Australia
May 29, 2018

The release of new options in a weed control segment always provides opportunity for industry comparison with existing leading standards and this story played out with post-emergent broadleaf weed control in Western Australia’s northern wheatbelt last season.


 
New Group H and C herbicide, Talinor®, was introduced last year and was assessed in trials with another Group H and C product, Velocity®, for the Mingenew Irwin Group (MIG) near Mingenew, as well as at sites near Arrino, Pithara and Cowcowing.
 
Talinor comprises the Group H herbicide active ingredient, bicyclopyrone, as well as bromoxynil (Group C) and the crop safener, cloquintocet-mexyl. The Group H herbicide chemistry in Velocity is pyrasulfotole, together with bromoxynil and Bayer’s crop safener, mefenpyr-diethyl.
 
The trials compared the performance of the herbicides against wild radish and other broadleaf weeds in wheat crops.
 
The products were applied at rates from 500 mL/ha up to 1 L/ha for Velocity and 1.2 L/ha for Talinor, with 80 L/ha of water using a medium droplet size. 
 
Most sites had reasonable populations of wild radish and applications were timed to coincide with the two to six-leaf plant stage.
 
Weed control was assessed from two weeks and later at eight to twelve weeks after the applications, and final yields were compared at the MIG site.
 
The early investigations showed little difference in weed control between the applications, however at the eight to twelve-week stage, larger weeds that had been treated with Talinor were recovering and starting to reshoot.
 
For the sites near Arrino, Pithara and Cowcowing, applications of Velocity® at 600 mL/ha with Hasten® at 1% achieved an average of 78% wild radish control across the trials at the eight to twelve-week stage, while applications of Talinor at 750 mL/ha with Hasten at 1% (volume for volume) resulted in an average of 70% control of wild radish.
 
The higher 670 mL/ha Velocity rate with Hasten at 1%, costing $25.10/ha, achieved 86% control, compared with 1 L/ha of Talinor with Hasten at 1% (v/v), costing $29/ha, recording 80% control.
 
At the MIG site, Velocity applied at 670 mL/ha with MCPA LVE at 440 mL/ha and Hasten at 1% resulted in a crop yield of 2.32 t/ha and Velocity applied at 670 mL/ha with 1% Hasten achieved 2.23 t/ha. 
This compared with Talinor applications at 750 mL/ha with MCPA LVE at 440 mL/ha and Hasten at 1% (v/v), at 850 mL/ha with Hasten and at 1 L/ha with Hasten at 1% (v/v) recording yields of 2.13 t/ha, 2.17 t/ha and 2.15 t/ha respectively.
 
Bayer Customer Advisory Representative, Matt Willis, said the primary aim of the trials was to evaluate control of wild radish, as well as other weeds, and while Talinor had strength against some volunteer pulses and 
fumitory, Velocity was generally stronger acting against wild radish – the number one weed concern in WA. 
 
“The applications of Velocity at 670 mL/ha were equal to, if not better than, the applications of Talinor at 1 L/ha for wild radish control and were more cost-effective,’’ Matt said.
 
He said the Velocity applications also showed no concerns with crop phytotoxicity.
 
“Northern WA experiences intense daylight, so crop phytotoxicity can be a concern in the region.’’
 
“However, with Velocity applied even at 1 L/ha in the trials, there were no crop effects,’’ Matt said.
 
The high level of crop safety with Velocity allows it to be applied to a young crop without harm, but also does not slow the growth of the crop or produce a yield drag effect that can occur with some other products.
 
In addition to wild radish, Velocity provides highly effective control of a wide range of broadleaf weeds including bifora, wireweed, bindweed, bedstraw, capeweed and doublegee.

Website: http://www.bayercropscience.com.au

Published: May 30, 2018