Too many times, I have visited cereal silage crops where farmers have 'fallen at the last hurdle.' They have invested the time and money to establish the crop, but a lack of investment into a simple fungicide means they fail to maintain quality until harvest date. Going the distance means a well-timed fungicide programme to target disease.
Cereal silage is categorised into two groups: green chop or whole crop. Green chop takes the crop at the flag leaf or just before ear emergence. The whole crop stage is at the cheesy dough stage of the grain.
Consider your options
All fungicides registered for cereal silage have a harvest Witholding Period (WHP) to consider, so crop harvest timing is everything. Second consideration is the fungicide. Which fungicides have a registration for your crop type, like barley for grain, they may not be registered for cereal silage crops. This is an important part of the law we cannot overlook.
Timing is everything
Generally, a crop made into green chop silage requires its fungicide is applied at the first sign of a node at the base of the stem. This allows enough time to pass WHP between application and harvest at the flag leaf stage. Whole crops often get two fungicides. One at the first node and then a second one at the flag leaf. It is important not to delay these applications because fungicides are designed to have limited curative activity but particularly good prevention activity. Being in front of disease pressure is your best course of action.
In the mix
Fungicides are often good mixing partners. Adding registered herbicides, growth regulators, or insecticides reduces your number of passes over the crop. All cereal silage crops are susceptible to disease, but your Technical Field Rep knows which fungicides are suitable for your chosen crop and can assist you to get the best possible yield and quality.
