Spring benefits from Liberator application

By Natalie Reed

30 January 2012

Liberator (diflufenican + flufenacet), the market leading residual herbicide from Bayer CropScience, has now gained full label approval permitting it’s application up to before 31st March, allowing growers a much wider application window.

Flufenacet is widely acknowledged as the most robust pre-emergence active substance for control of black-grass, so the new approval increases the flexibility of timing and sequences available to growers.  The changes do not apply to the other major flufenacet product, BASF’s Crystal (flufenacet + pendimethalin).

“Under the latest approval a sequential application of an extra 0.3L/ha of Liberator can be applied until before 31st March, to give a maximum seasonal dose of 0.9L/ha, the maximum individual dose remains at 0.6L/ha” says Tim Holt, Bayer CropScience product manager.  “Agronomists and growers have been eagerly awaiting these changes so that Liberator can be used on late-drilled crops which haven’t received a herbicide application going into the new year, following potatoes or sugar beet, for example, or, where growers want to take advantage of the robust residual activity on late germinating black-grass.

Keith Norman, technical director at Velcourt agrees, “The extension will be a great help, particularly this year with the autumn being so dry; it will enable growers to top up residuals. Some held back pre-em applications as they waited for black-grass to emerge and this gives them another chance.”

“Across our 28,000 hectares of wheat we directly manage or advise on through the Velcourt Agronomy Service, about 30% has challenging black-grass.  Liberator has become the mainstay of our herbicide programme and this latest approval gives greater flexibility particularly where crops are late drilled.”