Preparing for Seeding in 2023

30th March 2023 | General

The 2023 seeding season is fast approaching, and made even faster by the late harvest we’ve had. To help us best prepare for whatever this coming season throws at us, our resident agronomist has put together the ultimate checklist of what to plan for and what to watch out for as we kick off the 2023 season and turn our minds to getting the crop in.

Seed testing
Pre Sowing Knockdowns
Preventing Russian Wheat Aphid
Protecting your crop from rust
Rotating and Mixing Pre Emergent Herbicides
Checking your crop Nutrition

Seed Testing

You must know what you sow. Some growers experienced a wet harvest period. Others got hit with late stripe rust or Fusarium head blight. All of these factors can impact seed quality, germination, and vigour. Sending a sample of your seed away for a germination and vigour test will provide you with the best information to make an informed decision on the quality of your retained seed and your sowing rates.

Pre Sowing Knockdowns

This is a great opportunity to control problem weeds and reduce the pressure on pre-emergent and post-emergent herbicides.

If you get an opportunity to control weeds prior to sowing, make it count. Utilise a double knock of glyphosate followed by Paraquat… or Paraquat followed by Paraquat. This is also an opportunity to add Terrador or Voraxor. These newer group 14 herbicides provide robust control of broadleaf weeds and at higher rates provide good activity on ryegrass.

Russian Wheat Aphid

Russian Wheat Aphids (RWA) are still present in a lot of cropping regions. Don’t forget about the impact they can have on your cereals. Applying Gaucho or Cruiser to your seed is a cost-effective way to prevent an aphid infestation. These products are a proactive and safe way to control aphids.

Stripe Rust

Stripe Rust impacted a lot of wheat crops last season. The use of flutriafol on fertiliser or in furrow has dropped off due to increasing costs of production and low levels of rust in a lot of regions. Following on from the rust outbreaks in 2022, flutriafol is back in favour and strongly recommended to protect your cereals from early rust infections at a cost effective price. Flutriafol will buy you time so that you can make improved strategic fungicide decisions later in the season.

Every season is different but we do know that a planned and proactive approach to Stripe Rust and other disease management stacks up.

Rotate and Mix Pre Emergent Herbicides

We have a lot of options with Pre Emergent herbicides in our toolbox these days. It’s important to utilise them effectively. This means we must rotate the herbicide groups and use tank mix partners strategically to our advantage.

Mixing the newer chemistry options with older products like Trifluralin or Triallate improves the levels of control and increases the spectrum of weed control.

If you are planning to apply Boxer Gold or Mateno Complete Early Post Emergent (EPE) it is highly recommended to apply a pre-emergent herbicide Incorporated By Sowing (IBS). This can improve grass control levels from Suppression to Control.

Crop Nutrition

In a lot of regions we have dragged off some big yields in the last three years. This has also dragged out a lot of nutrients. Run a phosphorus (P) budget. How much P has been applied in the last 3-4 years? How much P has been removed in the last 3-4 years? This, along with soil testing will help you to make a more informed decision.

Where is your Nitrogen (N) and Sulphur (S)? Wet years can leach N & S out of your root zone. Talk to your agronomist about options to ensure you have adequate and available N & S for your crop until the roots can reach the deeper nutrients.

Let’s also not forget about the hidden hunger from a lack of micronutrients. Zinc in particular has been left out of programs over the last few years due to increasing input costs. Zinc is back in favour this season with agronomists recommending compound zinc fertilisers and in some cases they are planning for foliar applications as well.

All the best for the 2023 season ahead and we wish you all the best as seeding begins over the next few weeks. Please reach out to us if there is anything we can help you with.