BASF’s Cotegra fungicide combines two active ingredients
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A fungicide from BASF is helping canola growers retain yield by protecting crops from sclerotinia.
Cotegra, which combines prothioconazole and boscalid in a multiple mode-of-action premix, delivers high levels or protection, said Brent Galbraith, associate crop manager with BASF.
“We’re starting to see an increase in sclerotinia pressure in Western Canada based off of having tightened canola rotations as well as the introductions of certain dicot crops on more farms,” he told Farms.com.
“Based off of trials we see about a seven bushel per acre yield increase compared to untreated checks. And compared to some of our competitors we’re seeing about a two bushel per acre yield increase.”
Farmers can also apply Cotegra to soybeans to protect against Asian soybean rust, frog eye leaf spot and septoria brown spot. The fungicide also protects dry beans, lentils, field peas and chickpeas from white mould.
And with the product being pre-mixed, it makes for maximum usability.
As with several diseases, timely applications are key to giving fungicides the best opportunity to offer crop protection, Galbraith said.
“With the way sclerotinia works, by the time you see it in your field it’s already too late to control it,” he said. “You have to approach it from a preventative standpoint. We encourage farmers to apply Cotegra between the 20 and 50 per cent flowering stage, and we’ve seen the best results around the 30 per cent flowering stage.”
Applications for dry beans follow the same parameters as canola.
In chickpeas, field peas and lentils, growers should apply Cotegra at the beginning of the flowering stage or at the first sign of the disease.
And in soybeans, farmers may want to apply the fungicide prior to disease development, or between the late R1/R2 to R3 stage.
Sclerotinia/Canola Council of Canada photo