Narrow Windrow Burning (NWB)
Narrow Windrow Burning (NWB), is one of the most common HWSC methods chosen by farmers. It’s relatively easy to adopt and provides good results for weed management, but it does have its fair share of problems.
It is time-consuming; comes with a high nutrient removal cost; removes much of the ground cover from the paddock; there is a risk of fire escapes, and it is difficult to achieve a good burn contained to the windrow over the entire farm.
For these reasons, we are seeing many growers moving to some of the other tools that focus on the chaff fraction only. NWB is a bit of an art form and there are some core steps you need to take to get a job done well. Firstly, you have to harvest low. Secondly, you have to make sure you pick the right time to conduct your burn.
This is when the grass fire index is between two and 10. A light crosswind is ideal, and ideally, light up every 200-400m.
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