Blackgrass

[Retraceh]

I have a field which has had patches of blackgrass in it for 3 years. I think I find the patch spray it off and another turns up further round the headland. What is the best way to try and get on top of it? It is due to go into osr.
1 - plough it deep and bury the seed?
2 - run over with the carrier and get as much to germinate as possible and use the chemicals in osr to try and control it.
Pre em : clomazone and metazachlor
Post em: falcon
centurion max
Kerb/ Astro kerb
The field has not been ploughed for years and I don’t normally plough, I use a mzuri drill to establish crops.

 

[strawturner]

Probably best not to plough pre osr, just use the Mzuri as kerb has a greater efficacy with blackgrass that's not grown from depth. Plough well after the osr next year. If it was me and you had blackgrass in the 2021 wheat assuming you follow the osr with wheat, I would then be planting a spring sown crop..

 

[teslacoils]

Kerb.
More kerb.
Astrokerb.
Crawler.

Those others wont do much. I very dislike cmax in osr.

 

[Two Tone]

A few years ago, I discovered by accident that ploughing is my no. 1 best defence against Blackgrass. Having gone fully over to Min-TIL, a herd of cattle ran through a field of wheat twice and flattened it, resulting in the plough being the only thing that would sort the mess out.

The following crop of rape was Blackgrass free and highest yield by far we got. Within 2 years we had returned to ploughing everything, every year. If you can bury the seed 2” below daylight, 70% of it will dry each year.

This farm has now got its Blackgrass under control again. I hardly ever use Atlantis type products any more and never need to use Crawler. Roundup usage is now only needed for desiccating Rape.

You know you have got it right when the only Blackgrass you have is 5-8 metres out from the edge of the field, where it got double ploughed on the headlands.

But you need a good plough, properly set, set at different depths each year and not necessarily ploughing the opposite way each year. Used by an operator who realises it is not a race to get each field done and comes home each evening, proudly realising he has done a good job properly.

 

[Two Tone]

I’d also argue that ploughing does not release C02, or is as bad for the environment as bad as many think. I’m burying my crop residue so that it doesn’t surface rot and release C02 and Methane to the atmosphere. The reduction in ag-chems and the increase in crop yields, by far outweighs any the negatives.

I’d also argue that intensive farming, using Nitrate fertilisers (of which far less is used on my system, because of the Nitrate I release by ploughing), is completely wrong.
Nitrates enhance photosynthesis, harvesting in a wheat crop IRO 80 times more C02 from the atmosphere than an unfertilised crop.

It is now realised that Methane is not as dangerous as was thought, with a half life many times shorter than C02.