Western Canada Barley Fungicide Trials 2020-2021

Trial Objectives

• TilMOR™ Fungicide is a new fungicide for western Canadian cereal crops, combining two active ingredients (tebuconazole and prothioconazole) to protect against leaf and head disease in the toughest disease environments.
• TilMOR™ Fungicide is a flex timing product that can be utilized for leaf disease protection at T2 growth stage timing or can be used at T3 growth stage timing to minimize risk of yield and quality losses from fusarium.
• The objective of these trials was to evaluate TilMOR™ Fungicide for the yield and quality performance compared to an untreated check at T2 growth stage and T3 growth stage application timings in barley in 2020 and 2021. 

Research Site Details

• Trials included 13 locations throughout western Canada from the Market Development Representatives (MDR) and Market Development Agronomist (MDA) in 2020 and 2021.
• MDR trials were applied in a replicated strip format with Bayer owned equipment. There were four MDR trial locations.
• The four 2020 and 2021 MDR trials were located at:
  • Carseland, AB
  • Carseland, AB
  • Ft. Saskatchewan, AB
  • Grayson, SK

• MDA trials were applied in a replicated strip format with grower equipment. There were nine MDA trial locations.
• The nine 2020 and 2021 MDA trials were located at:
  • Irma, AB
  • Blackfalds, AB
  • Eckville, AB
  • Eckville, AB
  • Barons, AB
  • Prud’homme, SK
  • Birch Hills, SK
  • Richard, SK
  • Redvers, SK

Figure 1. Map of the 2020 and 2021 MDR and MDA Barley TilMOR™ fungicide trials.

• • To aid in site selection, fields were evaluated for variability using field health imagery from Climate FieldView^®. Only fields with relatively low variability across the trial area were used.
  • All aspects of field management within the trial area were consistent except for the fungicide treatments.

• Trial Design:
  • Fungicide treatments were applied according to the label at the optimal timing either T2 flag leaf growth stage or T3 head growth stage timing.
  • Treatments included:

  • Product (fungicide group number)	Formulation	Rate	Format/Timing
    			MDR/T2	MDR/T3	MDA/T3
    Untreated Control	N/A	N/A	Y	Y	Y
    TilMOR™ Fungicide (3)	80 g/L prothioconazole + 160 g/L tebuconazole	0.63 L/ha	Y	Y	Y

  • Leaf disease assessments were conducted at the time of application and 10-14 days after application timing.
  • Treatments were harvested and weighed with a weigh wagon to determine yield.
  • Grain samples were taken from each treatment replication at harvest and evaluated for grain quality parameters, including bushel weight, percent moisture, grade, and percent fusarium damaged kernels.
  • Each treatment was rated for lodging severity and harvest-ease.

• Environmental Considerations:
  • 2020 had generally good moisture conditions across the west. There was average to below average precipitation in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and average-to-above average precipitation in areas of Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan.
  • Overall disease pressure in the trials was low to normal in 2020.
  • 2021 was an extreme drought year for much of the prairies. Temperatures were above normal, and precipitation was well-below average across the western prairies.
  • Disease pressure in the trials was low in 2021.

Understanding the Results

• Data quality was assessed by evaluating the coefficient of variation (CV) for each of the yield and quality parameters. CV was assessed for the whole trial and for reps of each of the treatments. Only trials with a CV of less than 10 were used in data summaries.

A balanced data summary from each of the MDR and MDA programs in 2020 and 2021 were pulled to compare the yield and quality performance of TilMOR™ Fungicide to the untreated check. 

Figure 2. Effect of TilMOR™ Fungicide application at the T2 growth stage and T3 growth stage on average barley yield in 2020-2021 MDR trials, n=4

Figure 3. Effect of TilMOR™ Fungicide application at the T3 growth stage on average barley yield in 2020-2021 MDA trials, n=9.

Figure 4. Effect of TilMOR™ fungicide application at T3 growth stage on barley average yield, 2020-2021, n=13. Data combined over MDA and MDR trials.

• There were limited differences in quality parameters between treated and untreated. None of the samples had fusarium damaged kernels greater than 1%. This can be attributed to the low disease pressure due to dry conditions.
• There was a positive yield response to the application of TilMOR™ fungicide on barley at both T2 and T3 growth stage timings (Figure 2).
• In the MDR trials, the yield response at T2 growth stage timing was greater than the yield response at T3 growth stage timing (Figure 2).

Key Learnings

• In these trials, there was a minimal yield response from fungicide application due to below average precipitation, low yield potential, and low disease pressure. Further research trials are needed under higher disease pressure to determine the full impact of fungicide application in barley.