With CRUCIAL and Nail 600EC, your farmers have not only a breakthrough glyphosate at their disposal but also a new high-strength companion herbicide formulation to go with it as required.

“The result is a great combination of technical and performance benefits designed to give resellers and farmers confidence that they have the best tools available for the job,” says Emma Sargent, Nufarm NZ marketing manager.

Released to the New Zealand market in late spring, after a long wait, CRUCIAL has been attracting plenty of attention and not just because of eye-catching, widespread marketing and promotion.

A key selling point has been that rapid rainfastness – 15 minutes with Pulse Penetrant – which sets a new benchmark in terms of flexibility and knowing the job is done properly even when conditions are unpredictable and challenging. “It’s our commercial guarantee, and it’s also been really important with the ‘spring’ we’ve had, which has been more of a nonspring for a lot of farmers trying to get crops and grass in the ground,” Sargent says.

With this new product as the backbone of autumn paddock preparation, end-users will be well positioned to get new pasture off to a clean, healthy start, free of weed competition. And thanks to a recent reformulation of Nail EC, she says, they will have less companion herbicide to mix, store and apply, should their weed spectrum require a spike.

Nail has been significantly strengthened to 600 g per litre cafentrazone-ethyl, compared to the original 240 g per litre formulation. Nufarm technical specialist Cynthia Christie says companion herbicides are often required in summer cropping paddocks which are earmarked for new perennial or annual ryegrass pasture this autumn.

“There are some weeds which the glyphosate molecule does not control, which your farmers definitely do not want in their new pasture,” she says. “They’re not always present, but if your farmers miss them now, they also miss their last chance to get rid of them."

In the case of summer crop paddocks, tank mixing Nail EC herbicide with CRUCIAL and Pulse Penetrant will control a wide range of weeds, including annual poa, bur medic, chickweed, cleavers, mallow, fathen, fumitory, hawksbeard, nettles, prairie grass, oxtongue, speedwell, wireweed and shepherds purse.

Nail EC is rainfast in one hour and has zero plantback and grazing withholding periods, so farmers don’t face extra delays at what is normally a busy time of the year.

Other potential companion herbicides for CRUCIAL include Charter 750WDG, Sero 750WG, Kamba 750 and Archer 750.
Each has a different fit depending on the situation; in all cases Christie recommends a thorough check of what weed species are present before making a recommendation.

To help farmers get the best out of their autumn spray-out, Nufarm has developed an informative chart matching companion herbicides with their relevant weeds, and showing application rates, grazing WHP, rainfast periods and plantback periods for subsequent crops.

For more detail contact your local Nufarm territory manager.