Pulse grower worries weed-control difficulties following EU chemical rules

A pulse grower has spoken of the tricky balancing act forced upon him by EU changes to pesticide rules and is warning fellow growers of difficult times ahead.

Andrew Lensen said he was worried about the loss of active ingredients for peas and beans and has had to adopt alternative approaches to weed control.

The farm manager for Velcourt said pulse growers had lost many herbicides in recent years and the impending EU review would intensify the "worrying trend".

"We used to use Opogard (terbutryn + terbuthylazine) in our pulse crops. But this went along with other herbicides containing the active ingredients, including cyanazine, fomesafen, simazine, terbutryn and now trifluralin."

Lensen grows 200ha of spring beans and 110ha of vining peas. He manages 600ha and contract-farms a further 1,700ha.

Lack of choice made him rely on pre-emergence herbicide Nirvana for weed control in his spring beans and vining peas. The product, based on the two residual herbicides imazamox and pendimethalin, tackled volunteer rape and polygonums and attacked black-grass.

Lensen warned of a late year for drilling peas and beans. Last year he started vining pea and spring bean drilling around 20 February, he said. "But this year even on our lightest soils it will be well into March before we can get started," he added.

- Meanwhile, an ingredient for grass weeds in legume crops has won the thumbs-up from EU pesticides chiefs.

Triallate, the active ingredient in Avadex herbicide, received a positive listing for Annex 1 under the EU agrochemical directive (91/414).

"This is good news for farmers throughout the UK," said Ken Simpson, a manager at Gowan Comercio, which owns Avadex.

"This product is a valuable tool for the management of grasses resistant to other herbicides and its loss would have had serious consequences.

"Avadex triallate can now go forward for re-registration. UK growers will continue to have a proven product to control grass-weeds effectively. This is an increasingly challenging task as many major active ingredients are falling at the registration hurdle and the problem of weed resistance expands."