ON the eve of crop input applications for the new season, national trials results have emerged showing a new herbicide available for its first commercial use has achieved better weed control and grain yields than existing benchmarks.
Mateno Complete, a triple mode of action grass and broadleaf weed herbicide from Bayer, is set to be applied pre-emergent in wheat (not durum wheat) and barley or early post-emergent in wheat (not durum wheat) this season.
It contains a new herbicide mode of action, aclonifen (Group 32), in a complementary co-formulation with pyroxasulfone (Group 15) and diflufenican (Group 12) herbicides.
Incorporated by sowing (IBS), applications of Mateno Complete in wheat and barley are expected to provide powerful and reliable control of grass weeds, while early post-emergent (EPE) applications in wheat will offer the benefit of weed control across the complete soil surface, including in the furrow, on the furrow shoulder and in the inter-row.
Multiple trials were conducted in every major winter graingrowing State last season, putting Mateno Complete to the test across a broad range of soil types, environmental conditions and with different seeding systems.
The new herbicide can be used with disc seeders in wheat, which is expected to please growers with these systems who have had limited herbicide control options available to them previously.
In New South Wales across eight replicated trials in wheat, when Mateno Complete was applied IBS at 750mL/ha or 1L/ha it achieved about 10 per cent higher control of annual ryegrass when compared with standard pre-emergent herbicides including trifluralin applied at 2L/ha, Boxer Gold applied at 2.5L/ha and Luximax applied at 500mL/ha.
However, the highlight in the trials was the EPE application of Mateno Complete at 1L/ha following the earlier IBS trifluralin application at 2L/ha, where this program enhanced the annual ryegrass control by a further 18pc when compared with applying Mateno Complete at 1L/ha IBS.
Angus MacLennan, market development agronomist with Bayer in NSW, said the new herbicide would offer a range of benefits to growers, such as grass and broadleaf weed activity right across the soil surface, including in the furrow, a new mode of action for spray programs and extended residual control, as well as its ability to be used in disc seeder sown wheat.
"The level of flexibility and the high performance of Mateno Complete makes it a truly unique and exciting weed control solution," Mr MacLennan said.
In Western Australia, seven trials were conducted in wheat and when applied IBS at 1L/ha, Mateno Complete delivered an outstanding level of annual ryegrass control of 87.4pc and yield gain of 1.06t/ha when compared with the untreated plots.
Sakura herbicide in the trials was close to the best at 84pc control, however Triflur X applied at 2L/ha, Boxer Gold applied at 2.5L/ha together with Callisto at 200mL/ha, Overwatch applied at 1.25L/ha and Luximax applied at 500mL/ha produced from 59pc to 70pc weed control and yields were only 100kg/ha through to 800kg/ha better than the untreated plots.
Once again, it was a good outcome when Mateno Complete was applied EPE at 1L/ha following the IBS TriflurX application, lifting the weed control to 95pc and adding a further 100kg/ha to yields.
As a comparison application, TriflurX applied IBS followed by an application of Boxer Gold at 3L/ha recorded 16pc less weed control and 500kg/ha lower yield.
Matt Willis, market development agronomist with Bayer in WA, said Mateno Complete would provide greater flexibility to growers in choosing an application timing to best suit their local growing conditions.
"The EPE option in wheat will deliver residual control or suppression of difficult to kill grass weeds across the entire soil surface profile, whilst also providing excellent value with high levels of broadleaf weed control in the same pass, leading to improved yields,'' Mr Willis said.
"These treatments consistently demonstrated the highest level of annual ryegrass control, whilst also achieving high level control or suppression of broadleaf weeds such as wild radish, capeweed and double gee.''
Across three replicated wheat trials in Victoria and southern NSW, annual ryegrass control hit a new benchmark of 94pc and yield increased 42pc compared with the untreated plots when Mateno Complete was applied at 1L/ha IBS.
Luximax applied at 500mL/ha, Boxer Gold applied at 2.5L/ha with Callisto at 200mL/ha and Overwatch applied at 1.25L/ha achieved 5-18% lower control levels and 15-24pc reduced yield.
The trend continued with the EPE timing, where the 1L/ha Mateno Complete application following the 2L/ha of trifluralin applied IBS earlier, pushed annual ryegrass control to 98pc and yields were 60pc higher than the untreated plots.
This was compared to a Boxer Gold application at 3L/ha following 2L/ha trifluralin applied IBS, which delivered 16pc reduced control and 26pc lower yields.
Some broadleaf weeds were present in the trials, which are not registered label claims for Boxer Gold.
Ian McMaster, market development agronomist with Bayer in Victoria, said the extended residual control on various grass weeds, as well as control or suppression on broadleaf weeds, from the EPE application of Mateno Complete was a major benefit.
"A key part of this is the coverage of the furrow walls and shoulder, where we often see escapes from pre-sowing applications,'' Mr McMaster said.
In South Australia, there were two replicated wheat trials and the IBS application of Mateno Complete at 1L/ha achieved a 44pc increase in yield when compared with the untreated plots, surpassing yields delivered by Overwatch applied at 1.25L/ha and Luximax applied at 500 mL/ha by 12-22pc.
In the EPE timing, Mateno Complete was applied at 1L/ha following an IBS application of Boxer Gold applied at 2.5L/ha and it resulted in a further 5pc yield increase when compared with the untreated plots.
Tim Murphy, market development agronomist with Bayer in SA, said Mateno Complete demonstrated excellent residual weed control activity in the trials.
"In wheat, when a grower uses Mateno Complete as an early post emergent application, they can achieve control or suppression of key grass and broadleaf weeds, as well as extend the window of activity to control later germinating annual ryegrass," Mr Murphy said.
IBS applications of Mateno Complete offer a high level of control of annual ryegrass, barley grass, annual phalaris, silver grass and toad rush and suppression of wild oats, great brome and capeweed.
Used EPE in wheat, it provides control of small silver grass, toad rush, wild radish, capeweed and prickly lettuce and suppression of annual ryegrass, barley grass and double gee/spiny emex.
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