BASF has launched a new cereal fungicide, Adexar, based on active ingredient Xemium. Approved for use in wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale, the new product comes from the SDHI group of chemistry.
Speaking at the product launch, ASAS senior research scientist Jonathan Blake described Adexar as a very good all-round product with no obvious weaknesses.
“The unique feature of Adexar is its strength on Septoria tritici, where it is highly curative but also shows persistence as a protectant,” he said. “Its strength as a protectant against rusts is sufficient, in most cases, alone.”
The director at Brooms Barn, Bill Clark, has trialled Adexar over a three year period; he said Adexar had been outperforming bixafen and isopyrazam dose for dose.
“Added to this the Xemium products are giving better Septoria control as well as better yields,” he added. “The icing on the cake for the Xemium range is that it seems to stimulate deeper rooting, improved green leaf area retention and increased rates of photosynthesis, which may explain the yield advantages that we have seen.”
Adexar was also trialled by farmers in 2011 in wheat. Andrew Ward described his wheat as badly drought-stressed when he applied a strip of Adexar at T2 to a field of Oakley.
“The rest of the field was treated with another of the new SDHIs – the Adexar treated strip outyielded the rest of the field by 0.3t/ha and, to a line, was very noticeably greener,” he said. “This yield response from Adexar was incredible for a dry year; the responses could be staggering when there is some soil moisture.”
Jonathan Blake said the product had an obvious place at T2.
“That’s when it will have the largest impact on yield,” he suggested, “however under high Septoria pressure, it may also fit well at T1 to check disease progress onto the upper canopy.”
In barley, Mr Blake said that Adexar had been shown to be very strong, rivalling bixafen-based products for efficacy on Rhynchosporium.”
BASF’s fungicide product manager, Peter Hughes, said that as well as being strong on Rhynchosporium control, Adexar gave excellent control of the other key barley diseases, net blotch, rust and Ramularia.
“More often that not in 2011 barley trials, Adexar proved to be the highest yielding treatment of the SDHIs,” he said.
Mr Hughes added that he thought the new Xemium activie ingredient was different from the other new SDHI chemistry.
“we have conducted detailed lab and field studies on its distribution within the plant and it is this property which is its key differentiator,” he said. “The molecule is designed to give it the capability to reach the target enzyme rapidly in the plant, while drip feeding fungicide from depots retained in the leaf to give continuous protection and movement to new plant growth. We call this unique effect HyperFlow Technology.”
“We’ve seen real value from HyperFlow. If you are forced to spray slightly earlier or later than planned, the product performs better in sub-optimal situations than any other product we have seen to date.”
What makes BASF really proud is that this technology, combined with high intrinsic activity, consistently achieves the high degree of disease prevention with levels of curativity that we have never seen before.”
Adexar contains 62.5g/lit Xemium and 62.5g/lit epoxiconazole and is approved for use in wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale. Adexar is compatible in tank mix with chlorothanonil. Adexar is available for the 2012 spring season and will be packed in 10-litre Ecopack containers for ease of handling and operator safety. Once on farm Adexar has the practical advantage that it can be used on both wheat and barley crops, which differs from the approach from other manufacturers.
Xemium is being launched globally by BASF for use in a range of other crops, including maize and soybeans with several other crops to follow. There will be a full roll out to the agricultural market during 2012.
For more information visit: www.adexar.co.uk.
