, Ethosat® Herbicide, and Rifle®. For more information, contact your Farmlands Technical Field Officer or the friendly team at your local Farmlands store. Article Supplied by ADAMA Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997. See www.foodsafety.govt.nz for registration conditions. Approved pursuant to the HSNO Act 1996. See www.epa.govt.nz for approval controls. Custodia, Ethosat, Goltix, Pyrinex and Rifle are registered trademarks of an ADAMA Group Company.
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