Buying flexibility with Kantor
With being able to react and adapt to an ever-changing farming landscape a vital part of the modern-day farming strategy, incorporating the adjuvant Kantor into the plan is buying flexibility for young farmer Luke Medd.
Farming in partnership with his father, Alan, and grandfather, Brian, the Medds operate as a mixed farming business across 240ha in Winston, Darlington. “It’s a proper mixed farm, where the arable, beef and sheep enterprises need to work together, and as such the cropping is extremely diverse,” says Luke.
The arable rotation is highly varied, comprising 15 crops – including wheat, barley, rye, oilseed rape and triticale. It also includes herbal leys, forage, and silage crops to feed the 400-head of sheep and 400-cow Wagyu beef herd.
A well-thought-out chemistry programme is a vital part of the strategy.
Flexibility is key when it comes to crop protection, and that’s what Kantor gives us – extra flexibility when conditions challenge the performance of our programme.
Kantor is a multi-functional activator plus special purpose adjuvant from Interagro, designed to enhance compatibility in tank-mixes, control drift and improve both chemical coverage and penetration.
Grazing sheep over winter
Soil health focus
Soil health is an important focus of the business, with Luke keen to make the most of the benefits such a diverse rotation and the muck from the livestock enterprises bring to the land. “Fifty years ago, it was commonplace for sheep to be considered highly useful on arable farms. They support the rotation, help keep weeds and cereal pests at bay, and perhaps most importantly, the manure releases essential plant nutrients into the soil for the following crops.”
To support this, Luke has also become increasingly mindful of his approach to crop establishment and is conducting a trial to help the farm transition away from their traditional plough-based system towards their end goal of direct drilling. “This is crucial for the long-term sustainability of the farm – we’re demanding a lot from the soil, so I feel it’s important to repair it.”
Now into year three, one of the main focuses of the trial is to develop a greater understanding of what the soils are currently capable of and what can be done to further enhance the soils properties, explains Luke. “Organic matter levels are already very high and given the time it takes to build organic matter, its paramount that soil analysis is undertaken to allow these levels to be maintained.”
The analysis is being carried out via Agrii’s Soil Resilience Strategy, with Luke working closely alongside agronomist Robert Bowes. “The electrical conductivity scanning with Rhiza has enabled the trial to be set up in the field where there is no soil variation at all, so the only difference in the field is the cultivation type,” notes Rob.
Looking at the results to date, the first year of trials showed minimal differences in winter wheat and spring barley yields between the two establishment techniques. However, in the second year, the direct drilled crops outperformed the conventionally sown.
With the year three winter oilseed rape and winter rye trial now drilled, though it’s too early to make conclusions on yield, Luke has noticed huge differences in ground conditions between the two plots. “We got hit pretty hard with Storm Babet in the autumn. There’s no way we would have been able to travel on the conventional fields, but could have on the direct-drilled plots, so as well as the potential yield benefits, direct drilling is already demonstrating greater ground resilience too.”
Rob Bowes, agronomist at Agrii, and Luke Medd assessing winter crop establishment
Adding adjuvants to crop protection
To complement better establishment, a well-thought-out chemistry programme is another vital part of the strategy, says Luke.
And to get the best out of what he does apply, Luke says including an adjuvant in with the tank-mix has proven to be a beneficial addition. “Flexibility is key when it comes to crop protection, and that’s what Kantor gives us – extra flexibility when conditions challenge the performance of our programme.”
Kantor is a multi-functional activator plus special purpose adjuvant from Interagro, designed to enhance compatibility in tank-mixes, control drift and improve both chemical coverage and penetration.
In fact, it’s the only plant protection tank-mix adjuvant with a built in micro-emulsifying compatibility aid to ensure stability in the tank and enhances the performance of all products in the tank. “We don’t use it everywhere, but it reduces the risk of products not working, and given the costs of inputs, it makes sense to get the most out of them,” explains Luke.
Adapting to challenging conditions
The challenging weather last spring is just one example of where both disease and spray applications were tricky, he adds. “Conditions pointed to a high pressure septoria season, and we were conscious of varietal weaknesses in some of our varieties.
“T0 – comprising Sakura (tebuconazole + bromuconazole), with magnesium and early season PGR – was applied on 3 April to take care of high yellow rust pressure, but come T1, the septoria pressure was high and ideally, I should have sprayed around 25 April.”
However, the weather didn’t come right and proved to be a huge challenge – delaying T1 by almost three weeks, meaning it didn’t go on until mid-May, he adds. “In the end, T1 turned out to be a big mix of active ingredients and included Boogie Xpro (bixafen + prothioconazole + spiroxamine), Phoenix (folpet), magnesium and trace elements, and Adjust (CCC).”
Given the tight application window, Kantor was included within the tank mix to ensure a everything was mixed well and working to its optimum. “Not only does the Kantor influence the fungicides, but it also optimises the availability and uptake of the PGR and nutrition in the mix. Even though it wasn’t windy when we did get on, the leaves were so wet,” notes Luke. “Therefore, having Kantor in there just gave us a bit of peace of mind in terms of coverage and adhesion.”
Photo courtesy of Luke Medd
Photo courtesy of Luke Medd
Kantor’s benefits also extend to aiding both coverage and penetration of chemistry, something the farm finds hugely beneficial during autumn phoma fungicide sprays and sclerotinia flowering sprays. “Oilseed rape has such a waxy leaf, which can make penetration of protection products a challenge,” explains Rob. “With phoma control it’s crucial to maximise coverage – and therefore protection – across the leaf. But autumn is a difficult timing to get optimal fungicide coverage on the leaf as it’s often wet and already waxy.
“So this is where we’ve found Kantor to be particularly useful as it reduces surface water tension on the leaf so the fungicide coverage and protection can be maximised.”
Future plans
Reflecting on lessons learnt last year and turning focus to spring applications, Luke concludes that as weather patterns seen in 2023 become more the ‘norm’, using partner products like adjuvants are going to be vital. “Weather windows are tight, and that’s likely to continue so it’s crucial to reduce the risk of products not working as well as we need them to.
“We’re such a mixed, diverse farm that sometimes some jobs get neglected, so we need to increase product efficiency and effectiveness as there’s often such a small window for applications.
“We find ourselves constantly on the backfoot if we don’t get on at the right time, so we end up having to pile products into the tank which is not where anyone wants to be. Using an adjuvant just buys us a bit of flexibility and insurance to help keep us on the right track for success.”
Photo courtesy of Luke Medd
Want to know more about Kantor?
Uniquely versatile, Kantor is the only adjuvant to alleviate pressure points across the entire spraying operation, giving you the flexibility needed to optimise crop protection efficiency and effectiveness throughout the season.
Download our new booklet – packed full of trials data and info on the benefits and how to apply it – you can download it here.
Kantor is available to purchase through Agrii.
For any technical questions, please get in touch with Stuart below.