Crusoe has good agronomic characters, combined with a very good disease resistance profile for the major foliar diseases – mildew, yellow rust & Septoria tritici – making it an easy variety to manage.

Crusoe has a low level of resistance to brown rust; a consequence of possible race changes across Europe, but as long as the disease is monitored and applications of fungicide are made at the targeted growth stages, this should not be of serious concern.

The Septoria tritici resistance of a variety should never be underestimated. This was highlighted in the 2014 season. Septoria resistance offers security of yield performance when erratic weather conditions prevail, restricting the application of fungicides at the key targeted growth stage timings. In many cases last season, when disease pressure was high and delayed fungicide strategies had to be implemented, Crusoe out-yielded many of the high yielding feed wheats. It has been very evident in the seed sales of Crusoe that the variety is being grown in associated regions, i.e. South West, as a feed wheat replacement, due to its robust performance in these high disease pressure regions.