Wheat Factory

During a recent Wheat U event in Spokane, Washington Jim Vandecovering with BASF talked with wheat growers using factory analogies. In this case he referred to the assembly line that exists in individual wheat plants... That assembly line effectively known as the process of photosynthesis. Herbicides and fungicides were also a part of the discussion. "Photosynthesis is very important to the assembly line of a wheat plant. There are key critical stages of the crop, in this case tillering and jointing which are important because the crop responds to inputs very precisely in those areas. So we talked about herbicide applications at tillering and how important it is to protect that plant early from stresses as well as protect those inputs we have applied to the crop. So those weeds are competing for light and water and fertility just like the crop is and obviously we would like to have them go to the crop instead of the weeds. Weed control is important and fungicides are important at that stage too because a lot of diseases can impact as early as the tillering stage or at the joining stage and the joining stage is critical because that we'd had, even though it is protected, has emerged from the crown of the plant.