This week, Rob Tuck from Macquarie Farming at Narromine, gives an overview of how the first season of Roundup Ready Flex went and some of the key points on maximising its performance.

Craig we were pretty pleased with the Flex® technology this year.  It is our first crack at Flex®, we have grown Roundup Ready for a lot of years so it was pretty exciting that we had the ability to put Flex® under linear move irrigation system and see what it could do.  This particular country was only new developed country, its first cotton crop after development and these linears being put there so, and it was very dirty country.  It was covered in noogoora burrs from previous management and so we new it was going to be a dirty situation so Flex® was the perfect fit for weed control and it came through with flying colours with the goods.

The application windows are much wider on Flex® than on Roundup Ready.  Did that sort of help so far as achieving bit longer weed control into the season?

We had a buffer crop around the outside of this Flex® plot and it was a large scale plot so we got a pretty good indication, it was about 40 hectares of buffer around the outside and it was non Roundup Ready® non Flex® so it was just conventional, it was Bollgard® cotton but not of a glyphosate resistant nature.  So it was a pretty good comparison between the two technologies and I think we spend in excess of $800.00 per hectare in keeping that pollen trap clean so that just blew the budget clean out of the water compared to the three applications over the top on the Flex® plus a shielded spray at the end of the day to clean up some late germinating noogooras.  So it was chalk and cheese in herbicide comparisons between the two crops.

With those over the top applications in the Flex® crop being able to use a boom spray other than a shielded sprayer, I understand that you put a shielded spray on about the 19^th node but being able to use a boom spray, did that give you much time saving as far as getting over the country quicker?

Definitely, I mean you are covering 24 metres versus 8 so it definitely got you over the country.  It was easy to keep weed control, it was very good.  I suppose the only problem we had I suppose is you are sort of stacking all of your eggs in the one basket relying on glyphosate so you know there are probably are a few issues there but nothing that can’t be sorted out with a bit of good herbicide management strategy.

In a linear move situation the ability to rotate crops year in year out to different crops and not having to put residual herbicide down with the Flex®, that would certainly fit into your program pretty well?

Yes, I mean that’s the main thing with Flex® is that we don’t have to use heavy residual herbicides like Staple® and Envoke® is another one which really knocks around our winter cropping options and under linear moves and under spray irrigation its that winter crop that you are growing that’s really the cream.  You know if you can grow a high input wheat or pulse crop and get some good returns that’s where the linear really come into their own.  So yes definitely right, the use of a non residual herbicide to get our weed control was definitely a big positive.

The Roundup Ready® and its suitability for fields obviously won’t suit every field, what would be your criteria for using Flex® over say Roundup Ready®?

Where Flex® comes into its own is definitely in that very dirty situation.  I don’t think that it is going to replace Roundup Ready® in an everyday sense on broad scale fields but I think in those fits like this particular property ‘Chatsbury’ where it was very dirty, Flex® is definitely the way to go.  It definitely kept those noogooras down, you know 3 over the top applications of 1.5kgs of Roundup Ready® herbicide and then another 1.5kgs through the shielded sprayer and we got weed control but that’s pretty, a big weed population to be controlling.

Just looking at the overall management of Flex® are there any other sort of key points that growers looking to use the technology should they be looking out for?

I suppose the biggest issue with Flex® is you know you have got to be careful what crops you have got around it because you are applying a glyphosate all through the year right through to nearly maturity in the plant so what you have got around it because wind direction and getting the right spray window, although nozzle technology has come along way in the last few years and there are a lot of good nozzles out there we can use out there on boom sprays that more or less minimum drift course spectrum nozzles so you know it is pretty good.  But that is the main thing, I think just getting those applications on and controlling the weeds without affecting any other crops around you.