With competition from pests and weeds, there is never a more important time to nurture newly sown crops or pasture than during establishment.

Young plants do not have a large root structure to search for nutrients and they are particularly vulnerable to competition from weeds and insect damage. A lot of planning and preparation is put into establishing the new crop, so it pays to put time and effort into nurturing it to get the best return on your investment.

Testing Testing

Do not underestimate the power of soil testing. Knowing the underlying soil nutrient status will inform how cropping or re-grassing will take shape, allowing you to adequately prepare soils with starter or maintenance fertiliser. More comprehensive soil testing will help identify what is available and what will give you the best return on investment from your fertiliser program.

Paddock Preparation

Using a spray-out to help control weeds is a well-established practice, even when cultivation is used during seedbed preparation. Start with a high-quality glyphosate and adjuvant combination in the spray-out, along with companion herbicides if there are weeds in the paddock that aren’t controlled by glyphosate alone.

The following table summarises a range of herbicides that can be tank mixed with glyphosate to improve the control of certain weeds that may not be well controlled when glyphosate is applied alone. This also helps reduce the risk of some weeds developing resistance to glyphosate.

Where time is of the essence, both carfentrazone and oxyfluorfen have very short plantback periods required. They are useful for improving the control of seedling weeds and certain other weeds that may not be well controlled by glyphosate alone. But they are not as effective on established perennial weeds with larger root systems such as dandelions or docks.

Good paddock preparation is vital to getting a fast and even plant establishment. If cultivating, a fine, firm and weed-free seedbed is advised to improve the seed to soil contact and aid accurate and consistent sowing depth.

If direct drilling, remove as much trash (residue from the previous crop/pasture) as possible. It can impair drilling and is an ideal environment for damaging insects.

Pests of the paddock

Check paddocks for pests before spraying out. Beware of slugs, especially in direct-drilled situations. Endure® slug bait can be mixed and spread with fertiliser, or broadcast alone, and is best applied pre-drilling or soon after. Consider adding Toppel® 500 to the sprayout to reduce the risk from pests like Argentine Stem Weevil, springtails and nysius fly.

Seed Selection

Seed selection is obviously important for any new crop or pasture. For pastures choose an appropriate grass cultivar and other species to include in the pasture mix for your feed requirements. Select the grass endophyte, naturally occurring fungi in the plant that protects against insect attack, best suited for the insects expected in the paddock.

Use an effective seed treatment for all crops and pastures to provide protection during establishment. In pastures this will allow enough time for the endophyte to colonise the grasses and start providing protection.

The drilling depth needs to be accurate to ensure seeds aren’t placed too deep or too shallow, which can affect how the new pasture or crop establishes.

Controlling weeds during establishment

For forage and arable crops, there are a wide range of herbicide options, some applied and incorporated during seedbed preparation, others applied immediately post sowing before weeds and the crop have emerged, and others post emergence to both the crop and the weeds.

Best practice is to spray seedling weeds in new pasture just before the first grazing, once clovers have two true leaves, because weeds are smaller and easier to control and the new pasture will respond to the earlier removal of weed competition.

Pasture Guard® Nurture is ideal for control of seedling thistles, buttercups and a range of other common broadleaf weeds.

Aim® is ideal for controlling weeds like buttercup, chickweed, fathen, nightshade, shepherds purse and spurrey. Aim should always be tank mixed with Collaborate Spraying Oil.

A tank-mix of AIM and Pasture Guard Nurture is ideal for a wide range of seedling broadleaf weeds in new pasture including thistles and buttercups.

Pasture Guard® Elite is the preferred product where harder to kill weeds such as cleavers, cornbind, mayweeds, nettles, spurrey, storksbill, twin cress and willow weed also occur.

Be careful with pasture mixtures that contain plantain and/or chicory, herbicide options are limited. Talk to your Ravensdown agronomist for advice.

Fertiliser during establishment

Establishing plants do not have a large root structure to search for nutrients, so nutrients must be made available to them. The type and rate of starter fertiliser depends on each individual paddock and crop. This may be applied before drilling or a portion may be applied “down the spout” at drilling.

Following that targeted side dressings can ensure good supply of nutrients during establishment.

Address nitrogen needs

Whilst use of nitrogen fertilisers needs to be carefully managed, to ensure maximum utilisation and to minimise potential for losses, side dressings of nitrogen can be very beneficial during establishment, and for most crops at strategic growth stages during the development of the crop.

In new pastures an application of nitrogen is recommended after the first grazing. Emerging roots are not yet big enough to search for nitrogen vital for growth, so a nitrogen fertiliser will help successful establishment of clovers, grasses and other species sown.

It’s easy to talk to a member of Ravensdown’s Agronomy Team. Just give the Customer Centre a call on 0800 100 123 to talk to one of our nine dedicated agronomists across New Zealand.