Corteva Agriscience is urging some growers to implement robust herbicide strategies as fields remain underwater and growers struggle through a backlog of work caused by the wet winter.
“We’ve had a number of difficult seasons in a row, and each poses a new challenge for arable farmers,” said Corteva Agriscience’s cereal herbicides category manager Alister McRobbie. “The past couple of years have been very cold and dry, but we’re facing the opposite in 2024.
“Parts of the major wheat-growing areas of the UK are either underwater or suffering from saturated soils, so it will be a while before there is any on-farm activity in badly affected areas.
“Those with a compressed fieldwork schedule should plan ahead, decide on their herbicide programme in advance, and make sure it’s in store ready to go.”
Farmers who did manage to drill their wheat last autumn will also need to rethink strategies as it becomes increasingly unlikely that they can rely on the activity of pre-emergence products.
“A lot of the wheat drilled would have received a pre-emergence herbicide, but there has been so much water it is likely this will have been washed through the soil profile,” Alister added. “It won’t have worked very well, so there will be a need to control grassweeds such as brome, ryegrass and wild oats relatively early.”
He noted that Broadway Star gives excellent control of brome, ryegrass, wild oats and a range of broad-leaved weeds in winter wheat, with approval for spring wheat as well.
“Generally, we don’t recommend applying a residual alongside Broadway Star, but this season we would advise it – Broadway Star is contact only, so it will kill the weeds there at the time of application and a residual will remain in the soil and eradicate grassweed seeds as they are germinating, before they get too big,” Alister said.
“If you just need to target broad-leaved weeds, it’s better to take them out early with Arylex-based products such as Zypar or Pixxaro,” he added. “Get this on in a timely manner and take weed competition out early to avoid them competing with the crop and negatively impacting yield.
“There will be a lot of demands on farmers’ time this spring but cutting corners and overlooking weed control won’t help in the long run.”
To reduce the number of sprays applied in the busy spring period, he recommended tank mixing with plant growth regulators, fungicides and trace elements. However, this should not come at the expense of sprayer hygiene.
For more information go to www.corteva.co.uk