Crop safety improvements with Backrow and Kantor

With the majority of cropping in Scotland being of the spring type, the impact of this winter is slightly different for growers in the northern regions of the UK.

According to Agrii agronomist, John Mason, while growers haven’t yet missed out on drilling crops, what they are falling behind on is cultivations. “We’re facing different challenges than those further south, because 95% of our cropping is spring crops. So we don’t have too much of an issue on the drilling front.

“However, the problem here is that growers haven’t been able to work the ground as a result of the continued rain, so we are way behind on preparing for the spring drilling window.”

With an exacerbated workload and a very short time frame to work within, John says he’ll be looking to looking to adjuvants this spring as a helping hand to get the best out of crops.

“Backrow is one adjuvant I’ve been using quite regularly with pre-emergence residual herbicides. In my personal experience, it’s helped to make a big improvement in annual meadow grass control, which is a big problem weed for us up here.”

This spring, John believes Backrow will come in handy for growers dealing with sodden soils too. “To optimise weed control, we need to preserve herbicides within the top layer of the soil, and Backrow helps do just that. If it does then suddenly dry out, growers will be protected.

“At the other end of the spectrum, while a lot of people are saying that due to the rain, residuals should work better this year, the soils are so saturated that it will be difficult to keep herbicides in that top layer. Again, Backrow will be a useful aid to enable this.”

With a shorter time frame anticipated this year for spring cropping operations, tank-mixes are likely to be larger in order to compensate. “Especially with spring crops, many growers only want to spray twice, meaning sometimes there are a high number of products in tank-mixes,” explains John. “Adding an adjuvant, such as Kantor, into the tank-mix helps to buffer pH levels and improves spray coverage.”

This spring, John anticipates using Kantor for both weed control and with fungicides. “I try to use it at T3 to help get it into the ear of the crop,” he says.

But above all else, the biggest benefit of Kantor is the improved compatibility in terms of safety in the tank-mix, says John. “I think we’ve been searching for a solution like this for some time and Kantor could be it.”