Always spray early

Press, 16 August 1985, Page 19

Always spray early

Brothers Malcolm and Dennis Stoddart, of Longbeach, have found DuPont’s weedkiller Glean fits well into their system because they always try to adhere to a policy of spraying early.

The post-emergence cereal herbicide Glean offers six weeks residual activity after application. Its ability to keep a cereal crop clean from the time of plant establishment until the crop canopy begins to fulfil a weed suppression role suits Malcolm and Dennis nicely. “It enables you to use your canopy to your advantage,” says Dennis. The partnership farms 340 ha of Wakanui silt loam, growing wheat, barley, peas, and wana cocksfoot, white clover and ryegrass for seed. A Border-Romney ewe flock varies up and down around 1000 head, according to seasonal dictates.

The heavy soil has always played host to a rich variety of weeds.

Being a pair of blokes who place great emphasis on doing things right, this has always meant getting into the crop as soon as possible to keep it clean. In some cases, that used to mean running a risk of knocking the crop slightly in order to secure good long term weed control. Glean fits the bill because of its protection period and because, they say, it- does a better job on their weed spectrum.

The brothers say the policy of sharing resources and applying strict objectivity to all decisions is the key to their farming progress thus far. That means that pet preferences take a back seat and all procedures are chosen because “it’s the right thing to do.” All op-

tions are clearly scrutinised. “Just because we used Glean last year, for example, doesn’t mean that we’ll automatically use it again this year,” said Malcolm.

However, both brothers are enthusiastic about the product because of the way it fits their management philosophy. So is a neighbour happy with it. The brothers have their own spray rig. They do all their own spraying and that of another brother besides — they do about 1200 ha all told each season.

“We have a neighbour we work in with a fair bit and he had an old man dock problem which he’d tried all sorts of tri-mixes on. We’d found Glean was pretty good on docks so we did his for him. He was amazed how it cleaned them up. He’s used it two years in a row now,” says Dennis.