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INDEX FOR 2006 NEWSLETTERS
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December 2006 No. 136
- 2007 rainfall outlook - All good at this stage, and high grain prices.
- Propyzamide residues in grain - none detected and will soon be registered on canola and pulse crops.
- Metarex over summer - summer is the best time to apply these long lasting metaldehyde baits.
- Using Roundup (glyphosate) as an insecticide
- Getting bugs to eat other bugs in our crops and pastures - how to avoid slug, slaters (isopods), vegetable beetles and other hard to chemically control pests.
- Seed pickles - what to use on each crops' seed.
- Residual herbicides for summer fallow weed control.
- 2,4-D ester 80% ban by bureaucrats :-)
- Locust plagues 2nd wind - summer storms will enable locusts to lay eggs and hatch another plague before winter.
- Clearfield wheat variety - seed shortage.
- Triadimefon or Flutriafol on your fertiliser?
- Until next year.
November 2006 No. 135
- Pasture Acumen newsletter launched.
Agronomic Acumen newsletter will now be only on cropping and the Pasture Acumen newsletter will be on pasture agronomy. http://www.agronomy.com.au/Newsletters/NewsPasture.aspx
- Political correctness gone mad - jokingly looking at other options to use instead of "safe" when referring to a chemical.
- 2006 season in review - one most of us will be glad to see the end of.
- Picking the best grain price - valuable options available if you warehouse your grain and decide later who can have it.
- Locust control options - the plague has arrived in Western Australia.
- Crop-topping cereals
- EGA2248 wheat and rust - nearly was not released because of its "supposedly" greater susceptibility to leaf rust. Has proven to be one of the least susceptible.
- Propyzamide residues in canola grain - likely to be nil.
- Varieties for 2007
- Pea weevils - reminder to fumigate your sealed silo's when storing pea grain.
October 2006 No. 134
- A few lights on the hill - There are some new herbicides coming that will help control the currently herbicide resistant ryegrass and radish.
- Slug control - What we do in the previous two years depends on how big a slug problem we have! How to keep the slug predators alive.
- Carryover risk of propyzamide - Will propyzamide applied this year affect next years cereal crop?
- Propyzamide's (Edge) performance this year - worked brilliantly even though conditions were very dry.
- Rainfall outlook - update from Dr David Stephens and his team
- Snippets
- Might make more money cutting droughted crops for hay than harvesting for grain
- Mandelup lupins free to trade in Western Australia only
- No permit coming for the use of propyzamide in pulse (legume) crops (drats:-)).
Trace elements in water - more information on how and why when using trace elements in water applied below ground at seeding time.
Foundation 1 & 2 - Discussion of why soil pH and trace element levels must be fixed first to get the most out of all other inputs.
Thoughts to ponder - a few thought provoking comments on this tough season, herbicide resistant weed problems, and tight budgets.
September 2006 No. 133
- 2005 v 2006 - photo's showing how dry 2006 has been in the northern WA wheatbelt :-)
- Merge update - the adjuvant Merge and others caused damage to canola this year.
- Locust threat has increased with the latest rains - what to do about.
- Edge (propyzamide) update - ryegrass control has been fantastic despite dry conditions.
- Trace elements for next year - suggesting you move to trace elements dissolved in water and placed below the seed.
Rates and types of trace elements are covered in detail.
- Harvesting Kaspa peas - swath and use a sprayline to avoid crop-topping.
- Rust pressure is very high - what to do about it.
- Mandelup lupins - free to trade across the fence now.
- Coromup lupins - new higher protein lupin, but is it worth growing?
- Binnu - new Udon noodle wheat for Western Australia - is it worth growing?
- Thistle control in pastures
- Spraying out failed cropping paddocks
- Ryegrass wanted - farmers with permanent pasture want to buy ryegrass, including sulphonyl urea resistant ryegrass.
A silver lining possibility if you have ryegrass blowouts
August 2006 No. 132
- Rainfall outlook - Dr David Stephens models still saying dry conditions (has been all year :-) )
- Aphid control in canola
- Aphid control in cereals
- pH scale - is it 2, 5 or 10 times harder to raise the soil pH from 4 to 5 than 5 to 6?
- Are you sure it is Yellow Spot or Septoria? - some advisers need to know the difference between a nutrient deficiency and when you really do need a fungicide :-). How to know.
- Low volatile 2,4-D ester herbicides - they can still be volatile.
- Post-emergent weed control options in oats.
- Flexi-N (UAN) mixes - what is and is not OK to do?
- Fungicide pricing and rust update - fungicide prices are plummeting further.
- Mildew control failures - control options.
- Oils ain't oils update - more on which oil based adjuvants are safe and which ones to avoid.
- Nutrition snippets
- Wind burn means copper deficient
- Manganese responses in barley
- Sulphur deficiency in peas and cereals - how to tell and what to do.
- Reminder how to tell zinc deficiency from a disease.
July 2006 No. 131
- Oils ain't oils - some oil based spray adjuvants are damaging. Which are safe, and which are risky?
- Rainfall outlook - Dr David Stephens models still saying below average rainfall :-)
- Locust threat - control options
- Crop patchiness - how to know what is wrong
- Alosca's performance - dry formulation of rhizobium.
- Edge (propyzamide) - it is performing better than expected in the dry conditions.
- Establishing kikuyu
June 2006 No. 130
- Rainfall outlook - an update from Dr David Stephens
- Is the seed alive? - how to tell if your dry sown seed is still viable
- Edge (propyzamide) and pulse crops
- Vegetable beetle control - an increasing pest in no-tilled paddocks high in stubble. Very difficult to control but there are some options.
- Raptor (Imazamox) on faba beans
- Adjuvants notes - when and what to use.
- Clearfield herbicide brews - Imidazolinone herbicide mixtures
- Cheaper Achieve (tralkoxydim) now available - an update on brews with it.
- Herbicide brews for post-emergent weed control in cereals
- Hoegrass (diclofop) + Achieve (tralkoxydim) mixtures - if it causes damage, it means you have a nutritional problem with your cereal crop.
- Brodal (diflufenican) damage - This also means you have a nutritional problem in your cereal crop.
- Aramo (tepraloxydim) and Fusion (butroxydim + fluazifop) - never use on canola !!!
- Grass selective herbicide brews for broadleaf crops
- Post-emergent herbicide brews on lupins
- Fence line spray suggestions - brews to give long term weed control.
- Blocked spray tanks - how to salvage a disaster when the spray tank blocks up.
- Spraying stressed weeds.
- Atrazine and triazine tolerant (TT) canola
- Snippets
- All-Clear - best on market to decontaminate booms in 30 minutes
- Sprayseed (Paraquat + diquat) and rainfastness.
- Night time spraying
- Trifluralin in the spray tank over night
- Tigrex (diflufenican + MCPA) brews with Monza (Sulfosulfuron) and Atlantis (Mesosulfuron)
- Barley and bromegrass control in wheat
- Salty water with insecticides for better performance.
May 2006 No. 129
- Sowing direction - some new trials show it can make a 20% yield difference. Is it a valid result?
- Stem and stripe rust risk update
- Sowing herbicide resistant ryegrass - some livestock farmers would like it for weed management reasons
- Axial herbicide - 100g/L Pinoxaden. Does it have a role?
- Trace element brews for seeding and as foliar sprays.
- Learn plant language - how to know what your plant is deficient in.
- Profit or potential? - A discussion on the downside of concentrating on profit if you do not know what the potential is.
- Rotational grazing - the easy way to double your livestock carrying capacity.
- Snippets
- Herbicides in no-till should be pre-sowing, not after sowing and before emergence
- Slug control reminder
- The best way to control pasture insects and pests
- Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus - it is here in Western Australia, but does it matter?
- Cosmos (Fipronil) on canola seed - don't grow it without it.
- New ryegrass herbicide - KIH-485. A new hope.
- Dividend seed dressing (difenoconazole + metalaxyl) failing on barley smut control.
Cow whispering - www.stockmanship.com. All livestock farmers should learn these techniques.
April 2006 No. 128
- Triad granule apology - not enough granules to mix dry with fertiliser
- Alosca and rhizobium changes - new improved clover rhizobium released and article on Alosca granular inoculum.
- Rainfall outlook - Dr David Stephens latest update on expected rainfall across Australia this season.
- How to sow on 4mm of rain.
- How early can you sow canola?
- Insect threats - Summer rains have fed hordes of locusts and moths. What to do about it?
- Clearfield wheat or Eagle Rock (metribuzin tolerant) - which variety will make the most profit for us?
- Tight budgets - Lots of thoughts on how we should be doing things better and putting a few things into perspective.
- Saia oat management
- Comment from Bill Crabtree on Rolf Derpsch's report of the status of no-till in Australia.
March 2006 No. 127
- WA's 2005 harvest - 2nd
biggest on record.
- Pre-sowing cereal herbicide brews
- What to do when ryegrass is resistant to trifluralin
- Time to re-assess - Are you pushing too hard if you have to use $70-100/ha on herbicides? Should you be changing the way you farm?
- Variety updates for Western Australia
- Flame (Imazapic) and Arsenal (Imazapyr) residualness and why both together cause more carryover problems.
- Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus - Something to worry about, or an occasional annoyance?
- Metarex trial results - re independent trial work testing all the major slug and snail pellets showing why Metarex are the best on the market.
- Dr David Stephens rainfall predictions for 2006 and where he is speaking in the coming months
- European study tour - you are invited to join me on a study tour to Ukraine, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and France in August 2006.
February 2006 No. 126
- Granular Triadimefon is here. The powdered version is dead.
- Rust control strategies for 2006.
- Variety performances in 2005 for canola, wheat and barley across Australia.
- Sulphonyl urea tolerant medic released - Angel.
- Frost tolerance - best varieties to grow and how to use nutrition to minimise frost damage
- Excuses - Discussion on what it takes to be in the top 5% of most profitable farmers - a continuation of the last two months articles on "lack of rainfall is not the main problem".
- Rates and mixes to use with propyzamide.
- Calcium Magnesium ratio's - not important to worry about. A wrong theory.
- Metarex update - the best snail and slug pellets in Australia have arrived. Comments on when and how to use them.
- Herbicides on seed - Does spraying any herbicide on seed through the harvester stop their germination sufficiently to be worth it?
- Herbicide snippets
- Controlling stinkgrass (kerosene grass - Eragrostis cilianensis) and Windmill grass (Chloris truncata)
- Logran BP needs spray oil and cooler temperatures to work properly.
- Controlling herbicide resistant milk (sow) thistles
- Elders weather site - www.eldersweather.com.au
- Lime - it can be cheaper to get lime from 500km away than 10km. Depends on quality.
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