Will Ridgwell, sales manager for Nufarm UK says that growers should start with a clean sheet. In other words all weeds or stubbles that can interfere in the establishment process should be controlled prior to the drill moving into the field. He offers Kyleo – a special state of the art optimised formulation containing glyphosate, 2,4-D and high tech surfactant – as being the best solution to this objective.
Agrii agronomist Hannah Mack first used Kyleo after some nettles were poorly controlled in sugar beet and had set seed in that crop. “I needed to get rid of these weeds before the next crop went in, as you don’t have much time in the spring. Kyleo worked really well actually, burning them off quickly and helping to get the following spring crops in and established well.” She says she has a farmer customer who tried to burn off mustard with straight glyphosate unsuccessfully. “I will certainly have a go with Kyleo in such situations in the future, as glyphosate didn’t work. Kyleo has a broader weed spectrum and kills some of the more difficult weeds such as nettles and mare’s tail. It is better on brassica weeds and gives a quick burn down,” she says.
Hannah Mack comments that Kyleo can also be used to destroy grass leys with thistles and nettle problems and with the move towards more spring crops being grown especially because of black-grass issues, Kyleo is good to clean up before drilling in the spring.
“More spring cropping has led to more cover crops used for black-grass and once again Kyleo is much more effective in burning off these cover crops than glyphosate is.“ Hanna notes that with the loss of chemistry particularly in minor crops, some weeds can’t be controlled in these minor crops and growers can use the pre-cropping window to clean up by getting rid of problem weeds at the start. I have seen mustard growing through glyphosate and becoming a problem in maize.”
