Let’s get the most obvious comment out of the way. It was wet (and in some cases still wet) this year and we struggled to get on our fields without getting stuck or creating massive ruts. In those instances, we weren’t able to get into our wheat fields to spray a herbicide. When the ground was ready to go, it was too late in some cases. The flag leaf had already emerged, or in some cases the head was coming out. When that happens, it’s too late to spray without injury. As a result, we have wheat fields that look like this:

Staging

We want to go in at that hard-dough stage. The hard-dough stage is typically 30 per cent moisture or less. This also coincides with the peduncle turning straw colored. We can spray when 95 per cent of the peduncles have turn colored without fear of herbicide creating a residue in the wheat.

Here is a picture we have used in previous CSTW columns:

Herbicide Options

The weeds you have will determine what kind of herbicide you will use. It also dictates how long you have until harvest.

Aim and Eragon are three days until harvest. Glyphosate is seven days. If you combine Eragon and glyphosate, you must follow the glyphosate label at seven days. With Fleabane the assumption will be it is glyphosate resistant so relying solely on that herbicide is not an option.

Please contact your Wanstead Farmers or AGRIS Co-operative branches for more information on pre-harvest burndowns for your wheat.