With spring now officially underway, a review of crops in the ground so far this season shows that many are looking forward after what has been quite a kind winter.
Such is the case for Ed Lammie, agronomist at Agrii, who says the crops he looks after in the West are looking full of potential. “I cover South Wales, Gloucestershire and down towards Oxfordshire and crops are looking pretty forward, with a lot of potential and moving fast. They’ve come out of winter really well.”
As such, the T0 timing is fast approaching and Ed fears that application windows are likely to get quite squeezed, with second applications of nitrogen, T0 sprays and nutrition all looking likely to be needed at the same time. “My T0 timing is probably going to end up being a package full of nutrition which could end up being quite a complicated tank-mix.”
So to mitigate against this and to protect that crop potential this spring, the use of Interagro’s adjuvant Kantor will be a no-brainer once again this season, says Ed.
Kantor is an activator adjuvant from Interagro which is designed to enhance compatibility in tank mixes, control drift and improve both chemical coverage and penetration. It’s claimed to be the only adjuvant on the market to benefit the full mixing and spraying process, end-to-end, allowing growers to ‘super-charge’ the whole tank-mix, says Interagro’s Stuart Sutherland.
Tank-mix security
This year will be Ed’s fifth season using the product, which he now includes with 100% of cereal programmes – from T0 to T3. “It’s a mainstay of our programmes and buys me a bit of security – I feel more confident that I can put a complicated mix together by using Kantor as it ensures the tank does get mixed and I get the full potential out of every product.”
As well as this, Ed says Kantor’s ability to improve rainfastness through enhanced spreading and uptake, also enables him to breathe a sigh of relief when catchy spring showers threaten chemistry performance. “When it has rained, I feel a lot more confident when I’ve had that decent spread of product onto the leaf that Kantor encourages.”
With a lot of his farms in hard water/high pH areas, Kantor also provides a benefit due to its pH buffering abilities, he adds. “Especially down towards the Marlborough Downs where the water quality is poorer, Kantor just seems to allow products to do the work they’re designed to do without being affected by this.”
Septoria concerns
Looking to what may threaten the crop potential so far, Ed says his biggest concern is septoria. “I need to get the best out of what I do use this year due to no longer having access to my usual product of choice. This is where Kantor comes in again.
“When we’re thinking about septoria and considering when we can get a tank load of product out here and there, Kantor really does come into its own. I feel confident to go and capture those weather windows and that the product is going to go where I want it to and do what I need it to do.
“The potential is out there this year – there’s a lot of good crops out and about – so looking after them is going to be critical. I can’t remember crops coming out of winter as forward as they do this season.”
Kantor key functions
- Improves tank-mixing and compatibility via micro-emulsifying compatibility aid
- Buffers pH, preventing alkaline hydrolysis
- Boosts spreading and retention of chemistry by reducing surface tension between the spray solution and the crop surface, improving coverage across target leaves
- Drift control by reducing ultra-fine spray droplets and instead maintaining a more uniform droplet size
- Unique penetrating properties maximise uptake of all components of the tank-mix
For more information on the key benefits of Kantor in early spring spraying, please watch the video below:
For more information on Kantor or for technical support, please visit: https://www.interagro.
