Black-grass control 50 years on and 12 considerations for today

Here, growers and agronomists consider the season ahead, reflecting on the challenges black-grass presents, sharing their insights and commenting on how herbicide programmes are changing.  

The black-grass challenge:

1. Yield loss

Steve Crayston, Essex grower:

“Black-grass has a serious yield penalty. It has forced us to think about cropping and whether it is worthwhile putting a wheat crop in a certain field.”

2. The bounce back

Colin Chappell, Lincolnshire grower:

“You think you’ve got a clean field, drill a little earlier, ease off on the chemical controls and then black-grass thinks ‘ah ha!’ and it is back again.”  

3. Raising the game

Simon Roberts, CCC agronomy, Kent and East Sussex:

“It feels like the ‘old standard’ isn’t good enough anymore for even low to moderate pressure situations.”  

Tackling black-grass, IPM top tips:

4. Deploy a multi-layered strategy

Freya Morgan, Cambridgeshire grower:

“Black-grass is a very canny plant. If you mow, it’ll just grow back shorter. You can’t just do one thing, you have to use a combination of techniques on a regular basis, else it will adapt.”

5. Leave seed on the soil surface

John Cussans, ADAS weed expert:

“In drier conditions the potential to lose black-grass seeds from the soil surface through predation and natural losses far outweighs the value of cultivation to promote germination.”

6. Delay drilling

Pat Thornton, Lincolnshire grower:

“Although I would hate to miss the opportunity of dry weather to get crops established, in the back of mind I know I can’t, I daren’t let my drilling date creep forward.”

7. Leave worst field until last

Simon Roberts, CCC agronomy, Kent and East Sussex:

“Leaving it to the end and seeing whether you can squeeze in another stale seedbed. Can you take out just one more flush?”

Chemical control is changing:

8. Refilling the toolkit

Chris Taylor, South West agronomist:

“Luximo has done a fantastic job. At one stage I was worried about the loss of flufenacet but now I feel that we have some powerful tools in our armoury.”

9. Risk versus reward

Mark Doble, Somerset grower:

“We are now growing seed crops and that’s all down to Luximo. Having managed to get the black-grass population down over the course of 10 years, I don’t want to go back. The cost is negligible in comparison with the effort it’s taken to get here.”

10. Best chemistry first

Nigel Durdy, Yorkshire grower:

“You start with cinmethylin and go from there. It is the only product that is any good.”

11. Wholescale approach

Steve Crayston, Essex grower:

“I won’t change anything different this year. It will be full rate of Luxinum across the whole wheat acreage."

12. The foundation of programmes:

Pat Thornton, Lincolnshire grower:

“Going forward, Luximo will be the mainstay - the backbone that flufenacet was.”