Barclay Crop Protection

Avoiding the harvest nightmare

Efficient, rapid and reliable harvesting has become an increasingly important priority for UK growers as workload pressures, operating costs and weather uncertainty all increase.

Better crop quality from timely combining is the single most important requirement behind the drive to improve harvesting efficiency speed and reliability.

Important drivers

• Reduced weather risk
• Lower fuel and labour costs
• Higher yields from lower losses
• Better use of labour and machinery giving more time for following crop establishment

Solution

Treatment with Barclay Gallup pre-harvest.

"Good harvest management has become essential for today's growers," says Bryan Pickles of Barclay Crop Protection. "This is due to greater acreages being managed with less manpower, putting increased pressure on both combining and subsequent crop establishment.

"One reason is current agronomy methods keep both cereals and oilseed rape greener for longer.

"And the fact that harvesting weather appears to be altogether less reliable, not to mention the rising costs of machinery, fuel and labour," he says.

With that in mind what do growers get from pre-harvest treatment of crops with Barclay Gallup ahead of harvesting?

• Faster, less troublesome combining
• Reliable weed control pre-harvest
• Less need for drying
• More reliable harvest timing
• Oilseed can be direct combined rather than swathed
• Less risk from poor weather
• Better grain quality
• Lower grain losses
• Better workload planning
• Reduced risk of mycotoxin development

Value

Efficient harvesting is especially important where growers have larger acreages, fewer men and machines available and less capacity to tolerate risk.

"Add to this the extra rotational value of weed control in the cereal crop ahead of oilseed rape drilling, which generally doesn't give you time for much pre-planting treatment, and the rationale for pre-harvest Barclay Gallop becomes even stronger.

Milling wheat

Treatments have been shown to give:

• Higher Hagbergs, proteins and specific weights
• Lower screenings, admixtures and grain moisture contents
• Reduced drying costs
• Reduced risk of mycotoxin-producing infections

For the greatest benefit and to keep herbicide residues well within permitted levels, it is essential to ensure crops are treated at the correct time.

"The only exception is seed crops; pre-harvest treatment should never be used on crops to be retained for seed.''