Velcourt trials highlight the efficacy of generic options at T1 as cost-effective partner products in wider cereal disease control programmes.

Fully replicated fungicide trials conducted for Clayton by Velcourt in 2024 gave encouraging results and support why premium quality generic chemistry has an important role to play in what are undoubtedly challenging times and operating environments for UK farm businesses.

“Within Velcourt we are looking at how we integrate older, generic chemistry into programmes to achieve the best value.” says Nick Anderson, Technical Director, Velcourt

As we approach spring, growers and advisors face important decisions and balancing fungicide spending wisely will be vital. With many winter crops later drilled this season, assessing crops in early spring will be critical to understanding disease pressure, yield potential and crop condition and then balance that with fungicide strategy and spend.

“We recommend that growers consider generic options, particularly for early cereal fungicide timings, and on crops where yield potential is not completely optimal. Maximising margin over input cost is essential and generic products can help at the early T0 and T1 timings, either as standalone options or used as tank mix partners with newer chemistry to keep cost under control.” says Will Ridgwell, Commercial Manager, Clayton Plant Protection.

“With a large proportion of resistant varieties in the ground, and a later mean sowing date, there may be opportunities to reflect this in a reduced fungicide T1 spend in 2025 without compromising output” comments Nick Anderson.

Key learnings from Velcourt trials…

As expected, the results indicate that using straight tebuconazole (TEB) at T1 has limited value. Straight prothioconazole (PTZ) in Clayton Tuskar performed relatively well but was outperformed by both co-form products, Clayton Navaro (PTZ + TEB) and Clayton Tendril (PTZ + spiroxamine); this despite the co-forms applying less PTZ per hectare than the straight at the tested dose rates.

Statistically significant yield differences were apparent in the trials; all T1 treatments (with exception of 0.5L straight TEB) gave significant yield increases vs. the ‘T2 only’ treatment (without any T1), showing the value of a T1 even in a relatively moderate disease pressure situation. The addition of 1.0L folpet (Clayton Canyon) resulted in significant yield increases for a number of T1 treatments tested, compared to the same base treatment without folpet.

With outright yield in mind the highest performing generic treatment across the trials was Clayton Tendril, a powerful co-form of PTZ and Spiroxamine, launched in 2024. When boosted with 1.0L folpet added at T1, Tendril gave a significant yield increase compared to all other Clayton treatments tested with or without folpet.

It also outyielded the trial T1 Standard (AscraXpro) by 0.23 t/ha, and although this yield increase was not significantly different, it highlights the exceptional performance of Clayton products in comparison to the trial standard featuring two powerful SDHI’s and a broad-spectrum triazole.

“It appears from the trial results that in co-formulation spiroxamine is improving the performance of prothioconazole as a base. This product is potentially a useful T0 material or a good option for low disease pressure T1 scenarios.” explains Nick Anderson

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Considerations when planning your fungicide timings this spring.

Using older chemistry to achieve best value yield control makes good sense at T1 in many situations  and this season is likely to be no exception as many winter cereal crops were later drilled this autumn so both Septoria pressure and overall yield potential may be slightly lower for these crops.

Consider using added value high quality co-forms. Velcourt trials show Clayton PTZ based co-forms had clear performance advantage over straight TEB. As well as yield gain, co-forms widen disease spectrum and are good partner products at early timings.

T0 – if disease pressure and crop potential warrant a T0, consider upgrading from a straight product to a generic co-form containing PTZ (e.g. Clayton Navaro), which offers exceptional value for the disease control provided. Add in folpet to increase spectrum and yield response.

T1 – carefully assess each field to understand disease pressure, crop condition and potential to help guide your product choice. Again, consider using older chemistry in co-forms to provide robust but cost-effective choices at T1 as alternatives or partners to newer chemistry. Trials indicate the best timings to reduce overall spend are the early ones, T0 and T1.

Consider a multisite – trials showed the positive effect of adding folpet to the T1 programme for yield gain. Folpet consistently improved yields across treatments by 0.2-0.4 t/ha, in line with other recently conducted trials work using folpet in the wider industry. Multisites not only widen disease spectrum and give yield uplifts but play a crucial role in good resistance management.

T2 – the biggest yield response (around 80%) is delivered from the flag leaf T2 application, so when looking to utilise ‘new chemistry’ to bolster disease control that is the best timing for it. Balancing costs between T1 and T2 will be important this season to help retain profitability.

In summary, independent trials research in the 2024 season, showed Clayton products matched premium fungicide standards well in low disease pressure scenarios, providing great cost-effective options for growers at T1 and without any real fall off in disease control or yields.

Clayton partner products used well, can help improve margin over input cost. Crops should be assessed in spring so informed decisions can be made taking account yield potential, disease pressure, disease resistance profile of the variety and your fungicide budget. This is especially the case as we see a move towards many growers looking at wider, more integrated crop management approaches, including the use of novel biological solutions alongside traditional chemistry.