Arable
Wanted: Call for help to prevent ‘new blackgrass’
• Threat to no-till winter cereal crops • Already having an economic impact • Farmers to send in seed collections
F
armers across the region are being asked to help combat the spread of rat’s tail fescue – a grass weed already posing problems in Denmark, France and Spain. Scientists say the weed – which causes signifi cant economic damage – is starting to take hold in England and Wales. It is predominantly a threat in no-till winter cereals, where it rap- idly forms dense carpets and competes with the crop. In Australia, where rat’s tail fescue has been present in fi elds for more than 50 years, farmers have incurred hefty losses through crop yield reduction and contamination of forage and wool. Research leader Lucie Büchi, of
Greenwich University, said rat’s tail fescue was a relatively new grass weed in crops but of increasing concern. In the UK, it is present in natural habi- tats, but its distribution in arable fi elds is yet unknown. “We are launching a UK-wide sur- vey to better understand the current
knowledge and distribution of this spe- cies in the UK, and its association with cropping practices. It’s really impor- tant we get on top of this before it be- comes another blackgrass.” As part of the survey, farmers will be asked to answer questions about their location, soil type and general agronomy. The aim is to identify any correlation between these factors, and the distribution or abundance of rats tail fescue.
Seed samples Dr Büchi – and colleages Laura Cook and Richard Hull from Rothamsted Research – are inviting farmers and agronomists to send them rat’s tail fes- cue seeds so they can start to study the weed in preparation for its likely spread across the UK. Mr Hill said: “We would like farm- ers that have rat’s tail fescue on their land to send us a mature seed sample and we can provide them with instruc- tions for obtaining as good a seed sam-
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Rats tail fescue can devastate cereal crops, say scientists
Weed’s distribution in arable fi elds is yet unknown
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ple as possible. “We plan to run a series of experi- ments looking at how rats tail fescue may adapt to future climates and to study the differences in the life cycle of wild and natural populations com- pared to seed collected from farmers’ fi elds.” To aid with identifi cation of the
plant, a freely available six-page in- formation leafl et and a shorter three- page identifi cation guide have been produced by the team, which is avail- able from Rothamsted. The anonymous survey is open un-
til 31 August. To take part, please visit
www.greenwich.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/ vulpia-survey-uk.
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Photo: Agroscope, Switzerland
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