Corteva Agriscience’s Kerb Weather Data tool is designed to help growers and advisers to be even more precise when timing oilseed rape herbicide applications this winter and has now undergone a series of upgrades. New functionality on the Corteva Arable App is said to ensure well-timed applications for grassweeds and some broadleaf weeds, as well as achieving a higher level of product stewardship by helping to identify and reduce the risk of active ingredients running off.
Individual fields can now be pinpointed to see if conditions are suitable for herbicide applications, building additional accuracy on top of the postcode search function. The slope of the field can also be determined and an indication of the soil type is also built-in. At the click of the button, growers can manually add water boundaries to individual fields.
Products containing propyzamide such as Kerb Flo 500 and Astrokerb can be applied to oilseed rape now, providing the crop has at least three leaves. However, to make sure the activity of these herbicides is optimised against blackgrass and other grass weeds, soil temperatures should be 10°C and falling while soil moisture should be sufficient but not saturated.
“From experience and under normal circumstances, conditions for propyzamide usually become suitable for applications from around 5 November so farmers will be preparing to spray now,” said John Sellars, oilseed rape herbicides manager for Corteva.
“Not only will Kerb Weather Data help determine the best time to apply Kerb Flo 500 and AstroKerb to get the best weed control, but it also helps fulfil stewardship obligations to help growers and advisors identify and mitigate the risk of herbicide run-off.”
Applications should be field drains are running or if significant rainfall is forecast in the coming 48 hours. Ideally, any fields with a gradient towards a watercourse should have a grass buffer strip of at least 6m established and where gradients are more severe, the buffer strip should be wider. Corteva has also launched a propyzamide stewardship webpage to provide additional resources for farmers and advisors which can be accessed at www.corteva.co.uk/ppzstewardship.
“We take our stewardship responsibilities seriously and hopefully this tool will help growers and advisors to manage their grassweeds better and help identify and mitigate the risk of applications to the environment,” Mr Sellars said.
“Both products deliver strong grassweed control and are the benchmark solutions for blackgrass control in oilseed rape. AstroKerb also delivers a wider broadleaf weed spectrum that includes key weeds such as poppy and mayweed. We would expect activity on sow thistle and groundsel too.
“Grassweeds such as blackgrass and ryegrass are difficult to control in cereals and one of the benefits of growing oilseed rape is that blackgrass populations can be reduced. If Kerb and AstroKerb are given the best conditions to work they can give levels of control of over 90%, a level that is almost unprecedented with other graminicides in cereals nowadays.”
For more information go to www.corteva.co.uk