New research ideas tackle IPM in cereals

AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds will invest in four new research initiatives to help reduce the industry’s reliance on conventional chemistry. Ana Reynolds provides an overview of the planned activities, including the aims, timescales and costs.

Our sector plan puts farmers at the centre of the activities we fund. Recent feedback about investment priorities shows that integrated pest management (IPM) remains high up the farming agenda.

Within the current mix of ideas for research and knowledge exchange (R&KE) activities raised by farmers, it is relatively easy to identify the most pressing areas that would benefit from investment.

The latest initiatives examine ways to reduce reliance on plant protection products and alternatives to conventional chemistry. Collectively, the research relates to the management of pests, diseases and weeds in cereals.

This is the second batch of projects arising from the new R&KE approach, with the latest projects considered by the R&KE committee in August and the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council in September.

Following the principles set in the AHDB fungicide performance project, this ground-breaking pilot will explore how to deliver independent evidence on the efficacy of biopesticides against major winter wheat diseases.

The pilot will build on AHDB’s relationships with product manufacturers to secure access to key products – including those in development (pre-registration), so efficacy information can be released when they hit the market.

Later this year, we will issue a research call that covers two years of winter wheat field trials (for harvests 2026 and 2027). The work will help us determine the most effective way to develop efficacy data for biopesticides. Our long-term ambition is to roll out the testing to cover more products and crops.

Budget: Up to £450,000.

AHDB lead: Sacha White.

The Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseeds (RL) already quantifies key varietal traits associated with yield, quality and agronomic features, but there is scope to capture more variety data.

For instance, in the recent RL review, hundreds of farmers requested crop physiology data, with traits associated with competitiveness (early vigour, growth habit and tillering) frequently cited. Such information could be used to help select crops and varieties that compete better with grass weeds, for example.

The new three-year project will build upon multi-year trials conducted by others in low-input (organic) systems. It will fund on-farm wheat variety evaluation trials.

AHDB is also exploring how the project can run alongside a subset of RL trials to maximise its relevance. Ultimately, the findings will inform debate about how to assess key crop physiology traits, including the potential to reliably score vigour.

A research call for the work will be issued next year in view of the trials commencing in autumn 2025.

Budget: Up to £50,000.

AHDB leads: Henny Lowth and Kathryn Hales.

Fusarium head blight infection (by Fusarium langsethiae) is associated with contamination of unprocessed oats with mycotoxins HT-2 and T-2. Earlier this year, the EU revised the maximum levels (MLs) for these mycotoxins for grain traded in the EU (replacing indicative levels). Revised MLs for GB are being considered. Without suitable interventions, HT-2 and T-2 could cost the industry millions of pounds each year.

We have already funded a series of research projects to better understand the variation in risk in commercial oats. The findings have informed discussions with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and may eventually help breeders and farmers select lower-risk varieties.

The work, which is led by Harper Adams University, has revealed that contamination risk is lower in spring oats than winter oats. Encouragingly, it has also identified that some newer winter oat varieties are associated with lower risk (with risk comparable to spring oats).

This autumn, the latest three-year project phase gets underway, which includes assessing the potential to develop a risk rating to guide variety selection.

AHDB lead: Kristina Grenz.

Budget: up to £36,000.

Our BYDV management tool for cereals is relatively simple (and effective). It estimates when the second aphid generation (most associated with BYDV spread) is likely to be present, based on accumulated daily air temperatures.

An AHDB research project, which concludes later this year, is developing a new tool to better predict aphid population dynamics. Developed by ADAS, it considers many more parameters than the current tool, including:

• Aphid-pressure data (including the number carrying the virus)
• More temperature data (such as minimum, maximum and mean temperatures)
• Crop data (such as cereal crop type, BYDV tolerance status, sowing date, plant populations, treatment costs, predicted yield, estimated grain price and local risk factors)

The new tool has shown promise in field trials, providing control as good as or better than the current tool, with fewer insecticide applications and yield benefits (where BYDV was present). As the improved tool can indicate risk, it can also inform pre-sowing decisions (such as crop choice and drilling date).

With proof of concept established, the tool requires development work to produce a version that is openly accessible to levy payers. Work will begin later this autumn.

AHDB lead: Sacha White.

Budget: Up to £75,000.

Find out how you can submit R&KE investment ideas to help us answer the most pressing questions facing growers of cereals and oilseeds: ahdb.org.uk/research-ideas

Keep up to date with the latest research and agronomy news from AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds by signing up for the monthly Agronomy Focus eshot: preferencecentre.ahdb.org.uk

Note: All budget figures cited include VAT.