What Did We Learn In 2007 About Fungicides on Spring Wheat?

Proline® 480 is a relatively new fungicide registered for disease suppression on wheat, barley, canola and several other crops. For wheat and barley, Proline is registered for leaf disease and Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) suppression. Leaf disease suppression can give some yield increase when there is leaf disease pressure present on the plants. Folicur® 432 F is another fungicide which has been used in Ontario for the past few years.

2007 was the first year of a three year project in eastern Ontario designed to look at the impact of Proline versus Folicur on grain yield and visible fusarium and vomitoxin levels in the grain sample. Several spring wheat growers collected data from on-farm, side-by-side strip plots.

Yield Response

The average yield response across all sites in 2007 for Folicur vs no fungicide was 3.86 bushels per acre (bu/ac). For Proline the yield response was about 4.5 bu/ac as compared to no fungicide. The Average yield response shown in in Table 1 - Yields in 2007 Fungicide on Spring Wheat Side-by-Side Strip Plots includes only the head-to-head comparisons where both Folicur and Proline were used.

¹The Average includes only the head-to-head comparisons where both Folicur and Proline were used.

Visible Fusarium and Toxin Levels

FHB pressure was generally not a problem in 2007. Given this, most of the grain sample comparisons between treated and untreated showed little or no reduction in the visible FHB. However the toxin levels analyses of the grain samples showed that Proline gave a greater reduction than the Folicur. In this trial, Folicur reduced the toxin levels by about 11% as compared to no fungicide. (past results have shown about a one-third reduction in toxin levels with the use of Folicur.) Proline reduced the toxin levels by about 45% as compared to no fungicide. These results indicate that in years with greater FHB pressure and more risk of higher toxin levels, Proline has an increased chance of reducing the toxin levels and improving the grain grade.

Fungicide Costs

The retail product and application costs for Folicur are about $24 per acre and the cost for Proline is about $35 per acre. With most 90 foot boom sprayer, trampling is about 2.6%, which on a 65 bu/ac crop would equal about 1.7 bu/ac. At $7.00 per bushel spring wheat, the trampling costs add close to $12 per acre. Trampling loss can be significantly reduced with the use of tramlines or in the case of Folicur if it is aerial applied.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the growers who set up the strip plots and collected the data and the Ottawa Valley Seed Growers for their support of this project.

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