A series of in-depth annual surveys of UK farmers conducted by the Kleffmann Group have indicated that the area of winter wheat, spring barley and winter oilseed rape all increased last year, but the overall herbicide and fungicide usage generally declined in cereals and increased in oilseed rape.

The Kleffmann Group, partnered in the UK by Independent Business Resource Limited (IBR-Ltd), conducts on-going comprehensive surveys of 1000 UK cereal farmers and 400 rape farmers, collecting quantitative and qualitative information related to crop inputs.  "The headline data from this year’s panel surveys, which are published last week, indicate that the area of winter wheat increased last year from 1.927 million hectares in 2009/2010 to 1.964 million hectares in 2010/2011. In terms of inputs the use of herbicides in the autumn went down significantly from 2.13 treatments per hectare in autumn 2009 to 1.96 treatments per hectare in autumn 2010, no doubt reflecting the difficult weather conditions and in some instances the difficulty in supplies of some key pre-em herbicides. The value of this sector at wholesale level decreased from £134 million to £130 million. There was some increase in the spring herbicide usage though," says Karen Gralla, UK Project manager for the Kleffmann Group.

 Wheat fungicide market worth £179m

Karen notes that, with the launch of several new SDHI fungicides in cereals this year, the usage of fungicides in cereals will be of interest not just to the manufacturers.  "Overall the fungicide sector in wheat was valued at £179 million this year. The survey showed a slight decrease in fungicide treatments in winter wheat, from 3.12 treatments per hectare in 2009/2010 season to 3.09 treatments per hectare this season. Once again the cold start to the year could be the reason for this small decline. However UK farmers did appear to be adopting the new fungicides reasonably widely, as these products were used on a significant number of farms. It will be interesting to see how these SDHIs and other new SDHI’s yet to be launched fare in next years survey."

Moving onto spring barley, Roger Pratchett of IBR-Ltd reports that the area of spring barley in the UK increased by 9% from 0.52 million hectares in 2010 to 0.574 million hectares this year. "In spring barley the use of selective herbicides remained stable at 1.35 treatments per hectare last year to 1.34 treatments per hectare this year. Fungicide treatment in spring barley however decreased significantly by 15% from 1.96 treatments per hectare of crop last year to 1.71 treatments per hectare this year – possibly due to the effect of the drought conditions."

Oilseed agchem market increases

He notes that the area of oilseed rape increased from 0.62 million hectares in 2009/2010 to 0.664 million hectares in 2010/2011, confirming its position as the second most important arable crop in the UK. "We saw a 7% increase in oilseed rape this year compared with last year. The importance of good establishment and the removal of weed competition plus autumn spraying opportunities last autumn lead to an increase in the number of selective herbicide treatments applied per hectare. In 2009/2010 there were 2.16 herbicide treatments per hectare in rape and in 2010/2011 this had increased to 2.28, a 5% increase. The value of the selective herbicide market at wholesale level in rape rose from £39 million in 2009/2010 to £48 million in 2010/2011."

The value of the fungicide sector in oilseed rape also increased from £27 million to £35 million, in conjunction with the overall use of fungicides ; in rape 2.44 fungicides were applied per hectare of crop in 2009/2010 and this increased to 2.91 treatments per hectare in 2010/2011, a 16% increase in usage. "The threat of a range of diseases impacting on yield in this valuable crop has probably seen a wider adoption of fungicide programmes in rape," concludes Roger.