Due to a very kind winter and spring all predictions are for a difficult season ahead especially for insect pests.
All pests go through a number of life cycles and the more life cycles they are able to complete the higher the risk they will reach
damaging or epidemic levels during crop establishment.
Mild weather during winter and spring allows insects to start breeding earlier and this is why your customers need to be on their
guard this autumn.
The pests we need to control are Argentine stem weevil, cereal aphids, black beetle and grass grub.
These insect pests have thrived with the combination of last year’s drought followed by a warm winter, spring and summer and all of them can cause serious economic damage to establishing crops.
Establishing pasture is at threat from black beetle (in the upper North Island) and from Argentine stem weevil and grass grub throughout most of New Zealand.
These pests attack newly emerging plants leading to plant loss and poorly established pastures, reduced feed and ultimately lower profits.
With all of the costs associated with establishing new pasture it makes sense to protect your customer’s investment.
The best way to protect pasture is to use a cultivar containing an efficient endophyte in association with Poncho seed treatment.
Endophytes are effective in protecting plants from insect attack but to get the best from them they need time to get established within the young establishing pasture plants. This takes approximately six to eight weeks.
This is where Poncho is so effective. It provides a protective halo around the establishing root area of the plant and with its
systemic action the active moves up into the growing plant protecting it during early establishment.
With cereal crops, there is a tendency to plant these earlier and earlier. This is not surprising considering the yield advantages
from this approach with March planted wheat yielding up to two tonnes more than April planted crops.
The downside however is that insect pests in general and especially cereal aphids have a much greater opportunity to colonise these early planted crops and to start spreading barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) at an early date.
The impact of BYDV is much greater when infection takes place early.
Poncho applied as a seed treatment to wheat and barley will effectively protect against cereal aphids from sowing until GS 21.
It is important to remain vigilant though, especially for cereal aphids, because in mild winters such as the one we have just experienced, aphids continue to actively feed and so virus transfer continues throughout the winter. In these situations further foliar applications of a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide may be required.
Poncho also provides grass grub protection during crop establishment. Under high grass grub pressure an application of diazinon may also be required.
Good crop management practices are very important during establishment when managing grass grub in cereal crops.
Disease infection is always a threat to cereal seed. Traditionally seed treatments such as Raxil have provided excellent control of seed borne smuts and bunts.
Now by applying a mixture of Raxil and Galmano to wheat it is possible to also provide excellent control of rust and mildew through to GS 30.
Doing this means growers remain in control in the spring and can apply the first spring fungicide for Septoria tritici at the right time and not be dictated by the threat of rust infection.
No wonder Raxil plus Galmano has become the fungicide seed treatment of choice for wheat.
Poncho, Raxil and Galmano all offer excellent value for money and so applying Raxil and Poncho to barley or Raxil, Galmano and
Poncho to wheat provides farmers with very cost effective protection of their valuable seed.