How responsible are UK growers being when it comes to weed control options?

With ever-greater pressure on margins getting weed control right is an imperative. But what of the consequences in the medium term for which there seems to be little new chemistry in the pipeline?

That’s a question Farmers Weekly put to former Crop Watch writer Steve Cook of Hampshire Arable Systems, as part of its ongoing Direct Talk on…Weeds debate, which has been attracting a quality following on FWi’s forums pages.

“If we don’t take care now, we will have a problem,” he says. “We need to plan to avoid that scenario.

“We need to avoid rotations where you’re using sulfonyl-ureas for grassweed control in every crop. And you also don’t want to be relying on the ACCase inhibitors – fops and dims – in every crop either.”

He cites a rotation he’s currently advising on as being in the red alert category.

“I have one rotation of wheat, oats, wheat and maize which worries me because we’re relying on sulfonyl-ureas in every crop for grassweed control, so we need to protect in every way possible such as delaying drilling, stale seedbeds and trying to maximise the use of other chemistry such as Crystal in wheat – we can’t do anything about it in the oats and maize.”

Mr Cook has logged on to the FWi direct talk forum. Two of the threads which have been started have caught his eye. Here’s a snapshot of what he had to say:

1. How flexible is your strategy?

Is it worth cropping at all? Yes it is, but it may need change in strategy. You may need to include fallow in the rotation. Under cross-compliance GAEC 12, you can have a 15-month bare-fallow and you can employ a combination of spraying and cultivating – through the autumn you could do as many passes as you like to encourage autumn chits, then you can go back into production.

2. Min-till won’t worsen grassweeds

Yes, I agree non-inversion tillage (NIT) is a better term than min-till. After all, if you subsoil, disc, spray, disc and till, that ought to be called maxi-till!

With NIT make sure volunteers and grassweeds have actually emerged and also remember the min-till-type drills are much faster, so you don’t need to be in such a hurry to get drilling done.

The key is keeping pressure off herbicides – do as much as you can culturally.

Read Steve Cook’s responses in full and find out his views on brome control in barley, and total weed control. Visit the FWi Direct Talk on…Weeds forum to add your views.