Seed treatment for Spring cereals: maximise crop performance
Why use seed treatments on spring cereals?
As growers begin their preparation for the 2025 spring cropping season, there is renewed focus on enhancing the productivity and sustainability of spring cereals. With a robust market and increasing interest in sustainable farming practices, the integration of seed treatments like Prosper ST presents an opportunity to optimise yield and profitability.
Spring Barley
Spring barley continues to be the largest spring crop in the UK, with a projected area of 750,000 hectares in 2025—above the five-year average. Popular varieties like Laureate and RGT Planet remain staples, supported by premium contracts and excellent 2024 yield performance. The average yield for Spring barley in 2024 was 8.36 t/ha. Malting barley offers an average gross margin of £400/ha, excluding additional Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) payments, reinforcing its economic value.
Spring Oats
The spring oat area has grown by 20% since 2023, driven by its dual role as a break crop and tool for grassweed management via stale seedbeds. Oats experience a lower yield penalty in spring cropping compared to barley or wheat, making them an attractive option. Low input requirements align with public funding opportunities, encouraging adoption for environmentally conscious farming.
Why do biostimulant seed treatments matter?
Spring cereals thrive when you can build biomass quickly, but factors like delayed drilling or dry springs can undermine success. Implementing biostimulant seed treatments offers several benefits:
- Improved Establishment: Enhanced rooting ensures rapid canopy closure, conserving moisture and promoting resilience.
- Boosted Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE): Efficient nutrient uptake supports early development and biomass accumulation, particularly critical in nitrogen-limited scenarios common to malting contracts.
- Yield Resilience: Stronger plants translate to higher yields even under challenging conditions.
Prosper ST: Seed Treatment Technology
Prosper ST is a biostimulant seed treatment based on potassium phosphite, enriched with nutrients essential for plant establishment and photosynthesis. It’s scientifically validated benefits make it a powerful tool for spring cereals.
Research by the University of Nottingham and Kiel University highlights phosphite’s role in improving NUE through two mechanisms:
- Increasing cytokinin (cis-Zeatin) for a 40% boost in primary and lateral root growth.
- Enhancing nitrate reductase (Nr) activity to improve nitrogen assimilation and utilisation.
- Soil-applied nitrogen can have low efficiency (30-40%) in dry conditions, but Prosper ST supports sustained growth by improving NUE when nutrient availability is limited.
How does Prosper ST impact on yield impact?
When compared to a single-purpose dressing (SPD) alone, Prosper ST delivered 4% higher yield in a Institute of Brewing trial form the Czech Republic. Key metrics like thousand grain weight (TGW), grains per ear, and hectolitre weight were also positively impacted.
Case Study: Spring Barley Yield with Prosper ST
In a UK trial in 2020 conducted by Eurofins, Prosper ST delivered an additional 0.4 t/ha compared to the SPD alone. At current grain contract prices this delivers an additional £70 per ha return on investment.
| Seed Treatment | Yield t/ha | Grain N |
|---|---|---|
| Beret Gold | 7.54 | 2.04 |
| Prosper ST + Beret Gold | 7.97 | 1.95 |
Source: Eurofins UK 2020 (Trial IC20-1096, Spring Barley cv Irina)
Summary
Prepare your crops for a productive spring 2025 by leveraging the advanced capabilities of Prosper ST. This biostimulant seed treatment ensures robust establishment and maximised return on investment for spring cereals.
- Enhanced root development: A 40% increase in root mass promotes vigorous plant growth and yield resilience.
- Faster establishment: Prosper ST accelerates early development, with a 12-day lead in rooting compared to untreated seed, sustaining growth for 60 days post-drilling.
- Tailored for Spring cropping: Its application suits the shorter growing season of spring cereals, where opportunities for foliar biostimulants are limited.
- Ease of use: Prosper ST can be applied at 2 L/t and is compatible with other seed treatments.
