Key points
- There was no lodging in this trial. The best brackling control and highest grain yield, by 0.7 t/ha, was from treatments with Terpal applied at GS49. There was no yield advantage in preceding the Terpal spray with either Moddus or Cycocel.
- Treatments without Terpal were bird damaged, possibly because the grain matured more quickly in these plots and was more desirable to the birds early in the season.
- In the Terpal treated plots, it is not possible to determine how much of the yield increase was due to the prevention of brackling and how much to the lack of bird damage.
- Plant growth regulator programmes need to be tailored to specific cultivar height and straw strength characteristics, sow date and soil fertility.