Wheat growers looking to capitalise on better grain prices must plan disease control cost-effectively if they’re to stop high disease pressure and fungicide resistance shifts eating in to profit. Otherwise, any extra income could be wiped out.

That is the message from industry experts as growers plan this season’s early T0 and T1 fungicide timings designed to control over-wintered disease.

But a newly updated fungicide, Cherokee, launched last year as a value-for-money solution could help fight back against such issues, its manufacturer points out.

According to Syngenta technical manager David Ranner, although wheat prices have climbed by around £20/t compared with a year ago, growers face mounting challenges that carry additional costs.

For a start, sensitivity shifts in the main disease Septoria tritici to triazole fungicides mean higher doses are now required to offset eroded performance, he maintains.

On top of that, high disease pressure after the mild winter means brown rust, in particular, has been found especially early – not only in its usual hotspots across southern and eastern England but as far north as Perth in Scotland.

That hasn’t been helped, he says, by many popular varieties having rust resistance ratings of 6 or below.

Independent crop consultant Richard Palmer of Farm Vision agrees that disease threats are building. The mild winter, early drilling and advanced crops mean several diseases threaten yield.

“Residues of mildew are present. Obviously there’s Septoria waiting to happen. Another big disease is brown rust. If ever there was a year for T0 sprays, this would be it,” he points out.

In its launch year he used Cherokee for around 90 per cent of his T1 fungicide treatments last season – reassured by its high dose of active ingredients.

This year, he believes its components will also be a good fit at T0.

“Cherokee would lend itself because of its cyproconazole – good on rusts – and propiconazole It would be an ideal spray – effective on the diseases that are there and it’s got some chlorothalonil to protect against Septoria,” he adds.