Looking ahead to the autumn and establishing new crops is always a time for a fresh approach and optimism on farm.

However, this season growers have the pressure of unprecedented market volatility causing much higher priced inputs, as they look to the most cost-effective options for profitable crop management.

Producing the very highest quality and cost-effective crop protection products that provide growers with the tools they need to farm profitably, has always been the ethos of leading off-patent manufacturer Life Scientific, said country manager for the UK and Ireland, Ruth Stanley.

“So we are delighted to announce that from this autumn, growers will be able to use a newly approved dose rate of our grass and broad leaved weed herbicide Firestarter in winter wheat and barley. This new dose rate allows for Firestarter to be used as a follow-up post emergence treatment at 0.3l/ha, in addition to its existing pre- emergence use of 0.6l/ha,” she commented.

Firestarter is a herbicide for grass and broad leaved weed control containing 400g/l flufenacet and 100g/l diflufenican in line with its reference product Liberator.

As with all of the products available from Life Scientific, Firestarter is produced through the unique process of reverse engineering – the ability to manufacture a product that is accepted as the same as that of the reference product by the regulatory authority.

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Mrs Stanley explains that this exciting approval broadens the choice for autumn weed control programmes and costs. “Firestarter can be used as a follow up treatment to Luximo, the new pre-emergence herbicide, as a cost- effective follow up, or it can be used in an alternative product stack or on its own as both a pre and post-emergence treatment.”

“However, it’s important to note that where Firestarter is applied twice in sequence and the total dose is 0.9l/ha, the first application must be made before GS14 of the crop, leaving a minimum interval of 6 weeks between applications,” she says.

Firestarter has also been approved for use in spring barley at 0.3l/ha at a pre-emergence timing.

For more information on Firestarter or any other products in the Life Scientific portfolio please visit the Life Scientific website https://lifescientific.com/products/