Agronomists have allayed worries about the effectiveness of Atlantis WG (mesosulfuron and iodosulfuron) treatments applied before December’s cold weather.

Despite frosts and soil temperatures rarely reaching 6°C continued monitoring at Bayer CropScience’s trial sites reveals black-grass is active and is showing visible growth.

"During the last three weeks black-grass has put on one to two leaves and one to two tillers, which means that herbicide applications are fast becoming a pressing task,” observes Dr Gordon Anderson-Taylor, herbicides development manager at Bayer CropScience.

The spring 2011 HGCA information sheet on controlling pollen beetle and combating insecticide resistance in oilseed rape contains important updates to agronomic advice.

Following the exceptionally cold winter the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) and SASA potato aphid forecasts for 2011 are for late flights and low numbers. 

Rothamsted’s Dr Richard Harrington says predicted peach–potato aphid first capture dates at all 16 RIS and SASA suction trap sites in England and Scotland are over a month later than average.

Ideal conditions in autumn 2010 allowed most growers to exploit fully both chemical and cultural control measures, putting them in a much stronger position than last spring when completing their grass-weed control programme, according to Bayer CropScience.

A new formulation of the insecticide Biscaya (thiacloprid) is now available in three litre packs with three further crop approvals on the label.

Bayer’s Dr Bill Lankford says the increased viscosity and flowability of the new OD (oil dispersion) formulation has enabled it to be supplied in these larger packs which now empty as fast as the previous one litre bottles, even at 5⁰C.

At a time when the industry is widely acknowledged to be struggling to attract fresh talent, one company is bucking the trend.

Don’t be deceived by the cold December, cleavers are tough and, unlike some softer weeds, thrived in those conditions and are now growing away well as the weather starts to warm a little.

New ADAS work shows value of two PGR sprays for lodging insurance.

The trials compared conventional single sprays of PGR at GS 31 with PGRs at GS 37-39 (T2) or a sequence using both these dates.  These utilised the range of major PGR products on the market.  The best results were where Moddus + chlormequat was applied at GS 31 and was followed by Cerone at T2.

According to product manager Neil Thompson it contains the same active substances as predecessor Betanal Expert – desmedipham, phenmedipham and ethofumesate – but in a newly optimised ratio, and introduces the company’s innovative Double-A technology.

This combines advanced formulation and activation technologies to add faster, more powerful and broader spectrum weed control to the proven crop safety and flexibility of Betanal Expert. Explaining the science behind the new Double-A concept he says...

Mesurol seed treatment has gained CRD approval for application to forage maize, grain maize and sweet corn seed.