Fungicide performance in wheat, barley and oilseed rape (2025–28)

For the latest results, visit ahdb.org.uk/fungicide-performance

Disease management in wheat, barley and oilseed rape never stands still. On top of variation in seasonal disease pressures:

• Pathogen populations continue to evolve, which can impact fungicide efficacy (due to resistance/insensitivity) and varietal disease resistance
• Fungicide active ingredients and products continue to be withdrawn from and introduced to the market

As a result, there is a continued need for robust, independent information on the efficacy of established and new fungicides.

The project

This is the latest phase of the fungicide performance work. It forms part of a long-running trial series, with the first fitted fungicide-efficacy curves produced for winter wheat in 1996. The trial series for barley started in 2002 and the oilseed rape series began in 2006. The current project format was introduced in 2015, when all trial series were combined in a single programme.

The ADAS-led consortium has a strong track record of delivery and its multiple delivery partners provide resilience in the management of the extensive network of fungicide efficacy trials.

The consortium, which also includes Harper Adams University, Niab and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), has strong links with fungicide manufacturers. These connections, for example, facilitate the testing of fungicides prior to registration.

The pathogen targets in the project reflect the economic importance of foliar and ear/pod diseases to cereal and oilseed crops, which also influences the number of trials and products tested.

Current disease targets

• Wheat: septoria tritici (6 sites), brown rust (1 site), fusarium head blight (1 site) and yellow rust (1 site)
• Barley: net blotch (2 sites), rhynchosporium (2 site) and ramularia (1 site)
• Oilseed rape: light leaf spot (2 sites) and phoma stem canker (2 sites)

The project provides a strong test of performance under high-disease-pressure conditions.

Information on the trial approach, including treatment selection, application numbers and timings, are available on the guide to fungicide performance page.

Ultimately, the project publishes charts – referred to as ‘dose-response curves’ – that show the relative efficacy of fungicides against the target diseases at a range of doses (impact on disease control and yield).

The project also contributes to a long-term information resource, which enables the monitoring of performance trends of products and active ingredients (to track shifts in pathogen sensitivity to fungicides).

The project consortium also works closely with Teagasc (Agriculture and Food Development Authority) in the Republic of Ireland to share dose-response data.

Overall project management is the responsibility of AHDB (including data management), with input from the Fungicides Working Group (FWG). 

The results

The project aims to deliver information to levy payers in time for the first season of commercial use of new fungicides.

The main annual data release is at the AHDB Agronomy Conference, which takes place each December.

Results are relevant to commercial use and simple to interpret for levy payers. However, agronomists play an important role to turn efficacy data into practical field recommendations that maximise crop margins and minimise the development of fungicide resistance.

The latest data, as well as historic data for other diseases (e.g. barley powdery mildew and oilseed rape sclerotinia), is available via the fungicide performance page: ahdb.org.uk/fungicide-performance

Providing answers to your questions

This research project was funded via a levy-payer-led commissioning process.