Western Canada Oat Fungicide Trials 2021

Trial Objectives

• TilMOR™ Fungicide is a new fungicide for western Canadian cereal crops, combining two active ingredients 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 the effect of TilMOR™ Funagicide on yield and quality performance compared to an untreated control at T2 growth stage application timing on oats in 2021. 

Research Site Details

• This Market Development Agronomist (MDA) trial included three locations in western Canada in 2021. (Figure 1).
• 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
• The trial was set up as a replicated strip with 2 replications and fungicide treatments were applied with grower equipment.

Figure 1. MDA trial locations in 2021

Trial Design:

Figure 2. Trial Format: area outlined in red is what was measured for yield weight at harvest.

• • All treatments within a trial were applied on the same day when fields were at or near the optimal timing. The recommended application timing for oat is at flag leaf (T2) growth stage or at the first signs of disease.
  • Plot size was the width of the cooperator’s sprayer (from 80 ft up to 120 ft) x 500 to 1000 ft. Maximum length was 1000 ft to reduce the impact of field variability.
  • All aspects of field management within the trial area were consistent except for the fungicide treatment.
  • Treatment list:
  
  

  Product (fungicide group number)	Formulation	Rate
  Untreated Control	N/A	N/A
  TilMOR™ Fungicide (3)	80 g/L prothioconazole + 160 g/L tebuconazole	0.63 L/ha
  Delaro® Fungicide (3+11)	175g/L priothioconazole +150g/L trifloxystrobin	0.57 L/ha
  HORNET™432 Fungicide (3)	432 g/L tebuconazole	0.22 L/ha

• • Leaf disease assessments were conducted at the time of application and 10-14 days after application timing. 
  • All Treatments were harvested and weighed with a weigh wagon and corrected for moisture to determine yield. Grain samples were taken from each treatment replication at harvest and evaluated for grain quality parameters, including bushel weight, percent moisture, and grade.
  • Environmental Considerations: 2021 was an extreme drought for much of the Western Canada prairies. Temperatures were above normal, and precipitation was well-below average across the western prairies. Oat yields were below normal due to the dry conditions, and disease pressure in the trials was low.

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 treatment. Only trials with a CV of less than 10 were used in data summaries.
  • Yield and quality performance of TilMOR™ Fungicide was compared to other common oat fungicides and to the untreated check.

Figure 3. Effect of fungicide application on average oat yield in 2021; n=3 (Spiritwood, Zehner, Langbank).

Key Learnings

• Even in dry conditions and low disease environments, the application of TilMOR™ Fungicide to oat at T2 growth stage timing provided a 3.1 bu/acre yield increase over the untreated (Figure 3).
• Further testing of TilMOR™ Fungicide on oat in more normal yield environments and higher disease pressure is required to understand the full benefits of this product.