ARABLE FARMERS were given an insight into what’s in the pipeline for them at last week’s Cereals in Practice event, held for the first time at SRUC’s new trials farm at Saphock, near Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire.

With everything from variety trials, to new chemistry and, indeed, new ways of utilising their arable acres, including growing specifically for bio-digesters, there was plenty to digest, if you pardon the pun.

Dr Fiona Burnett, the SRUC’s crop and crop systems specialist, launched a new initiative to get more farmers committed to Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This is a user friendly web-based assist to see how it could work for you.

She said the benefits are quite plain for all those involved. “It’s a win:win situation, both for farmers, the chemistry they use and the environment,” she said. “Our new on-line planning tool is now live and will help growers choose the best options for them and their farm.”

Filling in a series of questions in the survey will end in feedback being sent to each individual. Being funded by ScotGov, the basis of the IPM system is to optimise pesticide use with the aim of reducing both the quantity and the frequency of chemical use. (see http://bit.ly/pestmanagementplan)

Eventually, the data secured by the survey will also be able to feed back into the industry the positives of the plan and give guidance for the future, she added. “A good example of how IPM would work is how we will be able to increase the lifespan of certain chemicals by reducing resistance issues, such as we have experienced with the SDHI family of sprays,” she said.

Dr Burnett also said that yellow rust had been a particular problem this year in Scotland, especially in the North-east. Such was the disease pressure, that some of the more popular wheats with supposedly fairly high resistance to yellow rust could see a major re-shuffle of Recommended List ratings after this harvest.

“But, while yellow rust can break a variety, the good news is that it hasn’t broken any chemistry yet,” she added.

Dovetailing into IPM, variety specialist, Dr Steve Hoad, also highlighted the advances being made in producing more robust and reliable varieties, both in wheat and barley.

Spring barley, one of Scotland’s major crops, was in danger, he said, of being too reliant on one variety, with Concerto cornering 75% of the total market. “There are some better varieties on the way,” he said, “though some promising varieties did not stand up well to the weather in 2014, for instance.

“Some of the newer ones are coming through with a 10% yield advantage over Concerto and with some pretty exciting agronomics. Octavia and, potentially Sienna, which has a very high specific weight, are looking quite promising. Laureate is another which takes yield a step further.”

He added that breeders were working hard on producing varieties which were not as susceptible as Concerto to skinning, which had been a major issue for the industry in recent times. This year’s crop potential was looking good, he said, but July would be a key month for crops in terms of grain fill and quality.

Breeding durable disease resistance into crops was also a point made by Professor Adrian Newton, from JHI. He said that untreated yield data was increasingly moving up the agenda with breeders and with farmers when choosing their next crops.

“We’re working at trying to breed more robust resistance to disease into varieties, without compromising yield. Ideally, we don’t want to rely on one single gene for this, but to use multiple genes carrying resistance.

“Using gene markers, we hope to increase the background level of inherent ability to fight disease across the board. This is imperative and come along with the growing realisation that there is a high background level of infection out there which we sometimes cannot physically see, like a kind of sub-clinical effect,” he added.

“We can detect it by molecular means and the feedback is that this background noise may be affecting crops more than we realise.”

For that reason he said growers should consider a T0 spray to act as a preventative measure. “Knowing when to apply it will be the key. It’s certainly not a get-out clause, but it could be useful in some circumstances.”