Article taken from the CPM
It was a problem with coltsfoot that prompted Agrovista agronomist Chris Thorman, based near Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland to try Kyleo.
“It’s a weed that tends to grow in patches,” he explains. “But it’s rhizomatous, so if you don’t nip it the bud you can soon spread it within a field through ploughing and cultivations. What’s more it has large, waxy and hairy leaves – there’s very little that’ll control it in the crop, and straight glyphosate at the usual rate applied to stubbles can be unreliable.”
The field in question at Stacks Farm Linlithgow in West Lothian was cropped with spring barley last year, and it was before the stubble was ploughed for a following spring barley crop that Chris Thorman decided to try Kyleo. “We used the full rate of 4 l/ha, but didn’t apply it to the whole field – just spraying out the patches of coltsfoot. The rest of the field was then sprayed out with glyphosate,” he recalls.
“What I noticed about five to six weeks later was that the coltsfoot was absolutely destroyed. But there were one or two small patches that had been missed and received only the straight glyphosate – there the weed was suffering, but looked as though it would come back.”
The proof of the pudding will come after harvest he says. “We’ll know then whether the Kyleo’s done the job, although looking at the crop now, there’s no sign of the weed where the product was applied.”
He sees Kyleo as a useful product to call on for certain jobs. “Tidying up particularly dirty stubble with difficult weeds and volunteer OSR will be where it comes into its own. I can alos see it has a place taking out old grass leys, particularly where there are docks and thistles,” he adds.
“It’s also good where you’re looking for a quick knock-down. You’d have to bear the replanting interval in mid for certain crops, but that’s simply a question of planting – you’d want to spray out in the autumn a field that was destined for potatoes, for instance.”
It was a problem with coltsfoot that prompted Agrovista agronomist Chris Thorman, based near Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland to try Kyleo.
“It’s a weed that tends to grow in patches,” he explains. “But it’s rhizomatous, so if you don’t nip it the bud you can soon spread it within a field through ploughing and cultivations. What’s more it has large, waxy and hairy leaves – there’s very little that’ll control it in the crop, and straight glyphosate at the usual rate applied to stubbles can be unreliable.”
The field in question at Stacks Farm Linlithgow in West Lothian was cropped with spring barley last year, and it was before the stubble was ploughed for a following spring barley crop that Chris Thorman decided to try Kyleo. “We used the full rate of 4 l/ha, but didn’t apply it to the whole field – just spraying out the patches of coltsfoot. The rest of the field was then sprayed out with glyphosate,” he recalls.
“What I noticed about five to six weeks later was that the coltsfoot was absolutely destroyed. But there were one or two small patches that had been missed and received only the straight glyphosate – there the weed was suffering, but looked as though it would come back.”
The proof of the pudding will come after harvest he says. “We’ll know then whether the Kyleo’s done the job, although looking at the crop now, there’s no sign of the weed where the product was applied.”
He sees Kyleo as a useful product to call on for certain jobs. “Tidying up particularly dirty stubble with difficult weeds and volunteer OSR will be where it comes into its own. I can alos see it has a place taking out old grass leys, particularly where there are docks and thistles,” he adds.
“It’s also good where you’re looking for a quick knock-down. You’d have to bear the replanting interval in mid for certain crops, but that’s simply a question of planting – you’d want to spray out in the autumn a field that was destined for potatoes, for instance.”