Featured Products
Our portfolio of powerful, proven products has helped farmers from one end of the country to the other create and maintain thriving businesses, and has earned us a reputation as New Zealand’s brassica protection specialists.
Brassica Protection Specialists
Delivering a complete suite of crop protection solutions for today’s brassica growers.
We combine our world class global research pipeline with our local understanding of forage brassica production to develop, launch and deliver to market an innovative portfolio of products meeting the needs of the New Zealand farmer.
Our forage brassica herbicide and insecticide portfolio includes product options that provide a solution for most scenarios typically encountered in New Zealand’s growing regions.
Getting the most from your forage brassicas
We've developed a forage brassica portfolio specfically for New Zealand growers; a portfolio which provides a solution for every situation and ensures they can produce a high-quality crop, maximise on-farm returns, and protect their livelihoods for generations to come.
IPM Crop Monitoring and Spraying
- Walk forage brassica crops regularly from early emergence
- Identify and monitor both the pests present AND their natural enemies
- Gauge the degree of crop damage against the balance between pests and natural enemies before determining the need to spray
- For key pests, use an IPM-compatible insecticide such as Sparta & Transform.
Principles of Weed Control
The goal is to:
1. Reduce weed competition within the brassica crop.
- Protection of crop from emergence through to canopy closure.
- Reduce any competition of light, water, nutrients etc.
- High weed population and a poor crop at grazing results in reduced yield and quality.
2. Reduce weed competition in a crop/pasture rotation.
- Reducing weed seeds within the soil.
- Good control of perennial and rhizomatous weeds.
- ➢ E.g. Californian thistles, Yarrow, Dock.
Key considerations:
1. Establishing a dense crop canopy is one of the most effective control methods.
- Target rapid crop emergence, growth and establishment.
- Achieved through pH, fertility, seedbed preparation, accurate planting depth & seed to soil contact.
- Herbicides help to bridge the gap.
2. In dry soils or seasons. Forage brassicas are more prone to split germination.
- Post-em herbicide timing should be based on stage of weed growth, not the crop stage.
- Post-em herbicides for forage brassica must be safe over germinating seedlings & cotyledons.
3. Opportunities around targeting both weeds and pests at the same time.
- In these situations, timing should be according to the earliest treatment required.
- Don’t delay & compromise optimal control of one.
- E.g. if weeds are ready to be sprayed, don’t delay for insects, & vice versa
Crop growth stages and application timing
