Farmer-led trials have revealed a significant benefit from including Revystar XE (mefentrifluconazole+ fluxapyroxad), the new fungicide from BASF, in disease-control programmes for winter wheat.
“I’ve worked on quite a lot of Agronomics trials since we introduced this method of getting scientifically robust results from on-farm trials several years ago, and this is the strongest set of data we’ve ever had,” revealed ADAS’ Susie Roques, who presented the results last month at the first Revystar roadshow in Newbury, Berks.
Last year, 51 growers across the UK took part in BASF’s Real Results trials in which Revystar was pitched against their standard fungicide programme at either the flag leaf (T2) or both of the main spray timings (T1 and T2). Most of the trials were conducted without the use of multi-site chlorothalonil (CTL), which loses its approval for use from 20 May this year.
Yield maps were obtained from 47 of the farms that took part and results analysed with ADAS Agronomics, an approach that uses spatial modelling and statistics to allow yield-map data from the combine to be assessed with scientific rigour.
“Across all the sites that submitted a yield map, the average yield increase was 0.2t/ha, with a benefit of just 0.09t/ha needed for statistical significance at the 90% confidence level,” reported Susie.
“If you strip out those results where CTL was used in one treatment but not the other (i.e. in an unbalanced trial), the average benefit is 0.27t/ha ±0.10t/ha, and for those who used Revystar at both T1 and T2, this brought a 0.39t/ha yield boost, ±0.16t/ha.”
ADAS carried out Agronomics analysis on around 200 on-farm trials last year, testing everything from deep-rooting to amino acids. Susie said it was very rare for any set of data to show a significant result.
The Real Results trials were designed to get a “true” picture of how the new fungicide Revystar XE performs on farm, says BASF. The product contains the company’s new isopropanol-azole Revysol, claimed to have the unique property that it can “flex” to assume different conformations. This, says BASF, means Revysol binds to the Septoria tritici’s target enzyme, CYP51, up to 100 times more tightly, even where target site mutations have developed.
Dr Jon Helliwell, BASF local agronomy manager, noted that Revystar can be used at both the T1 and T2 timings at the recommended rate of 1 l/ha (min 0.8 l/ha and 1.0 l/ha). “Alternatively, you could use 1 l/ha Adexar at T1 if yellow rust is the key concern – epoxiconazole is still the strongest azole on rust.”
While it’ll be sold mainly as the co-formulation, partner packs of Revysol with a Xemium (fluxapyroxad) product will also be available, but Revysol should never be applied on its own. With a good tank-mixing profile, there are no known incompatibilities, and it’s suitable for use with multi-site fungicides. Pricing information has not yet been released.
BASF’s series of agronomy-focused roadshows, hosted by Real Results growers, continue until early March 2020. For dates and venues and to sign up, go to www.basfrealresults.co.uk/revylution.
No Inatreq for 2020
The new fungicide Inatreq Active (fenpicoxamid) will not be available in the UK for commercial use in time for disease control programmes this spring. Manufacturer Corteva said that data submitted to the Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) “require further discussion”, which will not be concluded in time for the 2020 spray season.
