Find out why Belkar is a groundbreaking herbicide at Cereals

Innovation doesn’t happen overnight

Genuinely new products which have the ability to overcome a problem facing growers take years – decades even – to discover, develop and deliver.

There is no more obvious illustration of this than in the crop protection sector.

Identifying a problem facing farmers is the easy bit.

Creating chemistry that’s part of the solution and passing a rightfully-stringent registration process is where farming’s real innovators show their strength.

At June’s Cereals event growers will be presented with an array of new products from a variety of sectors, but few have grounds to call their product ground-breaking.

But Belkar, a new post-emergence oilseed rape herbicide from Corteva Agriscience, is one which falls into that category.

The innovation comes at an important time for oilseed rape growers coming on the back of a difficult season for establishment and are now considering new approaches to growing the crop.

Belkar paves the way for growers to switch from higher risk preventative pre-emergence to lower risk reactive post-emergence autumn weed control strategies.

With a broad spectrum of activity particularly against the key weeds cleavers, cranesbill, poppy, shepherd’s purse and fumitory, Belkar offers an alternative to the traditional pre-emergence strategies.

Instead, growers can wait until the crop is out the ground giving themselves time to assess the visible weed pressure plus the impact of pests.

Belkar contains Arylex Active – the key molecule in cereal herbicides Pixxaro and Zypar – formulated with picloram an active ingredient already approved in oilseed rape.

Product manager John Sellars expects Belkar to be a product which challenges the traditional approach to weed control in oilseed rape.

“In 2016 oilseed rape establishment was very good, but the past two years have been more of a challenge,” he said.

“This is a microcosm of the volatility and unpredictable environment oilseed rape growers are operating in”.

“However, it is still a profitable break crop and fits well into arable schedules so growers won’t turn their back on it but instead find new ways of making it successful”.

Front-loading herbicide investments in a crop that is still establishing is a high risk strategy and is an obvious area farm businesses will want to review but until now have had no credible alternative. Belkar’s arrival changes that.

John said: “Growers will be happy to invest if they know they are going to have an output. Moving to a post-emergence regime means growers don’t invest in a crop until they know it’s there.”

Arylex Active has been in cereal herbicides since 2015 with the ability to control most key competitive weeds without affecting brassicas, making it an obvious fit for the oilseed rape market.

“We think it will be at the forefront of growers’ minds in the future because heavy investment in pre-emergence sprays is risky when you have cabbage stem flea beetle to contend with and, in a wet autumn, slugs,” John added.

Whilst the approved spray window for Belkar is from 1 September to the end of December. There are three treatment strategies available to growers.

 At two true leaves an application at 0.25l/ha will take out the weeds which have germinated alongside the crop and, in some circumstances, that will be enough broad-leaved control before an application of Astrokerb (propyzamide + aminopyralid) or similar later on.

In high weed pressure situations where a second germination may occur growers have the option of a second 0.25l/ha two-to-four weeks after the first application.

Or growers can wait until six true leaves of the crop when the majority of weeds will have germinated and apply 0.5l/ha which will take care of the weeds going in to the autumn.