Harvest Management Initiative

May 2002 - Harvest management will be an important focus for Monsanto at Cereals in a special initiative to improve harvesting efficiency, cut drying costs and ensure the best possible entry for 2002 cereal sowings.

The initiative aims to provide growers with better information on more cost-effective, timely and risk-free cereals and oilseed rape harvesting, using a highly economic pre-harvest application of the company's new generation glyphosate, Roundup Gold.

"Efficient, timely harvesting is especially critical in today's high pressurised arable systems which demand maximum machinery utilisation and frequently allow less than a month from the removal of the previous crop to the sowing of the next," explains Monsanto marketing director, John Davies. "As are the lowest possible grain losses and drying costs."

Together with lower grain drying costs, extensive Monsanto trials show pre-harvest Roundup treatment of cereals allows grain losses to be significantly reduced at higher combining speeds, enabling combining time to be cut. As well as improving combining speed and efficiency and cutting drying time, oilseed rape treatment has also been shown to give major reductions in pod shatter compared to diquat.

These benefits are, of course, in addition to good control of perennial and annual weeds.

"Cereal drying cost savings average around £9/ha for every 1% reduction in moisture content will be particularly valuable in a year in which margins are set to be so tight, as will every gain in harvesting efficiency given the large amount of wheat to be combined," he points out.

"Equally valuable though, for many growers wishing to get relatively large acreages of second wheats into the ground this autumn, will be the assurance of a timely cereals harvest, regardless of weather conditions or delayed ripening associated with strobilurin use. And the extra weed control 'cultivation' that harvest management gives allows quicker and easier establishment of the next crop," Mr Davies concludes.