If that’s a question your arable growers have been asking about Kaiso 50WG for aphid control on winter cereals, the definitive answer is yes, it does.
And Nufarm now has hard data to back this, thanks to a trial it contracted Plant & Food Research to carry out last season.
Featuring the same methodology as that used for similar Foundation for Arable Research trials, this work compared the insecticide’s persistency against cereal aphids with the industry standard treatment, which contains the same active ingredient (lambda-cyhalothrin).
It was labour intensive and expensive research which has not been done on Kaiso anywhere else in the world.
But as Nufarm R&D specialist Cynthia Christie explains, the result will help retailers, agronomists and growers all benefit from Kaiso 50WG’s unique product attributes this season.
“We understand how important it is for people to feel confident about recommending and using different crop protection products, especially when it comes to managing a disease like Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus, which can be devastating.
“We’ve invested in this data set because we know the question about persistency has been asked, and it deserves an objective answer. We could just say ‘we think so’, but that’s not really good enough if we want people to look at changing their spray programmes.”
For retailers and agronomists, the cereal market is a major opportunity for Kaiso 50WG, which was launched in New Zealand in 2014.
One of the aphicide’s biggest points of difResearch results confirm Kaiso’s persistency difference – and also a big selling point – is its user friendly granular formulation, developed by Nufarm.
Non-flammable and easy to mix and store, with no dust, and no splashing, Kaiso looks like a wettable granule but once added to water, behaves like an emulsion concentrate, with fast knock down and repellent action.
Cereal aphids are the focus of the latest research on its length of activity. But the product has also fast developed a strong following in other crops because of both its efficacy and ease of use, Christie says. To find out exactly how long it persists in killing aphids after application, researchers first drilled plots of cereals, then dug up 2 seedlings out of each plot, re-planted them in pots, and buried the pots back in the ground.
“Aphids are really hard to count and sensitive to handling, because they are so small!” Christie points out. “This way it’s easier.”
Ten aphids were put on each of the potted plants; the two insecticides were then applied at maximum label rates, then researchers came back three times a week and counted the number of aphids present on each potted plant.
“Every time the number of aphids dropped below five per plant, they added 10 more aphids. And they kept repeating this process until they stopped seeing any effect of the insecticide on the aphid population. From that they could calculate the number of days for which the insecticide was effective.”
Christie says the results were in line with Nufarm expectations: “both products showed the same length of activity against aphids.”
With autumn planting about to kick off for another season, results of the trial have already generated interest in the trade, she says.
“BYDV is a challenging disease for which farmers typically have to use a lot of different management tools, including seed coating at the start of the crop’s life as well as aphicides to control the main vector of the disease. It’s good to be able to give them the confidence to introduce a new and effective tool if they choose to.”
For more detail phone your Nufarm territory manager.