Survey highlights barley diseases causing concern

A national survey of more than 200 growers has suggested a number of important barley diseases are worsening or becoming more difficult to manage.

Conducted by Syngenta in regions stretching from the south of England to Scotland, results showed a massive 86% of respondents rated Rhynchosporium among their most important diseases to control, says survey co-ordinator, Simon Parker.

That compared with 60% including net blotch in their list, 53% including mildew and 42% including rust.

Moreover, when it came to the difficulty of controlling diseases, over a third of respondents (34%) had noticed Rhynchosporium becoming more difficult to control, with 21% also noticing this for net blotch.

And of the newer barley problems, Ramularia and abiotic spotting, although only 18% and 13% respectively rated these among their most important ’diseases’ to control, a substantial 30% and 40% respectively said, over the last few years, they had noticed them getting worse.

"Overall, what the results seem to underline is the importance of building a broad range of diseases into barley agronomy decisions," Mr Parker points out.

"For example, this can mean choosing winter barley varieties with good resistance to Rhynchosporium, net blotch and mildew, in particular, for planting this autumn. Equally it can mean building broad-spectrum disease protection into fungicide decisions for barley crops that are already in the ground for this season."

Also in the survey, says Mr Parker, of the respondents who had tried the new-generation barley fungicide Bontima, launched last season, some three quarters (75%) were either happy or delighted with its performance.

’This is significant because it is always important for growers to gain confidence with new fungicide chemistry.

"Also important, given these findings, is that Bontima offers growers a broad-spectrum barley fungicide, with reliable activity against Rhynchosporium, net blotch, brown rust, mildew, Ramularia and barley spotting.

"It is also a non-triazole and non-strobilurin alternative to using traditional fungicide chemistry, and independent trials showed a 0.3 t/ha yield benefit over a triazole + strobilurin based approach in England last season, and a 0.77 t/ha benefit over a similar approach used in Scotland."