For the past decade, a small farm on the outskirts of Tamworth has been gathering data on new and emerging crop protection chemistries.

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Manager of the BASF trial farm at Dungowan , Russel Ison, began with a bare paddock and a measuring wheel, laying out 2m wide plots ready to accept a variety of cereal crops; each one managed in such a way as to encourage common ailments.

An experiment on controlling black leg in canola, for instance, required the oilseed to be grown in the same soil, year on year, to mimic real-world conditions.

Irrigation was manipulated to mimic a variety of climate

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