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WEED EXPLOSION FORCES CEREAL GROWERS TO CONSIDER GLYPHOSATE HARVEST MANAGEMENT
Date added: 15/06/07 |
With predictions for an early harvest in many parts of the country and significant late weed problems now emerging, growers should consider harvest management as a matter of urgency, warns ProCam technical agronomist Nick Myers.
Even wheat crops could benefit from desiccation this year despite the drought conditions earlier in the season.
“There’s a real resurgence of weeds in many crops following the dry start to the Spring and the recent warm humid weather,” he explains.
“With the dry spring, a lot of nitrogen is kicking in later than usual and producing a lot of late green material. This is something we’ve become used to over recent years with strobilurin fungicides and also boscalid and some of the newer triazoles tending to delay senescence.”
This year growers could easily end up with a situation where there is ripe grain but green stems and foliage and a large number of secondary tillers, Nick Myers warns. It’s not too difficult to envisage a situation where late rain in June for instance could trigger a surge of weed growth at a time when it’s too late to control them with conventional herbicides.
“It might seem crazy when we’ve seen huge cracks in the soil and plants suffering from drought in April but one can now see a situation where harvest management has a very valid place.”
But if you do opt to use pre-harvest glyphosate, you really must do so early enough, he warns.
“Too many people make the decision at the last minute and don’t give the glyphosate enough time to work. Our advice is to plan its use about a month before harvest, earmarking the fields where the potential benefits might be greatest.”
PRM154 15th June 2007
For further information please contact Nick Myers, ProCam Ltd., Royston, Herts. Telephone: 01763 261592
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