IT LOOKS as if some new chemistry is being fast-tracked in to the field to give growers new hope in combatting common crop diseases which have caused the industry significant yield losses in the past couple of years.

The AHDB has released its fungicide performance data for the new cereal fungicide, Elatus Era, after just one year of trials.

Registered for use on wheat, barley, rye and triticale for the control of all major cereal diseases, the Syngenta product combines the recently trademarked SDHI active ingredient, Solatenol (benzovindiflupyr) and the azole, prothioconazole.

Its effectiveness against foliar wheat and barley diseases, as tested in independent AHDB trials, has led to an almost unprecedented early release of the data for 2017 after testing in 2015/16 trials.

Dr Paul Gosling, who manages fungicide performance research at AHDB, said: “Elatus Era has only been in trial for one year but we can be confident in releasing the findings for septoria in wheat and rhynchosporium in barley, because the product was tested at multiple sites.

“Based on dose-response information, it shows strong performance against septoria and rhynchosporium in both protectant and eradicant situations. This is in line with the general performance of the best other commercially available fungicides tested and gives growers a useful alternative option as we head into the 2017 spray season,” he added.

The results for the product against other key foliar diseases of wheat and barley will be published later in 2017, but 'preliminary results do not show any significant weaknesses in performance compared to other key products in trials'.