FARM NEWS 7
• FEB/MAR 2019
Diversity of actives essential for maintaining
effective barley disease control
AS the effective control of barley
diseases becomes increasingly
difficult to achieve due to changes
in their sensitivity to widely used
fungicides, growers must use a
diversity of modes of action to
combat key diseases including
rhynchosporium, net blotch and
ramularia.
That is the advice from Andy
Bailey, Fungicides Technical Spe-
cialist at ADAMA UK, who urges
growers to consider alternative
fungicide modes of action not
only to provide robust crop
protection, but also to prolong
the effective lifetime of key SDHIs,
azoles and strobilurins.
‘ as green as
possible for as
long as possible
’
“Over the past couple of years,
the efficacy of some of the prin-
cipal SDHI, azole and strobilurin
fungicides used to protect barley
has started to erode due to subtle
sensitivity shifts and the onset
of disease resistance,” Mr Bailey
explains. “Meanwhile, alternative
modes of action such as cyprod-
inil and folpet remain unaffected
with no resistance issues noted
to date. Growers should there-
fore incorporate these active
ingredients into their spring spray
programmes to provide robust
protection.”
The key to delivering high
yields and good grain quality in
barley is to maximise the crop’s
NEW YEAR NEW
FARMING ATTITUDES
NEEDED SAYS HSE
Farmers in Scotland are being told they must
pay closer attention to how they manage
workplace risk or face serious penalties.
THE Health and Safety Ex-
ecutive’s (HSE) programme
of inspections will review
health and safety stand-
ards on farms across the
country, and the industry is
being reminded that the in-
spections will soon begin.
The inspections will
ensure those responsible
for protecting themselves
and workers are doing the
right things to comply with
‘ We are
seeing signs
of a change in
attitude across
the farming
industry
’
the law and prevent death,
injury and ill-health. If they
are not HSE will not hesitate
to use enforcement to bring
about improvements.
Throughout the inspec-
tion initiative, inspectors will
be checking that risks are
being controlled in specific
areas including:
• Machinery
• Falls from height
• Children
• Livestock
The announcement fol-
lows a series of compliance
events that were developed
as a result of research into
farmers attitudes to risk
and are aimed at changing
behaviours in the industry.
Farmers in the area were
given the opportunity to
attend one of these events,
paid for by HSE, to help
them comply with the law
and prepare for our inspec-
tions. HSE is now following
up to make sure that all
farms in the area are doing
the right thing.
Agriculture has the poor-
est record of any industry
in Britain and latest figures
show that 33 people were
killed in agriculture across
Britain in 2017/18 - around
18 times higher than the all
industry fatal injury rate.
HSE’s head of agriculture,
Rick Brunt, said: “We are
seeing signs of a change in
attitude across the farming
industry and while this is
encouraging, these inspec-
tions act as a reminder to
farmers of the importance
of managing risks so that
everyone can go home
from their work healthy.”
green area index – by protecting
and retaining tillers for as long as
possible – and to maximise grain
storage capacity and grain filling
by promoting healthy spikelet and
ear development.
“Spring spray programmes
should therefore be designed to
reduce the effect of infection on
tiller numbers early in the season
and to keep the entire plant as
green as possible for as long as
possible,” Mr Bailey explains.
www.abccomms.co.uk
Allflex announces new
distribution partnership
with Fabdec
ALLFLEX Livestock Intelligence is
pleased to announce a new distribution
partnership with Fabdec which has been
appointed as a main dealer and distribu-
tor of Allflex’s automated milking parlour
components and SenseHubTM livestock
monitoring systems.
SenseHub, the recently upgraded ver-
sion of Allflex’s proven Heatime livestock
monitoring system, measures dairy cow
activity and rumination to deliver accu-
rate, reliable and actionable information
on the reproductive, health, nutritional
and wellbeing status of individual cows
and groups of animals. The system offers
a choice of intelligent neck collars or
lightweight electronic ear tags – both of
which collect data based on a range of
key animal behaviours – and uses ad-
vanced algorithms to accurately identify
heats and silent heats as well as provid-
ing an early indication of poor health or
welfare conditions such as irregular heats,
anestrus cows, suspected abortion, heat
stress and reduced feed intake.
From its base in Shropshire, Fabdec
will also provide sales, installation and
aftersales support through a UK-wide
network of sub-dealers for Allflex’s range
of milking automation components which
includes everything from smart pulsators
and electronic flow meters to full milking
parlours.
www.allflex.global/uk www.fabdec.com
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