CropTec 2017

Registration is free for all those who pre-register before the event.

Using the correct water rate, applying with a water conditioner and ensuring the blackgrass is actively growing, are just some of the factors that contribute to optimum control.

Due to the need to drill oilseed rape early, implementing the highly-endorsed stale seedbed control method is not an option, making the efficacy of blackgrass herbicides such as clethodim, even more crucial.

Arysta LifeScience Product Development & Technical Manager for UK & Ireland, Don Pendergrast said: “Oilseed rape needs a warm soil to encourage correct establishment, which gives the crop a head-start against migrating pests such as cabbage stem flea beetle.

“This means that delaying drilling to allow grass weeds to chit is not an option. Instead, using chemistry such as clethodim correctly, as part of a wider black-grass programme, offers consistent and better control.

“Apply clethodim at a steady speed through medium to fine droplets with the correct water rate of 200l/ha – this is essential for good weed coverage. Because clethodim is formulated with adjuvant technology, using additional adjuvants is not recommended, but we do however, recommend the use of a water conditioner, particularly in hard water areas.

“Unlike many black-grass control products, it’s important to avoid spraying too early. Growers should aim to target the plant when it has three leaves, to improve the uptake of the chemistry.”

Launched four years ago by Arysta LifeScience, Centurion Max is a leading 120g/l clethodim-based product, active on black-grass.

Following feedback from users and trials at Arysta LifeScience, changes to the stewardship have been made to enhance the use-ability of the product. This includes reducing the no-spray window from 14-days to 10-days prior to applying Centurion Max.

Post application, a 14-day no-spray period is in place for herbicides and fungicides, and a 7-day period for nutritional products and insecticides.

CropTec 2017

Mark Spicer, managing director of Norman and Spicer Agriculture, Hutchinsons Group, has been looking for alternative methods to control weeds including black-grass, rye-grass and wild oats.

Mr Spicer said: “I knew that American farmers were practising weed wiping which is exactly what the name implies, wiping weeds with herbicide from a boom on the back of a sprayer.

“So I spent some time looking at how this would work here on some of the more difficult to control weeds and this has led to a collaboration with Boston Crop Sprayers.”

A weed wiper is a kit attached to the back of the boom made up of a row of sponges that are gravity fed with herbicide.

“A farmer in Bedfordshire had a weep wiper retrofitted to his conventional sprayer to apply glyphosate at a concentrated rate to destroy wild oat and black-grass seeds ahead of the next crop, and there is no doubt that we have been able to kill off a large amount of the black-grass and prevent a huge seed bank being returned to the soil,” said Mr Spicer.

“We need to do some further work to quantify this, but the reduction is significant enough to warrant spending more time on the concept.

“Timing and speed of application of the glyphosate to the weed is critical; the black-grass has to be in flower and not yet filled and the weed really needs to be wetted so a higher speed works better.”

There are also crop factors to take into account, he added. “There needs to be a gap between the weed and the crop to ensure the herbicide is not wiping the crop at the same time as the weed, so a good PGR programme should be used when considering weed wiping.”

The weed wiping approach is in its second year of trials. As well as cereals, it may also have potential for use in weed control in sugar beet and brassica crops, according to Mr Spicer.

Article provided by Marianne Curtis, reporter for Arable Farming magazine. To view more stories like this why not subscribe to FGinsight.com 

CropTec 2015:

Want to find out more about new legislations, pesticide regulations R&D or if you have issues with black-grass. Make sure to visit CropTec 2015.

In addition to the free advice on offer in CropTec’s topical and technical seminars, there will be numerous exhibitors you can talk to find ideas, inspiration and answers on everything from crop protection and nutrition to plant breeding and soil management in one place, at one time.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

Twitter: @croptecshow

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Philip Meadley of Grange Farm, East Yorkshire farms 600 acres. For the first time in a number of years, he will be planting 90-acres of spring crops as one of the approaches to tackle the resistant black-grass on his farm.

In 2013, ADAS tested his black-grass for herbicide resistance; the tests were funded by BASF as part of the company’s research into the growing spread of resistance in the country’s populations.

The weeds on his farm showed three different – and commonly encountered – types of resistance, Enhanced Metabolism Resistance (EMR), ACCase target site resistance (ACCase-TSR) and ALS target site resistance (ALS-TSR).

“You need to know what type of resistance you’re dealing with, and its severity if you are going to tackle this weed properly,” explains Louis Wells, BASF’s Yorkshire Agronomy Manager.

“Philip Meadley’s results show that resistance levels are still manageable on his farm, unlike many growers further south; so the very pro-active changes he is making to tackle the problem, should help in preventing black-grass becoming a bigger headache for him.”

EMR, or non-target site resistance, is the most common resistance found in black-grass and this can affect all herbicides.

“EMR is normally a partial resistance and increases slowly. Target site, or ACCase resistance affects the herbicide group known as ‘fop, dims and den’ herbicides and results in very poor control and increases rapidly in a black-grass populations. It is the same for the ALS herbicides such as Atlantis and Broadway products.”

Resistance test results are recorded by severity, where ‘S’ signifies that the black-grass is still susceptible to the herbicide and should lead to effective control. Whilst ‘R’ or ‘RR’ indicates that there is some level of resistance and ‘RRR’ means that there is significant resistance which will cause poor control from the herbicide.”

The resistance types on Mr Meadley’s farm are ALS S, ACCAse RR and EMR RR.

“The results are heartening and mean that there is still some opportunity for control from the main autumn herbicides if used along with using cultural control measures such as implementing stale seedbeds, late sowing and direct drilling,” Mr Wells added. “I would also recommend a pre-emergence application of Avadex followed by a flufenacet + pendimethalin-based product like Crystal + DFF.”

Philip Meadley said that he has used a number of different recommended measures to combat black-grass. “I’m now drilling wheat much later, on around the 28th of October, which has resulted in much less emerging black-grass. I have also completely dropped winter barley from the rotation, because it wasn’t possible to achieve sufficient levels of black-grass control.”

Mr Meadley had intended to take the extreme measure of spraying off any black-grass in the standing crop with glyphosate, but it was too late in the season to prevent seed return from flowering black-grass, “but I am quite prepared to this next season if I need to,” he said.

This “zero tolerance” practice, advocated by BASF, has been widely adopted in parts of the UK such as East Anglia, where the resistant black-grass situation is “dire” according to Louis Wells.

Going forward, Mr Meadley’s strategy will be to increase his spring cropping area further still. “In the past we had no spring crops at all; now we will have 15% of the area in spring wheat and rising.” He has also trialled cover crops and plans to drill some ahead of cereals in the rotation. “I’m also trialling direct drilling of both wheat and rape to determine the impact of different cultivations on levels of control in my farm situation.”

For further comment and information please contact:

Mike Thurogood Tel: 0161 488 5805 Email: michael.thurogood@basf.com

Louis Wells Tel 07770 846889 Email: louis.wells@basf.com

Jane Craigie, Tel 01466 780078 Email: jane@janecraigie.com

Crystal is registered trademarks of BASF. Atlantis is a registered trademark of Bayer. Avadex is a registered trademark of Gowan. Broadway Star and Sunrise are registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences. Atlantis contains iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium + mesosulfuron-methyl. Broadway Star contains florasulam + pyroxsulam. Broadway Sunrise contains pendimethalin + pyroxsulam. Crystal contains flufenacet and pendimethalin. Liberator contains flufenacet + diflufenican. Avadex contains w/w tri-allate. Use plant protection products safely. Always read the label and product information before use. For further product information including warning phrases and symbols refer to www.agricentre.basf.co.uk

CropTec 2015:

BASF are this year’s sponsors of our Crop Protection seminar and will also be holding a business breakfast meeting each day before the event. As well a a presentation from BASF, there will also be a presentation by Mr Sebastien Mallet from the leading international agricultural market intelligence company Offre et Demande Agricole (ODA). Topics covered will include: UK crop out-turn prices, global out-turns, planting predictions for 2016 and the possible impact on prices and opportunities for the 2016 season.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

Blog by David Lines

Twitter: @LinesDavid

Biog: An agronomist for 35 years, independent for nine years, a member of AICC, including on the council and AICC trials committee. Covering North Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Powys and Shropshire. Mainly advising mixed farms growing cereals, OSR, pulses, forage crops including maize, fodder beet and grassland. David worked for a distribution company until 2006. David is a member of Farmadvisors’ buying group, is married with three daughters and Max, a mad Cocker spaniel!

Western cropping choices and business outlook

The biggest single issue for my customers is making a profit from the current prices and from an agronomic point of view, black-grass is a growing headache. Both of these issues are driving a reduction in the oilseed rape area and a switch to more spring barley. The costs of production for spring barley are lower and it’s a very useful way to reduce blackgrass, as are stubble turnips on mixed farms. With the combined challenge of flea beetle and tight margins, oilseed rape is most definitely in question on a growing number of farms.

Variety choice over here in the west is driven by consistency in performance and the practicalities of the rotation, for example, Leeds is a very useful option for late drilled wheat after maize. JB Diego is popular because it ‘does’ well over here in the wetter west where good disease resistance – particularly Septoria – and consistent yields are crucial. Also popular wheat choices are Reflection, Skyfall, Costello and Lili. For winter barley, Glacier, Tower and Volume are by far the most popular.

Looking ahead to the coming years, cropping on mixed farms is likely to remain pretty much as it is, but there is a real drive to look for more profitable options and approaches. I fully envisage that arable ground may be let out, or cropped on a share-farming/contract basis as machinery costs continue to rise and skilled labour becomes in shorter supply.

Precision farming is certainly going to play an important part in the future, despite the challenges of our small field sizes and extensive applications of farm yard manure over here. Certainly variable rate seed and nitrogen applications are increasingly being used and will play a vital role in maximising margins as well as environmental compliance.

As pressure on farmers grows to produce more from less (land, water and profit), the investment in technology for the future of farming is vital. For me this needs to focus on no-til farming and a real concerted effort at ensuring a decent, workable broadband OR mobile service in rural areas.

Future R&D needs to focus on ALL aspects of production, not just the reliance on chemicals. The current blackgrass situation has brought it home to a lot of farmers that their current cropping approach is not sustainable. Also, we might all have to accept that countries like Ukraine has become more developed and that they can produce wheat more competitively than we can in the UK. If this is the case, farmers will need to 1) specialise in other crops/systems and 2) collaborate much more than they are. The move of some farmers into niche markets such as crisps, vodka, or herbs for the domestic Asian markets, will certainly increase in the quest for added value and better returns.

Over the coming decades the political and environmental pressure from Westminster and the EU will become tougher I’m sure – including restrictions on cropping and the use of chemistry. Added to this, some of these decisions will make the EU and the UK less competitive versus countries with less restriction.

One final thought on something that’s of fundamental importance to the future of British production agriculture – we all need to play our part in educating the public that food comes from farms, not the supermarkets, and that this is really important for the future of food supply.

CropTec 2015

Want to find out more about the latest technology & innovation, precision farming and research and development in the arable sector? make sure you visit CropTec on Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th November, East of England Showgorund, Peterborough.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.