Pat Thornton's Real Results trial 2022 and a look ahead to the 2023 season
07.03.2023
Real Results 2022
Pat has been part of the BASF’s Real Results Circle since it began, trialling innovation chemistry on his winter wheat crops. Last year, however, Pat’s Real Result Circle trial was, for the first time in a crop of winter barley comparing Tevos® + Innox® at T1 with conventional chemistry, where in a low disease pressure year, Tevos® + Innox® gave a staggering 1.24 t/ha yield uplift.
Establishment
Pat said, “The field, which had previously been spring barley, was destined to be oilseed rape but it was going to be too dry and in terms of the date it was going to be a difficult task to get a decent crop established before autumn. So I looked at alternatives as there was certainly a window of opportunity to get something in the ground and I made the decision to put winter barley in instead.
Having learnt from YEN that biomass is King and with blackgrass to control, we kept the seed rate of the hybrid variety, SY Kingsbarn, at 200 seed/m2 when we drilled the crop on the 24th of September. The field was sprayed with a pre- em herbicide and in total the crop received 185 kgN/ha.
Trial treatments and harvest
Last year the weather was certainly on our side, although with temperatures of 40oC it was too hot to combine some days, on the plus side yields were good across the board and nothing needed drying.”
Pat’s Real Results tramline trial compared innovation chemistry at T1, BASF’s protectant and systemic fungicide Tevos®, Xemium® (fluxapyroxad) + F500® (pyraclostrobin) and Innox® (prothioconazole) with a more conventional fungicide programme.
| Treatment | Field comparison | BASF |
|---|---|---|
| T1 (08 April) | Siltra® Xpro 0.45 l/ha | Tevos® 0.4 l/ha + Innox® 0.4 l/ha |
| T2 (27 April) | Revystar® XE 0.5 l/ha | Revystar® XE 0.5 l/ha |
“I could see a slight difference between treatments towards the end of June, with the Tevos® + Innox® treated areas staying greener longer. When we came to combine the field the difference was really noticeable, with a definite yield uplift in the Tevos® + Innox® treated areas.”
When analysed using Agronomics ADAS researchers were able to estimate that the Tevos® + Innox® treatment increased yield by 1.24 t/ha ± 0.81 t/ha (90% confidence interval), relative to the field comparison treatment.”
Active ingredients
Tevos® is a mix of Xemium® (fluxapyroxad) and F500® (pyraclostrobin) giving growers two very good barley active ingredients, however, not only do they have excellent fungicidal performance, these actives bring additional benefits to the crop.
F500 ® and Xemium ® improve the way the plant is able to source and utilise water, which is very important in a hot dry year such as Pat experienced in 2022. F500 ® also gives physiological benefit to the plant and reduces stress within the plant by decreasing ethylene production.
The yield uplift that Pat saw from the Tevos ® treated tramlines in his trial fits perfectly with these known physiological effects from this chemistry.
What’s going on down on the farm?
Winter cropping
“Autumn went well. A lot of people shied away from deep cultivation around us because of the way the soil had cracked – so nature had done it for us in many places but we did do some cultivation, the majority of which was shallow. Crops are looking very well.
The way the rotation works we have 25 ha winter beans, 25 ha oilseed rape, with the rest in winter wheat. Skyscraper and Gleam. These varieties have both done well for us in the past and it is better the devil you know. The way the wheat looks after the winter beans we will be able to hold some nitrogen back.
We haven’t got winter barley in the rotation this year; it will come back when the opportunity arises, especially having seen the data and done the maths. My only caveat would be that I would need to be confident in those fields I planned to grow it in, in terms of the blackgrass pressure.
We have gone back to oilseed rape (OSR) basically because there was the opportunity to do so. We took the winter barley off and for the first time in 20 years we took the straw off as well and put some sewage on.”
The crop was drilled before rain and I think sewage kept the initial influx of cabbage stem flea beetle(csfb) at bay and by the time of peak csfb it was well established and big enough to tolerate the attack. Sowing the OSR after the winter barley bought us two weeks in terms of OSR establishment, we drilled it on the 10th of August and that is why the OSR looks so good.”
Stewardship schemes
“I’m looking to see if there is a stewardship scheme that would allow establishment of a few more hedgerows on the farm, in keeping with the landscape.”
Use plant protection products safely. Always read the label and product information before use. For further product information including warning phrases and symbols refer to www.agricentre.basf.co.uk. Tevos®, contains fluxapyroxad (Xemium®) and pyraclostrobin ( F500®) Innox® contains prothioconazole, Revystar® XE contains mefentrifluconazole (Revysol®) and fluxapyroxad (Xemium®). Revystar® XE, Revysol®, Xemium®, Tevos®, F500® and Innox® are registered Trademarks of BASF. All other products are those of other manufacturers where proprietary rights may exist. © BASF 2023. All rights reserved.
