Ed in CPM
With a recent expansion to the farm, Ed is keen to get on top of any grassweed challenges. CPM caught up with Ed to find out how he intends to go about it.
Meet the Trialists: Ed Ford
About Ed
Ed and his brother, Charles, farm 600ha of combinable crops at Childerditch Farm in Essex and have recently taken on a further 500ha in Bedfordshire. The original acreage sits predominately on heavy London clay. Childerditch Farm is zero till with a rotation that includes winter wheat, spring beans, spring barley, linseed, and oats.
Alongside the farming enterprise, Ed is a trustee of The Farm Safety Foundation and Forage Aid.
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Ed’s approach to grassweeds
Ed has been battling black-grass for over 10 years. The key, he says, is a zero-tolerance approach to the weed.
In the early years that involved spraying off broad acres of crops, as well as delayed drilling, spring cropping and a robust herbicide programme. Today, with a diminished black-grass population, he continues with the cultural controls and employs people to hand rogue any survivors in spring. His approach really is zero-tolerance; he will stop the car, sprayer, or tractor to pull-out individual plants. A typical herbicide programme for the farm is Crystal® + diflufenican and Avadex, topped up with further flufenacet and diflufenican.
Ed’s top tips for black-grass control
- Take a truly zero-tolerance approach
- Spray or hand-rogue survivors in spring
- Delay drilling of winter wheat
