“Do the dollars spent on an A Lighter Touch approach to crop protection stack up?” was the question answered at this year’s Foundation for Arable Reasearch (FAR) conference.
In line with the conference theme of ‘Show me the money’, FAR senior researcher Jo Drummond challenged the mindset of whether spending more on pesticide programmes is achieving greater yield and profit for growers.
She acknowledged the challenges for cereal crops of yield and gross margin, being a commodity crop grown for a domestic market, license to operate, agrichemical resistance and the limited softer and biological options.
With commodity prices trending downwards and the cost of production increasing, Jo presented yield data that showed despite increased investment in fungicide programmes, yield data was remaining static.
FAR Senior Researcher Jo Drummond.
“These are intensive programmes… we’ve spent big to get big, are we getting any more for our big spend?”
Jo said some of the challenges the sector is facing can present an opportunity for an A Lighter Touch approach to crop protection for growers.
Can we spend a little bit less and maintain that level of profitabillity and maintain our yields?” Jo asked.
“When we are in an environment where prices are down and cost of production is up, financial risk is going to outweigh any other risk…we are financially risk averse ahead of being environmentally risk averse.”
Jo described the A Lighter Touch programme that FAR has applied, with wheat as the model crop, as a system approach that could be applied to any crop. It is built around effective use of plant genetics, incorporating new crop protection technologies including opportunities for new biologicals, and rationalising chemical pesticide programmes.
She focused on rationalising chemical pesticide programmes and finding the right number of applications, calling that the “the safe zone” where growers are achieving the desired benefit without spending more than they need to.
Jo says growers worry that if they don’t apply their T0 fungicide they will potentially run the risk of a huge drop in yield, but she assured them it was “not a cliff, it’s a plateau.”
Field day attendees study a sticky trap used to monitor insect life in the crop as part of an IPM approach to pest management.
To demonstrate this, Jo shared long term data sets from 47 wheat trials, and 111 comparisons held since 2013. These illustrated that even under the highest pressure conditions, the likelihood of having a significant yield or financial return from a T0 fungicide is less than one in five.
“Actually, our return on fungicide spend for a three spray and a four-spray programme has been the same [over this time].”
What had changed over the 12 years of data was the cost of those programmes, with growers spending about $500 more.
She highlighted a flow chart resource available, developed in collaboration with partners Adama, BASF, Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta to help farmers make decisions on a T0 application. Another option is for growers to use the AI search function on the FAR website. This tool, called Ask FARAI will search the FAR website (and only the FAR website) then provide clear New Zealand relevant answers to questions such as “Does wheat need a T0 fungicide”. Ask FARAI can be accessed from a link at the top right of the FAR website www.far.org.nz
An unintended consequence of risk aversion is impacting the effectiveness of some of arable farmers’ tools. Too many applications of specific modes of action is increasing the ever present threat of developing resistance reducing the efficacy of agrichemicals.
A grower reviews information on cereal pest species at an IPM field day.
She urged the audience to consider the long game when approaching use of fungicides, suggesting they may get more value by spending somewhere else within their crop or rotation with a better return on investment to build resilience.
“[We want] profits ahead of all else… at the moment we’re fine tuning and working within limits but if we can maintain what we’ve got and reduce our cost, that’s a start,” Jo said.
Watch Jo Drummond’s presentation from the 2025 FAR Conference here.
