Advising farmers in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire, Antony Wade of Hillhampton Technical Services used the Canopy Assessment Tool (CAT) on line at www.pgrplus.basf.com last year and has found it to be a useful tool to fine-tune his nutrient and PGR plans in wheat.
"I have found the CAT easy to use; just upload digital photos from the field onto the web site, enter a few parameters such as geographic location, wheat variety, growth stage and yield potential and it produces an accurate measurement of the GAI (Green Area Index) and an assessment of lodging risk. The CAT suggests a PGR programme and indicates when you may need to boost those requirements, say with a later PGR such as Terpal. Using these pointers, the PGR programme that you may have had in mind originally can be reinforced or altered. The CAT gives additional and measurable support to your own experience and expertise. It will be more important than ever that crops are kept standing, as higher grain values mean that yield losses to lodging could potentially result in significant loss of margin - especially on some September sown crops which are looking bold despite the cold early winter."
Antony has found the CAT particularly useful for Nitrogen management as it also gives an indication of the crop’s N content in kg/ha and available soil N, allowing nitrogen timing and rate to be fine-tuned.
"Although I don’t have an iPhone myself, I can see that a fully mobile CAT would be a good move as it means that an instant assessment of lodging risk can be done and dusted in the field - an excellent move!" Another development Antony would like to see is a CAT for barley and oats as lodging can be even more of a problem in these crops especially on mixed farms.
Antony Wade not only used the CAT tool but also uses Canopy as he considers it to be an effective product. "I tend to use Canopy later in the programme around GS 32 to 37 on high risk wheat and have seen dramatic positive effects. High risk crops are those that are September drilled, those on fertile soils and those well-tillered. We don’t tend to grow varieties with low lodging ratings as lodging can be such a potential problem. Its application significantly reduced the last peduncle internode, reducing lodging risk and stopping the crop going over. Crops look much more even too. I tried Canopy in winter barley last year and it held up very well compared to a standard program."
"Whether on line, or on your mobile using the new CAT App for iPhone launched this year, the BASF CAT is a fantastic tool to help farmers and advisors protect their yield by assessing lodging risk in wheat. It is an easy to use practical aid, measuring the GAI of the crop, allowing appropriate PGR programmes to be devised and calculating crop nitrogen requirements accurately. It is a Decision Support Tool in the true sense of the word, reinforcing advisors own thoughts and views on PGRs and nitrogen programmes and steering them towards using the most appropriate inputs," says BASF’s Sarah Mountford-Smith.
