Grain growers keen to review their disease management plans for winter crops this season can refer to Agriculture Victoria's newly released 2025 disease guides for the latest information.
Supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), the updated guides rank varieties for disease susceptibility and provide advice on reducing disease risk. The guides are relevant for both new and commonly grown grains such as wheat, barley, oats, lentil, field pea, faba bean and chickpea.
Agriculture Victoria Plant Pathology Research Leader Joshua Fanning said the guides will help growers make seasonally informed decisions around disease management.
'Despite less disease observed during 2024, any paddocks with stubble remaining that had disease previously, will increase the risk.
'Proactively managing disease in 2025 will be very important as seasonal conditions will determine the severity of disease.
'Widespread use of susceptible varieties will increase the risk if conditions are favourable for disease development.
'(PREDICTA B®) testing prior to sowing will identify paddocks at risk of soil-borne disease and help growers choose less susceptible varieties,' Dr Fanning said
Dr Hari Dadu, Agriculture Victoria cereal pathologist, said fungicide resistance is an increasing issue, particularly in wheat and barley.
'During the 2024 season net form net blotch (NFNB) showed widespread resistance to fungicide resistance particularly Fluxapyroxad (Systiva®, Group 7).
'The disease guide will assist in selecting varieties with resistance to various diseases, reducing the need for fungicide applications and supporting better fungicide resistance management.'
The new disease ratings in the guides are based on an understanding of the diseases present in Victoria and on data collected from plant pathologists working across Australia with support from the GRDC.
The 2025 Cereal Disease Guide and 2025 Pulse Disease Guide are available on the Agriculture Victoria website.
