After years of average barley prices, fourth generation Berrigan grower Brendon Ackerly is this year sticking to just wheat, lupins and canola on his 1000-hectare property.

“The barley prices were just not worth it,” says Brendon. “I even sold all the grain I had from last harvest to make sure I wasn’t tempted.

“However, that does change our rotation. Previously we had done canola or lupins, then wheat, then barley.

“Now we will be doing more wheat-on-wheat, which leaves you open to Yellow Leaf Spot.”

As he began reducing his barley crop last season, Brendon sowed around 100 hectares of wheat-on-wheat. In order to counter the Yellow Leaf Spot, Brendon decided to apply the fungicide UNIFORM® to those paddocks.

UNIFORM is an in-furrow fungicide from Syngenta that supresses Yellow Leaf Spot in wheat. It is also the only known control of Rhizoctonia in Australian wheat and barley crops and also controls Pythium Root Rot and Stripe Rust.

Growers have flexibility in treatment as UNIFORM can be applied coated on fertiliser in-furrow, by liquid injection in-furrow below the seed or as a split application below and above the seed.

Brendon put his in at seeding time.

“I got the UNIFORM coated on the fertiliser in town and then it went straight in with the seed.

“The crop went really well. We went up to 5.2 tonne on our straight wheat and between 4 to 4.5 tonne on our wheat-on-wheat.

“UNIFORM worked. There was no disease at all in our wheat on wheat paddocks, which was a good result.”

Brendon, who will start sowing this year’s wheat crop in May, says that with no barley at all this season, he will be doubling the amount of wheat-on-wheat paddocks from last year.

Given the success he had with UNIFORM on last year’s crops, he says he will be using UNIFORM again.

“We generally don’t get a lot of disease trouble, it really is just the wheat-on-wheat crops that need it.

“Being able to use it where we need it helps keep the costs down and we will definitely be using it again on our wheat-on-wheat paddocks,” he said.