The septoria resistance situation did not deteriorate in 2014, according to Teagasc monitoring presented at the National Tillage Conference this week.

Steven Kildea of Teagasc reported that there was no tangible changes in the performance of the key SDHI family of fungicides, which look to be holding solid with the help of robust mixtures.

However, the overall performance of triazoles against septoria appears to have deteriorated further, with a greater incidence of disease types that are now poorly controlled by the epoxiconazole and tebuconazole triazole sub-groups.

The situation with regard to rhynchosporium control also appears to be stable, with no recent deterioration in the sensitivity to prothioconazole products.

Meanwhile, Paud Evans from the Department of Agriculture confirmed that farmers considering the GLAS equivalence measure to enable them to have fewer crops than required under crop diversification (the three-crop rule), will now have to plant 100% of their cropped area in cover crops before 15 September if they want to avail of this option.

This means that it will not be an option for growers who want to plant winter cereals next autumn.

However, one good feature of this option is that it is a one-year measure, so it could be used to overcome a current problem, then returning to a different cropping pattern and exiting this GLAS measure after a year.

Teagasc launched a new Spring Barley Guide for growers at the conference. This is a very useful growers’ guide, set against the background of a lot of recent research and advice from many Teagasc sources.