Do you use Avadex & how do you apply it?

[Devil's advocate]

Struggling with Sterile brome here.

I'm sure we could cope with a better rotation, but a good contractor alternate years would be another way, maybe.

 

[Brisel]

Avadex is not very strong on sterile brome. No offence, but you need to rethink your strategy if Avadex every other year is going to do the job you want.

Stale seedbeds, delayed drilling, spring cropping, alternate modes of action... the usual grass weed methods. Good quality ploughing to at least 10" deep on a rotational basis is quite useful. The seed doesn't emerge from that depth nor does it last long underground.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Avadex is not very strong on sterile brome. No offence, but you need to rethink your strategy if Avadex every other year is going to do the job you want.

Stale seedbeds, delayed drilling, spring cropping, alternate modes of action... the usual grass weed methods. Good quality ploughing to at least 10" deep on a rotational basis is quite useful. The seed doesn't emerge from that depth nor does it last long underground.

Its a shame all our land is not in a ring fence & of the same qualty.

The land in question is urban fringe or we would give it 5 years in grass to get a really clean start. Sadly grass is seen as parkland where this land is, sheep out of the question as are suckler cows.

Too shallow to plough at 10 inch. Although we do grow veg & potatoes on it in rotation. Its getting harder with the amount of people pressure. Not really bad people who steal but thoughtless & selfish who allow dogs to spoil pre em applications etc.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Ploughing will help, even if you can't go that deep.

 

[quattro]

Struggling with Sterile brome here.

I'm sure we could cope with a better rotation, but a good contractor alternate years would be another way, maybe.

I did a real bad field here with avadex liquid in w barley and it worked very well

 

[Brisel]

The liquid is around 2/3 of the active ingredient dose and around 2/3 as good. Not 2/3 of the price but at least you don't need a specialist applicator.

 

[quattro]

The liquid is around 2/3 of the active ingredient dose and around 2/3 as good. Not 2/3 of the price but at least you don't need a specialist applicator.

That’s the trouble up here finding someone with a applicator

 

[Brisel]

Its a shame all our land is not in a ring fence & of the same qualty.

The land in question is urban fringe or we would give it 5 years in grass to get a really clean start. Sadly grass is seen as parkland where this land is, sheep out of the question as are suckler cows.

Too shallow to plough at 10 inch. Although we do grow veg & potatoes on it in rotation. Its getting harder with the amount of people pressure. Not really bad people who steal but thoughtless & selfish who allow dogs to spoil pre em applications etc.

I sympathise with your situation but if you want to beat brome then Avadex is not the answer. If you don't have much topsoil, how do you grow spuds & veg??

 

[D14]

Struggling with Sterile brome here.

I'm sure we could cope with a better rotation, but a good contractor alternate years would be another way, maybe.

Move to an entire spring cropping rotation on the land for 5 years. Something like SBarley, Sbarley, SLinseed, SBarley, SBeans. It helped us a lot with brome. You need to move the soil though as direct drilling makes brome worse so shallow seedbed in the autumn then glyphosate twice before drilling in the spring. Subsoil with minimal surface disturbance for any deeper work needed.

 

[yellow belly]

Avadex used to be followed by dosaflow then ipu to control it
Later drilling second week of October is effective
Ploughing even shallow ploughing is very good if all seeds are buried 4 inches down

 

[An Gof]

I’m using Avadex applied from the rolls to Winter Barley in my rotation as part of a whole rotational plan to control Bromes. I have both sterile and soft brome. Using Avadex 1 year in 4 in the rotation. Despite what @Brisel says as PART of a total management control plan it is having a useful effect.

 

[snarling bee]

We use Avadex as part of our BG strategy, applied off the rolls with a modified boom applicator.
If you have brome IMO the best way is to plough.

 

[SilliamWhale]

I have Brome. You have tools in osr, beans, wheat to control it. Spring barley will reduce it a lot.

Winter Barley is its friend. Best way to view it is that it will take as long to get out of a problem as it did to get in.

Figure out worst Brome fields and make sure you take WB away from it for 6 years

 

[An Gof]

I have Brome. You have tools in osr, beans, wheat to control it. Spring barley will reduce it a lot.

Winter Barley is its friend. Best way to view it is that it will take as long to get out of a problem as it did to get in.

Figure out worst Brome fields and make sure you take WB away from it for 6 years

Agree hit it hard in OSR and WW but with WB and WO in the rotation all the good is easily undone

 

[SilliamWhale]

Just to flesh it out a bit more. I have one field of winter barley after WW (no till) which is full of brome. I'm cross with myself but it it is what it is now. The other 5 fields of winter barley are not too bad.

This field will now go onto my red list and cannot have Winter Barley again for at least 8 years.

So for the future the rotation for it will be:

1. OSR (with falcon and kerb)
2. W Wheat (with liberator + dff and BW star)
3. Spring barley or WW (but with different actives possibly liquid avadex and pacifica? - drilled late with FSS)
4. Beans (falcon again but at a different time of year, roundup pre em of beans as late as dare)
5. WW (back to liberator/ BW star)
6. Spring Barley or WW (whichever wasn't done in year 3)
7. OSR
8. W Wheat (liberator and BW again)
9. Winter Barley maybe?

Obviously you can always juggle about ie bring a break crop forward a year etc. but this sort of thing is a way of managing Brome backwards again if you see if flare up in a field whilst still not doing anything like fallow or allowing Brome too much chance to prosper. Brome like all weeds esp wild oats will never be nuked and finished with - its a constant management process. A few more actives would be lovely though - something that worked in Winter Barley would be amazing!

 

[quattro]

How do you control it in set aside

 

[Devil's advocate]

I sympathise with your situation but if you want to beat brome then Avadex is not the answer. If you don't have much topsoil, how do you grow spuds & veg??

Bit like a bumble bee can fly.

Lots of organic matter, usually get rain here, free draining soil only 6 inch deep, a very large supply of shear bolts. We have had potatoes at 30 ton/acre, caulie @1,000 doz per acre, sprouts @ 10 ton/acre, swedes @ 40 ton/acre (those were too large to sell though).

On how main holding which does not have such people pressure & is a heavier & deeper soil we don't have an economic problem with brome (the combine brings a bit home) but
5 years grass, 1st year grazed then mostly hay crops but with some grazing.
2 years winter barley
brassica vegetable crop.
spring barley
winter barley
potatoes
spring barley
winter barley
back to grass.

Sadly grass not possible on 2nd holding. Everything is ploughed.

I don't know about the future, some might be built on or parkland possibly someone more thick skinned than me fence in the footpaths & graze aggressive stock. Not as easy as it sounds people steal damage fences & people can end up the wrong side of the fence making the problem worse.

 

[Wold farmer]

That’s the trouble up here finding someone with a applicator

We got a very tidy 1997 12mtr Kuhn aero with micro-granular roller suitable for avadex application. Very accurate and ideal we find to own your own therefore it’s for sale as bought a 24mtr machine. Asking £2,750 for it and in North Yorkshire. Would ride on a 10ft flat trailer no problem.

 

[Laggard]

Avadex applied into the following harrow on the drill. This means that’s it’s mixed into hopefully moist soil. It does mean that the distance between the seed and the avadex is less than ideal. We’ve got away with this but they have been dry autumns and springs since applying it this way. The only noticeable effect is on the headland overlaps, but as the seed is also overlapped a bit of thinning isn’t a problem.

 

[yellow belly]

I use Avadex on every acre I can but it does not keep brome out