Bioscience products will play key role this season in maintaining good crop potential
Winter wheat and oilseed rape got away to a strong start in eastern and central Scotland last autumn, providing a good foundation on which to build.
Agrovista agronomist Martin Foster says the weather in October and November was ideal for winter wheat sowing and applying pre-emergence herbicides, so most crops are in fine fettle.
Provided the weather plays its part over the next few weeks, Martin believes these crops will be very responsive to inputs and, with the right management, should produce some very good yields.
As well as fine-tuning programmes for fertiliser and plant protection products, he will include bioscience products from Agrovista’s Innovation Range to keep wheats growing strongly, even when conditions might dictate otherwise.
“The aim is to build good enough crops by April that will grow away and produce big leaves, making the most of the longer days this far north,” he says. “That can make a huge difference to a crop’s potential.
“There’s no doubt that our bioscience products help increase yields, providing an excellent return on investment in the process.
“Most farmers have accepted them as part of their wheat agronomy. There is too much trials evidence and in-field experience to ignore – I have consistently achieved 4-5t/acre crops when using these products.”
Better established wheats will receive a blend of amino acids as Terra-Sorb Foliar Extra at GS31-32 with the first fungicide, plus trace elements as required.
A repeat dose could be applied at flag leaf emerged, or he will also recommend Klorofill, to boost photosynthesis and maximise carbohydrate production, between flag leaf emerged and early flowering when crops have maximum leaf.
“We will finish off with 3 ALO T6P on a case-by-case basis, once we see how earlier efforts have materialised,” Martin adds. “This helps process sugars into protein in the ear, and has been particularly useful increasing grain size, helping farmers around Edinburgh to secure biscuit wheat premiums.”
Although less likely after this season’s strong start, Calfite Extra (a growth promoter containing calcium phosphite and Luxor (foliar phosphorus plus humic and fulvic acids to stimulate soil biology) will be recommended on hungry crops, usually in the second half of March approaching GS30. Both products also contain L-PGA to increase nitrogen assimilation.
Oilseed rape
Terra Sorb Foliar Extra will be applied with the first spring fungicide to help maximise green leaf area as plants start to grow, aiding flower and pod production.
“Once plants reach early flowering when there is maximum leaf we will apply Klorofill with the Sclerotinia spray,” says Martin.
OSR crops also received Calfite Extra in the autumn at the 3-4 leaf stage, which provided a very noticeable boost going into winter.
Spring barley
Looking ahead, spring barley will benefit from Phosta pre-emergence to release locked-up phosphates on certain soils. It can be applied with digestate (which will also ensure phosphate in the digestate remains available) or pre-emergence herbicide.
Later sown barleys (late March onwards) will often receive Terra-Sorb Foliar Extra plus manganese to boost crops at early tillering to maintain tiller numbers. Klorofill is an option around T1 to help maximise leaf cover.
