Investigating weed control options post-IPU

‘Life after IPU’ is the main focus on Bayer CropScience’s Cereals 2008 stand. The company will be showcasing the new Othello herbicide (containing mesosulfuron, iodosulfuron and diflufenican), which is designed to offer growers efficient control of annual meadowgrass and broadleaved weeds.

Crop plots will show low-rate Liberator (flufenacet + diflufenican) versus trifluralin and Othello versus IPU/ DFF. The plots show annual meadowgrass and broadleaved weeds; weeds which formerly presented a major market for IPU products, but where growers will be forced to change this autumn due to very limited supplies of IPU.

The company’s roots team will be focusing on sugar beet this year. Escolta is a new fungicide which Bayer says will bring “tremendous returns to sugar beet crops”; the product is currently in its launch phase.

Poncho Beta (clothianidin + beta-cyfluthrin) will also feature – its control of yield loss from aphid-borne viruses offers “the best yield response and crop safety of the seed treatments”.