Rapid disease testing helps cut fungicide bills

A disease testing service is helping growers and agronomists reduce expenditure on fungicides.

Called SwiftDetect, the rapid test is said to detect disease down to just a few pathogen cells – even in latent periods. Findings are reported in a traffic light system, showing growers whether the disease is low, medium or high risk, so they can plan treatments accordingly.

Indigro agronomist Damian McAuley, who started using SwiftDetect last year, says he tested for Septoria at pre-T1 (leaf 3) stage. One end of the farm was reported to be high risk and the other end low risk – so inputs were tailored accordingly.

“We pulled back fungicide rates by roughly 10% on 400ha of wheat, making a £1,600 cost-saving,” says Mr McAuley.

“We work a week ahead and we need a quick turnaround. Without accurate testing, you can see disease in crops but it’s more difficult to plan for risk, because you don’t always know the extent of the disease threat, especially if it’s in the early stages where in some cases it isn’t visible.”

Early in the season at pre-T0 stage, Mr McAuley sampled some rust susceptible Zyatt to see the risk threat. The results came back as low risk, so he didn’t treat pre-T0 with tebuconazole, which would have cost around £5/ha, saving some £1,500 over 300ha.

Each test costs £70. Results are returned in one working day. This rapid turnaround means growers and agronomists can target the disease more effectively and efficiently by using the most appropriate product and dose rate.

“Ware seeing more Septoria this year than last,” says Chris Steele, from SwiftDetect. “After a mild winter, we saw disease pressures increase followed by heavy rain earlier in the year, which reduced yellow rust but increased septoria risk, and the moisture is still there in the crop.

“The yellow rust risk is still around waiting in the wings to pounce and can be found especially on varieties such as Zyatt, Skyfall and even Extase. Mildew seems to have disappeared but can still be found in the most susceptible varieties and areas.”