Read time: 5 minutes

Is sunlight breaking down herbicides for dry sowing?

Is sunlight breaking down pre-em herbicides where farmers are dry sowing? Our Western Extension Agronomist, Peter Newman, has been fielding questions over the last few days via Twitter on this. He did some digging and found that sunlight is only having a small effect on pre-emergent herbicide degradation. It turns out that light rain is the main risk – firing up microorganisms to start microbial degradation before the true season break.

ICAN’s Mark Congreve, AHRI’s Dr Roberto Busi and University of Adelaide’s Dr Christopher Preston provided Pete with some more detailed information which he has put together to explain what’s happening in the video below.

We’ve also made Module 4 from our latest Diversity Era Course, Pre-Emergent Herbicides 101, with Dr Christopher Preston, available. You can watch the video below where Chris talks in detail about herbicide breakdown. Did you know you can do all of our Diversity Era courses for free? You can sign up for Pre-Emergent Herbicides 101 here.





Related Articles

Related Articles

View all
Article
News

Reinventing the pre-seeding double-knock tactic

Glufosinate is a double-knock alternative where annual ryegrass has glyphosate and paraquat resistance – but it is not a simple swap. Read More...
Article
News

Drone spraying and spreading technology update

Will agricultural drones become a routine spraying option on farms, or will they remain as a wet weather backup option? Read More...
Article
News

Build a robust program around residual herbicides

Residual herbicides must be integrated into a bigger system and should not be used on their own in high weed seed bank situations. Read More...

Subscribe to the WeedSmart Newsletter