DETECT EARLY, SAVE YOUR CASH

Stem rust can affect wheat, barley, triticale and many other related grasses. It is found wherever cereals are grown.

Cereal diseases are a big challenge to the farmers, so they ought to be keen on their farm so as to know the progress of their crops and in case of any disease, how they should deal with it. Once the farmer has traced any disease, they need to get the best solution as soon as possible, to reduce the effects of the disease.

A growth stage key provides a common reference for describing the crop’s development, as to implement agronomic decisions based on a common understanding of which stage the crop has reached. The most commonly used growth stage key for cereals is the: Zadoks Decimal Code, which splits the development of a cereal plant into 10 distinct phases of development and 100 individual growth stages. It allows the plant to be accurately described at every stage in its life cycle by a precise numbered growth stage (denoted with the prefix GS or Z e.g. GS39 or Z39)

Using Fungicides To Manage Cereal Diseases
Growers who can’t or don’t have long, diverse crop rotations will need to lean more on other management tools like fungicides. Management of cereal diseases using fungicides is a holistic approach. Growers must integrate all available knowledge into pest management. They need to understand Crop biology and growth stage, pathogen biology and disease cycle, weather conditions and forecasts, field history, yield potential and yield target, economic thresholds and fungicide characteristics.

Fungicides are used to make money therefore though disease may be present in a crop at many stages through the crop`s life it may not always be economical to control it.

As an input, the economic response to fungicide relates to the extent of the disease pressure, the ability of the product to control that disease, water availability to the crop to express the benefit.

Yield response from fungicides is linked to the differences achieved in green leaf retention, principally during grain fill. In order to achieve differences in green leaf retention during grain fill, it is important to target the leaves that contribute most to yield. Fungicides are insurance inputs: applied during stem elongation yet having their greatest impact during grain fill.

Whilst the number of fungicide applications, rate, and specific timings will relate to disease pressure and yield potential, it is important to recognize that fungicide application should also be related to the importance of the plant components being protected.

In application, growers should aim to control disease on the yield contributing leaves, protect disease free canopy during grain fill, Improve grain fill, harvest large grain size, improved yield and have improved quality ccharacteristics

Application:
Every grower’s fungicide strategy should be to protect the most important leaves. Then it becomes important to identify when the top 3 leaves emerge. In terms of the Zadocks growth stage, the key top 3 leaves and ear emergence are covered by GS32-59 (the start of stem elongation to full ear emergence). At GS32 the leaf emerging from the main stem is likely to be leaf 3 or (F-2

If the onset of disease occurs at or before flag leaf emergence GS39 and a single fungicide application is delayed beyond GS39, then the risk of yield penalty increases, more so if the cultivar is susceptible to the Disease. Unless the crop is subject to very late disease infection, a single application at this timing will produce inferior results compared to applying at the flag leaf stage.

Mainly this application is done to control disease in the top 2 leaves assuming an earlier flag leaf application and protect the ear that was not emerged at earlier spray timing. This spray timing could be important in regions with longer grain fill periods when crops are under high disease pressure for the whole season.

Many farmers grow cereals for commercial purposes, so there is need for taking care of what brings income.