On the road to beating black-grass
Look out for ADAMA’s latest hub where resident herbicide technical specialist, David Roberts, will be posting weekly updates throughout the autumn, giving his advice for how growers should approach the burgeoning problem of black-grass control. The over-riding message throughout the blog will be that there is no single measure which will totally eliminate black-grass. Instead, effective control is reliant on a combination of factors, with weed mapping, rotation, cultivation technique, drilling date and chemical control measures all playing their part in an integrated approach to black-grass management.
The new autumn blog will also cover a range of topics aimed at helping growers to boost
oilseed rape establishment: despite being a profitable and effective break crop, and one which enables cereal growers to introduce alternative black-grass herbicides into their rotation, the long-term future of oilseed rape in the UK is coming under scrutiny, with industry experts claiming that the UK acreage in 2020 is likely to fall from its current level of 580,000ha to as low as 500,000ha. This is partly because the UK’s unpredictable weather patterns are making uniform establishment more challenging to achieve, but also because OSR growers in the UK are no longer able to use neonicotinoid seed treatments.
The ADAMA hub will therefore provide the latest advice on how to make OSR work on your farm and will provide a better understanding of how to improve the efficacy of autumn herbicides.
In addition to input and advice from David Roberts, the autumn blog will provide useful information in the form of video guides and content from third-party agronomists and farmers.