More farmers are routinely using biological products because they deliver cost-effective yield benefits and contribute to a sustainable approach. And while the advantages are proven, application timing is key to success.

Signalling compound, 3ALO T6P, from Unium Bioscience, is benefitting farmers when used at T3 stage on arable crops.

Agrovista agronomist, Phil Warham, believes that farmers can reach required milling specifications by using the 3ALO T6P foliar treatment on oats. "Using the T6P biostimulant at the panicle growth stage (GS59) helps to make carbohydrates more available to the plant at the crucial grain filling period.

"It has to be used at the right time, in the right scenario, but for those I've recommended it to, it's having a big impact on grain quality and specific weights, and it could easily make the difference between reaching milling spec or not," says Phil.

Bedfordshire farmer, Matt Fuller at Heathcote Farms, regularly uses biostimulants on oats, milling wheat, winter barley, OSR and winter beans.

"Over the last few years, we have regularly used 3ALO T6P at T3 timing," he says.

Matt was involved with 3ALO T6P trials and he says the results were impressive. "We've seen the benefits clearly in trials and we now include biostimulants in most tank mixes, and for the last few years, we have regularly used 3ALO T6P at later stage timing."

Matt believes biologicals are a key component in the farm's environmental ambitions. "The farm must be profitable, as does each crop, but we also have to prioritise the environment by reducing reliance on synthetic chemistry and soil disturbance."

John Haywood, at Unium Bioscience, the company behind 3ALO T6P explains that it's a signalling compound, based on Trehalose-6-phosphate, a molecule that regulates plant processes including metabolism. "T6P is the key component to utilisation of all the hard work for the crop cycle, building grain quality.

"The trehalose pathway contributes to many factors affecting overall plant health, including stress tolerance, energy metabolism, growth and development, defence against pathogens, and metabolic regulation. It's a dynamic pathway that helps plants adapt and respond to changing environmental conditions and maintain cellular homeostasis.

"It's a product that can be used on many crops, including cereals at T3, peas, beans, fruit crops and OSR at flowering, potatoes at mid bulking to improve bulking rates and sugar beet at 6-leaf stage, and for sugar beet it can also be included at fungicide timings to increase the plant's ability to mobilise sugars into the tap root.

"We are continuing to explore the Trehalose pathway, and we have some great results from new signalling compounds which have the same positive effects on plants, meaning in the near future, more products will be available to farmers," adds John.

T6P (trehalose-6-phosphate) is a central signalling compound in plants responsible for regulating sucrose and the way it's allocated to crop growth, development and to different locations in the plant. Two of the key benefits are increased yield of the sink component e.g. grain, or improved recovery from drought stress. T6P regulates seed filling through increasing cell differentiation and starch accumulation, maximising the efficient transfer of sucrose into storage starch and or oils.