The battle against CSFB, can Clearfield® help?

Getting the crop off to a good start

Everyone agrees that, whatever the drill date, we need to drill when seedbed conditions are right for fast and even emergence of the crop, followed by strong early leaf development. If drilling conditions look promising for even emergence then it’s worth the investment in hybrids with autumn vigour since they have the best chance of growing away. Some also have good spring vigour to compensate for larval damage later.

  • In total there are 17 Clearfield varieties available; many of these have strong autumn vigour and/orspring vigour but all of them are unaffected by SU soil residues due to the fundamental properties of the Clearfield system. SU residue risk is increased where there’s been late SU use combined with reduced cultivations.
  • For 2020, there are two new BASF Invigor Clearfield® varieties, InV1166CL® and InV1266CL®. These varieties originate from the European portfolio where they have shown great yield consistency, quantitative and qualitative phoma resistance. Excellent autumn and spring vigour has also been seen from both these varieties in the UK environment. As these are part of the InVigor® portfolio, both are covered under the Establishment Risk Share Programme, where in the event of conditions deteriorating BASF will reimburse £30/ha if the crop fails to establish. See https://basfrealresults.co.uk/osr/risk-share/

Straightforward weed control

A wish list for any OSR herbicide might be a wide weed spectrum, flexible post-emergence timing, flexible tank mixes, and help with blackgrass control.

How does the Clearfield system deliver?

  • Wide weed spectrum? Clearfield herbicides control all the common broad-leaved weeds including the problematic brassica weeds as well as volunteer cereals. In early drilled crops, weeds such as charlock and chickweed get big quickly and need timely removal. Volunteer rape can be more of a problem, causing over thick plant populations

  • Flexible post-em timing? Yes. Safe, flexible crop timing (cotyledon to 8 true leaves) and flexible weed timing of 1-4 leaves on broad-leaved weeds and 2-3 leaves of grasses.
  • Flexible tank mixes? Yes, ability to mix with all fungicides, carbetamide, pyrethroids and graminicides. The exception is clethodim where no tank mixes are permitted but flexible Clearfield crop timing helps fit around it.
  • Help with blackgrass control? Clearfield herbicides will not give adequate control of blackgrass; use your standard programme against this. But there is observed field activity against bromes, wild oats and non-ALS resistant ryegrass.
Note: Clearfield herbicides should ONLY be used on Clearfield varieties (name has CL suffix).

General agronomy support to help inform decisions

Sacha White and Pete Berry from ADAS have produced 2 on-line presentations on:

  • What we’ve learned about csfb from the latest AHDB 3 year projects
  • Getting the crop off to the best start
View these at the BASF Virtual Farm Real Results

Use plant protection products safely. Always read the label and product information before use. For further product information including warning phrases and symbols refer to www.agricentre.basf.co.uk . For further information, please do not hesitate to contact your local BASF Agronomy Manager or the BASF Technical Services Hotline: 0845 602 2553. InVigor and Clearfield are registered trademarks of BASF.

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