New Thinking for Scotland and the North
For over 90% of Scottish cereal growers the main arable weed headache is the combination of Annual Meadow-grass (AMG) and an array of broad-leaved weeds. For most of the remainder, it is the Brome species which dominate and are becoming increasingly difficult to control. However, according to Ken Davies and Mark Ballingall from the SAC and CSC Crop Protection’s Technical Director, Jim Rennie, there is also a worrying increase in the spread of Black-grass.
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| Mark Ballingall (left) and Ken Davies, July 2008 | |
“Black-grass first appeared in the Borders but we are now seeing it in Lothian, Fife, Perthshire and as far up as the Firth of Tay,” says Jim Rennie. “My thoughts are that it came in with contaminated seed from the south because the cases we know of can all be traced back to one year and one source of Riband.” Ken Davies, a trained botanist, adds: “It could have come from seed, but I think it is more likely that problem Black-grass has started out as a resident grass species which has adapted to become a resistant population, which is exactly what I saw when the problem started to develop in East Anglia.”
As some Scottish growers are finding out, once Black-grass is established, it is very difficult to stay on top of because seed will easily be carried from one field to another or one farm to another by machinery and birds. “It is a particular issue where contractors are moving between farms with combines and balers,” says Mr Rennie.
