A wide range of areas under investigation at Barton
Across 5 fields and 16 hectares, we are continuing to investigate a wide range of integrated approaches to black-grass control. From the five-year cultivation matrix to novel approaches such as cricket covers, propane burners, hoovering and interrow hoeing, we are beginning to establish some interesting principles around the management of this challenging weed.
We are always interested in new ideas to trial, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions, no matter how whacky, please do get in touch!
Updates from Barton
Our Barton updates are brought to you by our Grass weed Specialist, Georgina Wood. Throughout the series, she will be discussing the innovative trials she is conducting at the Barton Black-grass Innovation Centre, and sharing her findings.
In the latest episode, Georgina uses her baking skills to explain the soil conditions this spring in a direct drilling situation, and following ploughing or minimum cultivation last autumn. Warning: images of cake may make you hungry!
Events
We host regular trial site visits at Barton Black-grass Innovation Centre. Throughout June we host hundreds of farmers, agronomists and sprayer operators to demonstrate our findings from black-grass trials.
Keep an eye out for details of a virtual tour in June and for our fourth year results meeting towards the end of the year.
Trial update April 2020
After a soggy winter forced us in to spring cropping we finally drilled the majority of our trials at Barton in the week commencing the 23rd of March into drying conditions. A lack of rain for a month after that meant that crops have struggled to get away as the heavy land turned to concrete. Direct drilling in to stubble seemed to be the harshest environment, compared to where there was more tilth in the cultivated ground which meant that seed/soil contact was better. We had 11 mm of rain over the 28th/29th April which will have helped immensely, but quite how much this challenging season has impacted on the long-term black-grass control remains to be seen.
