Cotswold challenges

Oliver Fairweather, Agrii Agronomist

Oliver Fairweather

The weather conditions to date have had a large impact on the trials at the Cotswold R&D site. Weather conditions and altitude have led to differing rates of crop growth. Gallant moved from GS22 on the 22nd March to  S31  on the 11th April, however, Cocoon had only reached GS24 by the 11th April. Both differences in crop growth stage and variations in the weather have had a knock-on effect on us being able to achieve the correct timing for key fungicide and nitrogen applications.

As with a lot of other places around the country, we have found reduced levels of black grass control across the site this year. The Lemken trial has highlighted that we need to reduce our dependency on Atlantis and increase our levels of control from cultural methods.

Hopefully the black grass R&D trials here are going some way to helping growers understand the impact of their cultivation methods and how these can best be managed going forward.