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In the January edition
- Seasonal timing – When to spray?
- Broadway Ultra: A technical deep dive
- Instinct: Protect your nitrogen and avoid more losses this spring
- Broad-spectrum disease control: Key insights for 2025
- Ympact seed treatment supports spring cereals in getting the best start
- Make your propyzamide applications by end of January
- Other recent key news and updates
- Update your communications preferences, enter our monthly prize draw plus ways to earn BASIS & NRoSO points
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Welcome to the first edition of the 2025 Arable Update! As we embrace a fresh year, we are excited to continue delivering the latest insights, innovations and advice to support your farm's success. Here's to a productive and sustainable year ahead!
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Seasonal timing – When to spray?
New year, new weeds? Or some older ones that have remained over winter?
Crop walking now can be a bit like looking into the past as well as preparing for the future. Have autumn herbicides performed well or not? Which weeds still need to be controlled? Which weeds will emerge in the spring? These are all questions that growers and agronomists should be asking themselves before planning their spring herbicide programme.
Looking back
Many areas of the country experienced periods of warm weather and heavy rainfall over winter. These conditions can result in reduced persistency and effectiveness of residual chemistry in the soil. Heavy rainfall has also broken down cloddy soils, releasing new flushes of weeds that are germinating above any residual layers.
Looking forward
Now is the time to start planning post-emergence herbicide applications. For cereal crops, it’s about prioritising the control of difficult grass weeds such as ryegrass, wild oats and brome species.
Getting optimal performance from a herbicide involves balancing a number of variables. We cannot control the weather nor the ability to travel. However, making sure a product is available on farm and ready to go should be on the minds of growers and agronomists if they want to take advantage of any early spray windows.
Applications to cereals in early February may seem early, but conditions can change quickly, and application windows do appear, so utilising them can contribute huge gains in terms of product performance.
Targeting small weeds early is often a better option than waiting, as the weeds may be larger, growing faster and by the time a later spray window appears, may be more difficult to control.
Read the full article by Corteva’s field technical manager, Hugh Guinan, here.
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Broadway Ultra: A technical deep dive
Having a new tool in the toolbox for grass weed control is rare, and especially one that controls a range of grass weeds, including meadow grass, plus a wide spectrum of some more difficult to control broad-leaved weeds, is even rarer. Broadway® Ultra, a new addition to the Broadway family, does all of this and is available for use this spring.
Broadway Ultra can be used in winter wheat and winter triticale from the 1st of January. Used at a dose rate of 100g/ha in combination with an approved adjuvant, it delivers 14 grams active ingredient per hectare of both pyroxsulam and mesosulfuron-methyl.
Pyroxsulam is well known to growers as the backbone of other Broadway products, providing excellent and reliable grass weed control, as well as controlling a wide spectrum of broad-leaved weeds. It is one of the few ALS graminicides to contain difficult broad-leaved species such as speedwells, mayweeds and umbellifers such as bur chervil.
The other component, mesosulfuron, another common grass weed active ingredient, when combined with pyroxsulam, brings a synergistic effect on grass weed species. Both are ALS inhibitors but come from two different ALS families.
Mesosulfuron is a sulfonyl-urea, whereas pyroxsulam belongs to the triazolopyrimidine herbicide group. In partnership, they offer a powerful combination for post-emergence grass weed control.
Mesosulfuron provides additional control of some broad-leaved weeds, namely chickweed, sow thistle and shepherds’ purse, but most importantly, completes the spectrum with annual meadow grass control.
With excellent crop safety, a wide range of ALS tank-mix and sequence options and a broad range of tested tank-mix compatibilities, Broadway Ultra is a flexible product that will be invaluable to growers in many on farm situations.
Related article: A deeper dive into the new Broadway Ultra herbicide which will debut on farms this spring, including key technical information - Read more here.
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Instinct: Protect your nitrogen and avoid more losses this spring
Whilst planning for the spring, its worthwhile considering how to avoid nitrogen losses.
As soils start to warm up in spring there may be an increase in the conversion of ammonium to nitrate. If the crop doesn’t have a sufficiently developed root network, or there is too much water present, nitrate can be leached deeper into the soil or into the wider environment.
If the soil becomes waterlogged, that nitrate may be converted to nitrous oxide and lost to the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. Winter cereals may start looking hungry in February and therefore keeping the nitrogen in the right place for longer will give better outcomes for the crop.
Instinct® is a tool that helps manage nitrogen challenges. An application of Instinct in February and March, just prior to the application of a fertiliser containing an ammoniacal form of nitrogen, will stabilise the ammonium, slowing it’s conversion by Nitrosomonas bacteria to nitrate. The ammonium will not leach, keeping more nitrogen in the upper layer of the soil, where it will be more accessible to the crop when growing conditions are favourable. Instinct keeps more nitrogen in the soil for longer.
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An application of Instinct in February or March in cereals and other crops, will slow the conversion of ammonium for a period of 10-12 weeks, and keeps it just where it’s needed.
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Broad-spectrum disease control: Key insights for 2025
2024 presented significant challenges, with high disease levels from early spring that emphasised the need for robust solutions. This proved a real test of the performance from different disease-control options under demanding conditions. Here’s what we learnt:
Fungicide performance
Corteva’s trials aligned with AHDB fungicide performance results, showcasing Univoq™ as a standout product, excelling across the breadth of fungal disease pressures in UK wheat crops.
Comparative efficacy
Univoq demonstrated superior performance compared to Iblon® based products like Ipresso, and Revysol® based products like Revystar®. In wheat, litre for litre, Peqtiga™ was equivalent to Miravis® in septoria control and proved superior where rust occurred.
New generation chemistry
2024 trials indicated that prevailing high disease levels required new, next generation chemistry to not only control diseases effectively but deliver yields and maximise grower returns.
Univoq: A flexible, high-performance solution
Looking ahead to 2025, the wheat area has expanded, and crops are generally looking good, with encouraging yield potential, excluding lower lying areas where flooding has persisted. However, with inoculum levels high from 2024, weather conditions will be critical in determining disease severity.
Univoq offers a unique mode of action providing broad spectrum disease control at T1 or T2, which should be used with strong, new generation chemistry at the alternate timing (Univoq can only be applied once to a crop) for the greatest returns.
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Ympact seed treatment supports spring cereals in getting the best start
Ympact® seed treatment can help spring cereal crops get off to a great start during early development, even in poorer establishment conditions.
Why use Ympact in spring crops?
- Speeds up plant emergence, improves early crop vigour and enables more uniform plant establishment.
- Increases biomass of the plant above and below ground.
- Increases root system development, improving access to soil and water nutrients.
- Increases metabolic activity resulting in increased abiotic stress tolerance.
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Ympact contains an optimal ratio of humic and fulvic acids which are bonded with selected micronutrients essential for plant development.
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To find out more, click here.
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Make your propyzamide applications by end of January
Don’t forget, all products containing propyzamide, including Kerb® Flo 500 and Astrokerb®, must be applied to OSR by 31st January. Before application, remember to check the weather forecast and individual field conditions.
With the recent cold, frosty and snowy weather, consider your local conditions if Kerb Flo 500 or Astrokerb are still to be applied.
Applying Kerb and Astrokerb in frosty and snowy conditions:
- Kerb Flo 500: Can be applied in frosty conditions but avoid applying to frozen ground to prevent run-off.
- Astrokerb: Ensure OSR leaves are frost-free for effective BLW targeting.
Avoid applying propyzamide when there is snow on the ground as this increases the risk of run-off when the snow melts.
With conditions changing rapidly at the moment the number of spray days has diminished.
Keep an eye on your OSR crops, watching for newly germinating weeds as the crops open up, especially due to pigeon damage which are starting to affect some OSR crops.
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Earn CPD points. BASIS points: 3 (1 CP; 1 E; 1 AP) and 2 NRoSO points. Win prizes! Make sure you submit your response by 31st January 2025 to stand a chance of winning one of our prize bundles containing a 3L measuring jug, soil thermometer and rain gauge.
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Our new #CortevaTalks video with Area Manager, Tom Rouse, reviews the health and progress of an oilseed rape crop in Suffolk. Tom discusses positive aspects like good overwintering and healthy plant growth, while also highlighting challenges including the emergence of various weeds and how best to manage - click here to watch.
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Other recent key news and updates
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Ed Barnatt joined Corteva this month! With two decades of experience in the agricultural sector, we're thrilled to have Ed as our UK & Ireland Commercial Sales Manager.
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Farmers, Grounded Research needs your insights!
Grounded Research is conducting a vital study to understand the challenges farmers face. By participating, you'll help them build a comprehensive picture of the stressors impacting British agriculture.
This is a call to farmers and those who work closely with farmers—whether through business, advisory roles, or industry networks—to support this research by helping bolster the number of responses to give a wider picture of the sector.
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Download the Corteva Arable App!
To help decision making, farmers and their advisors are encouraged to download the Corteva Arable App to access Kerb Weather Data. The decision support tool has had significant updates to its functionality in recent years.
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Want to hear more from us?
Update your preferences and tailor your choices to make sure you receive the communications that are right for you. Don't forget to enter into our monthly prize draw by ticking the box before submitting to be in with the chance to win!
You can also stay in the loop with all the latest updates by following @CortevaUK on X and Facebook. Explore our Spotify playlist for hand-picked tunes to keep you motivated through every season.
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Get in touch with our Hotline team
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CPD points
Subscribing to Corteva Agriscience Arable Update gives eligibility for 2 CP BASIS points and/or 2 NRoSO points and/or 2 CP points for those who are part of the BASIS Environmental Advisors Register (EAR) annually.
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USE PLANT PROTECTION PRODUCTS SAFELY. Always read the label and product information before use. For further information including warning phrases and symbols refer to label. Corteva Agriscience UK Limited, Unit H4, Building H, Melbourn Science Park, Cambridge Road, Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, SG8 6HB. Tel: 01462 457272. ®, ™ Trademarks of Corteva Agriscience and its affiliated companies. All other brand names are trademarks of other manufacturers for which proprietary rights may exist. All manufacturers tradenames and trademarks are duly acknowledged.© 2025 Corteva. Instinct® contains nitrapyrin. Ympact contains Fulvic Acid, Humic Acid, trace elements including Copper (0.45%), Manganese (0.74%), Zinc (1.1%), Boron, Cobolt, Sodium. Kerb®Flo 500 contains propyzamide. Astrokerb® contains aminopyralid and propyzamide. Univoq™ contains fenpicoxamid and prothioconazole. Peqtiga™ contains fenpicoxamid. Broadway® Ultra contains pyroxsulam and mesosulfuron-methyl.
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