Rising To Modern Establishment Challenges

July 2006 - There is much UK growers can do to buy themselves time while reducing risk in their autumn seedbed preparation without changing their cultivation system, believes establishment specialist, Manda Sansom of Monsanto.

"Almost everyone is handling larger acreages with fewer men and machines these days," she points out. "The scale of autumn workloads is driving growers to earlier drilling too, while modern agronomy has extended the cereal ripening time, pushing the harvest back by around two weeks. While growers could count on a month or more between successive combinable crops not so long ago, many now have barely 3 weeks"

Mrs Sansom agrees that reducing tillage can help by speeding-up cultivations. But she stresses it is by no means the only answer, suggesting that combining effective perennial weed control pre-harvest with the most efficient stale seedbed or stubble control of annuals and volunteers can do much to cut both time and risk.

"Used at the correct rate, pre-harvest Roundup in cereals or oilseed rape is ideal for tackling perennial weeds which tend to be actively growing and at their most susceptible at this time," she explains. "And it takes perennial weed control conveniently out of the post-harvest period.

"Of course, pre-harvest applications are also extremely valuable in increasing the speed and ease of combining, buying extra time this way too."

"Annual grass weeds and volunteers will still need to be tackled post-harvest, pre-planting," she recommends. "But our modern Roundup formulations designed specifically for challenging conditions means there need be little risk or delay here either. In marked contrast to other glyphosates, they're rainfast in just one hour and allow cultivation after only six. What's more, they work equally well in hot, dry conditions.

"So you won't have to sacrifice economic and highly effective out-of-crop weed control on the altar of insufficient time this season. You really can have your cake and eat it !"