Australia
March 4, 2022
Stuart Wilson, from Campbells Forest, Victoria, uses VIBRANCE® seed treatment for good, even coverage and to control early disease in his cereal crops.
Controlling pests and diseases at establishment is a key element to a successful crop on the property of Stuart Wilson, at Campbell’s Forest, north of Bendigo in central Victoria. Mr Wilson has a mixed farming enterprise that includes sheep and cropping.
The main crops are wheat and canola which make up two thirds of the area. The remainder includes barley, lupins, vetch, oats and lucerne.
“My dad used to say getting the crop out of the ground is 70 per cent of the job,” Mr Wilson said. “We use products to help to establish the crop and give it a good start.”
A key to the good establishment, in recent years, has been VIBRANCE® fungicide seed treatment from Syngenta.
“We keep clean seed, with no weeds, from one of the first paddocks we strip and then have our seed grader apply the fungicide and insecticide.
VIBRANCE® has been used on the property since it was first released, and this year CRUISER® 350FS insecticide was also applied to the wheat and barley seed.
“We use VIBRANCE® to control smuts, bunts and a range of other disease,” Mr Wilson said. “It’s important to get a healthy start. It seems to get the crop out of the ground well.
An important factor for seed treatment was flowability through the planter and even seed coverage.
“We get a nice, even coverage with VIBRANCE® and it flows well through the seeder.”
He said this had not always been the case with seed treatments in the past.
“I sow barley at 70 kilograms per hectare and had an issue years ago where seed only came out at 50 kilograms per hectare. My seed grader Andrew Curnow is really good at his job and has done a lot of work with products like VIBRANCE® to help that establishment.
A calendar sowing program is used on the property, which could result in the seed sitting in the soil for some time before germination.
“Canola goes in the 18th to 20th of April, Sceptre wheat from May 5 and the barley and other crops after that,” Mr Wilson said.
Due to this, it is particularly important for the seed to have an even coverage of seed treatment.
“I’ve seen paddocks without a seed treatment which just won’t germinate if conditions go bad.”
The addition of CRUISER® 350FS insecticide to the mix was also a positive. In the past, a broad-spectrum insecticide was used in crop but that hasn’t been necessary since the insecticide was applied as a seed treatment.
Seed grader Andrew Curnow said VIBRANCE® seed treatment was a key product to protect against disease in their customers’ crops.
Seed grader Andrew Curnow has been working in the Loddon Valley of Victoria for 33 seasons, treating a wide range of crop types for farmers.
He purpose-built his seed treatment machine and uses a wide range of products to service his customers.
“We treat wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas, lupin and vetch and have a lot of experience with seed treatment options from many companies.
“The Syngenta products are up there with the best of them. CRUISER® is a good product and I’ve used VIBRANCE® for many years and have had zero problems. It is the benchmark product that all companies try to compare their new products against.”
“We need the seed treatment products to work without heart ache or stress for the applicator and farmer,” he said.
Mr Curnow said there had been a lot of products tested through his machine.
“We need any product to flow, move through well and provide a good, even coating. It also needs to work well for the farmer.”
“Some products produce a lot of dust or don’t flow well at planting. Farmers don’t get the dust with VIBRANCE®, and it flows well,” he said.
“I occasionally have farmers asking about other options, but we are not getting any issues with disease in the paddocks, VIBRANCE® is working well so why change? It has been a great product all the way through.”
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