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Burlington, IA | I have been following this scenario with interest, so I'll add what I've been learning. I will say again upfront that I am a district sales rep for a strong regional seed co., and I gain nothing financially by any potential recommendation of the use of Headline. I attended a couple of days of company seed meetings back in June, and they had some breakout sessions for us with reps from several different companies, including BASF about Headline. I agree the label may be somewhat vague on timing, but the BASF rep was pretty adamant about the application window being from full tassel to brown silk. He was also pretty specific that if applied by air, crop oil was to be used, and non-ionic adjuvant if by ground. The difference being that with the low volume of water by air, the crop oil preserves the integrity of the droplets until they reach the plant, but by ground that is not a concern due to the larger volume of water. He called for 2-5 gal. by air, and 15-20 gal. by ground. He also said 80% was being applied by air, and they expected that trend to continue. On another note, I have talked quite a bit this summer with a gentleman here in SE IA who is, in my opinion, one of the outstanding farmers of the Midwest, and one of my company's clients. EdW knows him well. He is at the top of his game, is a no-till expert, and he has used Headline in the family operation extensively for at least the last couple of years. In their experience, not only have they had significant yield increases from Headline use, but according to him, the closer to brown silk it is applied, the greater the yield response. As sensitive as that young ear shoot and silk that is emerging is, he isn't surprised at the possibility of damage by applying a little early. Not only that, but by applying early, you leave untreated the last upper leaf or 2 because they were still at least partially rolled up at application, and you want to treat the whole plant, not leave exposed untreated plant tissue at the top of the plant. His comments make sense to me, and he's had enough experence with it that I'll not dispute his observations on application timing or yield results. I agree that there is still something missing about the why of the damage, but I think that can be avoided by delaying application until after pollination as long as possible, and perhaps picking up more yield increase by waiting. Jmho, and what I've been learning in my own discussions.
JDH | |
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Ground applied headline damage update
