Wet weather suits spring weed control in cereals

The wet weather in April and early May has seen cleavers thriving in winter wheat and winter barley, according to Dow AgroSciences’ cereal herbicide specialist Stuart Jackson.

"We’ve seen a lot of moisture – the cleavers are picking up nitrogen and as a result are getting pretty big. They’re recovering from spring applications of iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium + mesosulfuron-methyl and are re-growing because of these very moist conditions," he warns.

Mr Jackson advises growers that still need to complete spring herbicide programmes to "get on and do them as soon as possible".

"Growers need to revisit fields to ensure if cleavers have regrown they’re treated with products such as Starane XL and Spitfire (florasulam and fluroxypyr)," says Mr Jackson.

He says that temperatures are still quite low for the time of year so this mix of chemistry provides robustness and consistency of control.

"The impact on yield from cleavers increases once crops are at GS32 or beyond. Growers shouldn’t wait for it to warm up to use straight fluroxypyr products, instead control the cleavers now with – products such as Starane XL or Spitfire which work better in the cooler temperatures we’re seeing now and also control an extensive range of additional broad leaved weeds," says Mr Jackson.