Mark Stubbs runs his two family two farms in Lincolnshire in partnership with his parents.
One of the farms, which is close to the coast, consists of 110ha with a rotation of winter wheat, spring barley and one year legume fallow.
The coastal farm has heavy clay spoils, which are prone to weed issues, while the second farm in the Wolds is mainly clay loam with chalk stone.
The farm enters the YEN award every year and has been highly commended in OSR and winter wheat. They are frequently placed in the top three, especially OSR, and in 2022 won the silver prize for both OSR and winter wheat.
In this blog, we hear about Mark’s grassweed challenges and how he’s looking forward to being a part of the Isoflex® active Grower Group.
What are your biggest weed problems?
I would say blackgrass is our biggest weed problem, but we have been managing it quite well so far.
We have more blackgrass than I would like, but I mainly put that down to spring germination, where I have fewer tools available to combat the weed.
What is your standard programme for controlling blackgrass?
Contending with blackgrass has been a challenge on the farm. Over time, I've married traditional farming practices with chemical solutions to effectively combat the weed.
I've found success in delaying my drilling schedule to the last week of October or even the first week of November.
This later drilling means a good number of blackgrass seeds germinate ahead of planting allowing me to spray them off and get a good control ahead of the season.
In addition to these techniques, I rely on chemical treatments both pre- and post-emergence.
Pre-emergence I use a mix of 60 g/l flufenacet with 300 g/l pendimethalin and complement it with 400 g/L flufenacet and 100 g/L diflufenican. Post-emergence I apply another dose of flufenacet and diflufenican, ensuring that blackgrass doesn't get a second wind.
Adopting this strategy has helped me keep my fields much clearer of blackgrass, but I’m excited to trial FMC’s new active Isoflex® to see how this will make a difference to my weed control.
Mark will be trialling FMC's new Isoflex® active herbicide this Autumn and is looking forward to seeing the results and how they can work with it on-farm.
Read more about Isoflex® actives Grower Group here.