Australia
May 3, 2013
Tim Harris has a busy life running a farm at Miepoll along with a grain contracting and trucking business.
It’s the sort of hectic schedule that Elders Agronomist, David Sutton, thought he could make more straightforward with a Sakura® recommendation.
Sakura is the pre-emergent herbicide launched by Bayer last year when it was registered for the control of annual ryegrass, barley grass, annual phalaris (Phalaris paradoxa), toad rush and silver grass.
Working out of Shepparton, David had seen great results with Sakura in many trials and considered the wheat and triticale herbicide perfectly suited to Tim’s situation.
He thought the low application rate per hectare, three day application to sowing window, longer residual control on annual ryegrass and ability to handle more stubble cover were all product strengths.
“Dave steered me into Sakura®,” Tim said. “We do have toad rush issues in wet years and the main in-crop weeds are annual ryegrass and toad rush.
“On David’s recommendation in 2011 we did a trial with Sakura side by side against diuron and chlorsulfuron which is a typical pre-emergent mixture and we could see a clear difference. Sakura can go down earlier than other pre-emergent’s like trifluralin giving us a bigger window of opportunity before we have to come back and sow.
“For us it’s hard to get everything just right at seeding and if I have a man away with the contracting business, it can be a real juggling act. With Sakura we know we can go out and spray and get a fair bit ahead of our sowing program and have more time before we have to come back and sow. The time factor is really important for us.
“Another thing I liked was the long residual because our country can get too wet to get back onto once it starts to rain. The residual of up to 12 weeks on the ryegrass was much longer than trifluralin.
“Sakura is allowing us to be more time effective which is my big thing because I’m always time poor with the trucking and contracting businesses and that time management is saving us money,” he added.
Sakura® is a Registered Trademark of Kumiai Chemical Industry Co, Ltd.
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. This year the company is celebrating 150 years of Bayer – consistent with its mission “Bayer: Science For A Better Life”. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,383 million (2012) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 20,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries.
Bayer and its employees contribute thousands of dollars annually to a variety of organisations including Mission Australia and Aussie Helpers. Mission Australia is a community service organization that assists thousands of disadvantaged Australians every year to help them get back on their feet. Aussie Helpers is a charity that helps fight poverty in rural communities across Australia.
The Bayer CropScience Australian head office is located in Melbourne. This and further news is available at: www.bayercropscience.com.au
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