Written by Ryan Came-Johnson, Field Technical Manager & Area Manager for South of England
Climate change means we can see weather patterns with prolonged periods of no rain. It’s crucial that weeds are managed during these periods.
Today’s maize herbicide programmes not only need to consider weed pressure within the crop, but also what is happening post-harvest. For example, the Sustainable Farming Incentive introduces SOH4: payments for a winter cover that follows maize.
Herbicide selection for the maize crop needs to consider solutions that won’t affect the establishment of these subsequent cover crops. Some options have restrictions on following crops and cite the need to plough. Principal Forte has very few following crop restrictions: ryegrass, winter cereals, and rye can all be sown in the autumn following harvest without the need to plough. Spring cereals, ryegrass, maize, oilseed rape, sugar beet, potatoes, peas, or beans can be planted in the spring following application.
The maize crop offers a crop rotation opportunity to use different active ingredients than those often used in combinable crops. Principal Forte contains three highly effective herbicide active ingredients, two of which—rimsulfuron and dicamba—are not widely used in combinable crops. These represent alternative chemistry which, when combined with the third active ingredient in the formulation, nicosulfuron, delivers a complete and comprehensive weed management solution.
Principal Forte is applied at 480 g/ha. This loading delivers 245 g/ha dicamba, 30 g/ha nicosulfuron, 15 g/ha rimsulfuron, and 15 g/ha isoxadifen (safener), and consequently brings great broad-spectrum grass weed and broadleaved weed control.
The inclusion of isoxadifen (a crop safener) in the formulation makes Principal Forte an extremely safe herbicide option, and with several hundreds of thousands of acres having been sprayed across UK and Europe, the evidence is there to endorse this.
Principal Forte must be used with an approved adjuvant as per the label e.g., Codacide.
Another new technology that is winning favour with maize growers is BlueN™, Corteva’s novel nitrogen fixing biostimulant that can fix up to 30kg/ha of nitrogen from the atmosphere. Farm use and independent trials show improvements in starch, ME and DM yields of the maize crop. BlueN is compatible in a tank mix with Principal Forte plus Codacide, meaning savings on application costs too.
For more information on Principal Forte or BlueN, visit the product page by clicking the product name or contact Corteva’s Hotline on 0800 689 8899 or email ukhotline@corteva.com. Find out more about Principal Forte
Find out more about BlueN
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Ryan Came-Johnson