14/12/2015: Spring linseed - the black-grass controlling crop

Spring Linseed. source

Spring cropping is likely to increase again this year for three key reasons. Firstly to move away from winter oilseed rape which has become less profitable with low prices and increased input costs. Secondly, to satisfy the Three Crop rule and finally to control black grass more effectively across the rotation. 

However, the spring crop chosen needs to be profitable in its own right and easy to grow. Spring linseed now falls into this category with the new Easy Cut varieties from Premium Crops.

"Difficult and late harvests used to be the main reasons why growers avoided spring linseed, but easy cut varieties, such as Altess, Duchess, Comtess and Marquise, have a low fibre content in their stems and are a breeze to dessication with diquat. The harvest is also much earlier than it used to be, fitting in nicely behind the wheat in late August to early September," says specialist linseed agronomist from Premium Crops, Sam Deane.

"Spring linsead also lends itself to an effective cleaningalso lends itself to an effective cleaning crop when it comes to difficult to control grass-weeds such as black grass, wild oats or brome. You can use effective herbicides that have low resistence risk. 

The crop is sown from from the end of March through to mid-April; so that growers will have the opportunity to spray off with glyphosate in a stale seedbed. Then Avadex Excel 15G (tri-allate) can be applied within 24 hours of planting, followed by Centurian Max (clethodim) post-emergence if required," advises Sam.

But Sam advises growers to make sure that they can buy the amount of Avadex they need they need for their linseed (and other spring crops before the end of this year, as the current approval under the MAPP No. 12109 which includes the EAMU for Spring linseed expires on December 31st 2015.

"Growers are still able to use it on farms up until December 31 2016, so it is okay for this year's spring linseed. Avadex is used widely in weed control programmes to help in the control of black-grass, rye-grass an wild-oats in both winter and spring crops," says Robert Plaice, technical manager for Gowan.

Rob says that there will not be any Avadex Granules available under the new MAPP No 16998in time for spring use in 2016; even though this product will retain the EAMU for linseed.

Ssam Deane concluded by saying that many growers have grown disenchanted with winter oilseed rape and are actively seeking a newer crop with fewer issues or problems. "I think spring linseed ticks all of the boxes, now that we have developed much easier to harvest varieties. Feedback from farmers who are growing easy cut varieties have been positive. Despite having at least 25% less fibre in the stems, they are still short, stiff strawed and stand well. Another important characteristic is that linseed has a fantastic rooting system that punches through any pans and helps soil structure"

Read more HERE.

 

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