Many seed treatment products can have similar performance, but it's those that handle better that especially appeal to Western Australian farmer Tom Patterson.
“It just makes life easier,” said Tom, who farms with his brother, Digby, and their father, Chris, at Woodanilling in the state’s Great Southern region.
The family continuously crops 70 per cent of their property mostly to a rotation of wheat, barley and canola and also runs the renowned Woolkabin Merinos stud and a commercial flock.
The farm comprises mainly sand over clay and gravel soils, plus about 20 per cent grey clays and 30 per cent heavy red loams.
The Pattersons previously used tebuconazole seed treatment fungicide but have since switched to Rancona® Dimension. They treated all of their cereal seed for the first time this season for full protection and peace of mind.
“We were thinking about another seed treatment, but then we heard of significant handling issues – dust and blocking up of augers and air seeders,” Tom said.
“Rancona Dimension doesn’t do either of those. It keeps everyone happy.”
The family used thiamethoxam with the Rancona Dimension on barley this year for insect control and it also handled well, in contrast to other insecticide seed treatments previously used.
A unique micro-emulsion (ME) formulation provides the extremely low dust-off with Rancona Dimension at application, as well as easy clean down of machinery compared with other products. It also provides for better distribution of the fungicide and contact with pathogens.
Comprising two powerful active ingredients, ipconazole and metalaxyl, Rancona Dimension offers premium protection against crown rot and rhizoctonia root rot, as well as control of smuts, pythium and bunt in wheat, barley and oats. Combined with excellent seed safety, it allows faster emergence, ideal seedling establishment and healthier and more vigorous plants.
The Pattersons applied the fungicide at 3.2L/t and sowed their wheat and barley at 80kg/ha using their Morris air seeder and Ausplow DBS rig set on 25cm (10in) spacings.
Tom said combined with their crop rotation, which was helping to limit disease pressures, since using Rancona Dimension they had not encountered any major issues.
“We don’t sow wheat-on-wheat, hence we don’t put the seed dressing under pressure. We don’t see a lot of crown rot in our crops now,” he said.
“We’ve also previously seen smuts particularly in Spartacus barley, which can have significant issues with the disease, but it is very minimal now with this product.
In addition to using Rancona Dimension, the Pattersons also applied azoxystrobin and metalaxyl, as well as flutriafol, on their compound fertiliser for this season and further protected crops against disease by using foliar fungicides.
Tom said weed control was another critical factor and, hence, they were using new herbicide tolerant canola varieties and applying residual pre-emergent herbicides in wheat, while increasing nutrition levels also was a high priority.
“Healthy plants resist diseases better,’’ he said.
