A GROUP of competition winners including growers, agronomists and consultants returned from a South African study tour with Bayer CropScience where they had the opportunity to see Sakura 850 WG field trial results in wheat first hand, share learnings and network last month.
The study tour allowed participants to compare the Australian wheat industry with South Africa’s whilst sharing experiences about their first commercial year of applying Sakura, which controls annual ryegrass, barley grass, annual phalaris, toad rush and silver grass.
Participant Trevor Steadman, grower from Woodbine Farm in Shepparton, Victoria said, “In South Africa they have a serious ryegrass resistance problem and they’re not as advanced in research and development as we are in Australia, so Sakura will be a great fit for them.”
“Sakura has worked well for us on our farm; we’ve seen great results in our wheat crops,” he added.
Over the course of the study tour, there were farm visits and a forum session to discuss success, challenges and the overall experience with Sakura in wheat crops.
Stuart McLaverty, Portfolio Manager Broadacre Rice & Seed Treatment, at Bayer CropScience said, “In Australia, Sakura has demonstrated up to 97% control of populations of annual ryegrass resistant to Group A, B and D herbicides.”
“Sakura is yet to be launched in South Africa, so we’re about 12 – 18 months ahead of where they are with the development of this product. It offers growers up to 12 weeks residual weed control in certain soil types and is formulated as a water dispersible granule (WG) making it easy to measure, mix and clean up with no staining and no stink,” Stuart added.
The study tour was interactive and served as a mechanism for feedback from the field, as growers shared their experience.
Nathan Stoll, Customer Service Manager from AGnVET Services in Mangoplah New South Wales, said, “The tour was valuable for providing cross-country learning. It was exciting, engaging and rewarding, and created a great networking opportunity.”
“There is no doubt that after participating in the South Africa study tour that we have come back with a renewed enthusiasm and a greater understanding of world agriculture,” Nathan added.
Rick Horbury, Technical Advisor, Northern Broadacre Region & Horticulture from Bayer CropScience said, “It was great to see Australian and South African growers and agronomists coming together and sharing their experience with Sakura, everyone had lots to take away from the trip.”
The study tour took place from 26 August to 4 September.