Seed treatment – the management tool every grower must consider
For every serious cereal grower coming into the next season, decisions must be made not once the crop goes into the ground, but before. Deciding on the correct seed treatment for the situation is the first protective defence that a grower has in his armoury to provide crops with the very best start.
Bill Clark at ADAS advises using a fluquinconazole-based seed treatment, for added rust control this coming season. "The more advanced seed treatments such as Jockey and Epona are really good at preventing early rust infections in the crop. We are seeing yellow rust where we have not previously seen it this season, which means that there will be inoculum about as we come into the autumn so any additional control is invaluable."
"These fluquinconazole based dressings can also aid in Septoria tritici control in the early autumn and basically just slow down the start of any epidemic, giving the farmer enough time to deal with any epidemics.
"It's important however that they are not considered as a replacement for a fungicide spray, that's not their job, they just give that bit more leeway, allowing growers to drill earlier, and not to panic if the weather holds them up at T0 or T1."
"More and more farmers are using home saved seed and this means that they are responsible for seed treatments themselves. The risks of growing naked seed are too high to ignore - it is at times like this that growers need to make sensible decisions about their seed treatments," explains John Lewin of MSD (Mobile Seed Dressing) in Luton.
"Growers are aware of the risks and usually take the sensible approach, as is seen by the number of customers of our mobile seed units which have increased ten-fold over as many years across 300 farms," continues Mr Lewin." Farmers understand that they are saving money in the long run by using quality and reliably sampled and dressed seed."
"In the first instance crops need to get the best start they can, and seed treatments have always been based around developing the rooting system and promoting the best establishment of the plant. Our modern seed treatments still do this but better and also provide improved disease control for the germinating seed, "says Mr Lewin.
"Growers have a range of products to choose from, but must look at their situation carefully - what diseases are a threat and to what level - and then choose a product that will work for them - be it a first wheat in a high Septoria and rust area, or a second wheat in soils with a history of take-all and foliar disease"
"In conclusion, invest sensibly in the crop from the start and you will reap the rewards – investment in some key areas of the crops life cycle cannot be cut and early disease control with a good seed treatment is a sound policy."
