From the Ground Up, Issue 73

This Arable Update outlines practical strategies for using SDHIs effectively in the field while protecting their long-term efficacy.

This Update outlines the latest results on how Zymoseptoria tritici (Zt), the fungus that causes Septoria tritici blotch (STB), is responding to succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI - Group 3) fungicides in New Zealand wheat crops.

This Arable Update illustrates how alternating and mixing Modes of Actions and active ingredients can help sustain disease control, protect yield, and deliver financial returns.

Maize is one of the easiest crops to mechanically weed and levels of weed control comparable to herbicides can be achieved. Find out more about the options available and how they work in this maize update.

Weed related yield losses ranging from 15% to 56% for silage and 15% to 61% for grain have been observed in New Zealand maize systems. In this maize update find out management strategies for a number of common annual and perennial weeds of maize.

The Environmental Protection Authority (“EPA”) published a Notice of Direction Prohibiting the Use and Requiring Disposal of Chlorpyrifos Containing Substances in the New Zealand Gazette on 1 September 2025.

Pre-emergence herbicides have been the mainstay of maize weed management. This Maize Update discusses factors affecting pre-emergence herbicide success including application timing, modes of action and soil interactions. 

Farmers face three levels of biosecurity risk; regional biosecurity incursion risk; border biosecurity, regional biosecurity and on-farm biosecurity. This Maize update discusses the importance of on-farm biosecurity, the one factor you have control over.

Keep up with the latest fall armyworm updates for the 2024/25 season, including regional updates and cultural control options for FAW.  

This Maize Update discusses key issues for consideration in the choice and establishment of over-winter cover crops, along with the results of a five-year trial at FAR’s Northern Crops Research Site which researched the potential for over-winter cover crops to suppress weeds in the following no-till maize grain crop.