This Blog section is for news about Rainbow & Brown products and their application but especially new products.
06 Oct
In reply to a customer question Sept 2013
1. Decision is a good spray for pasture-friendly weed control in new pasture. It handles fathen, and quite a few other relevant species. See attached copy of the directions leaflet for weeds controlled, rates, etc. Note that it's only fully safe on clover after the clover has passed the two-leaf (i.e. two trifoliate leaves) stage.
2. With your older clover pastures you'll need something else, because Decision won't control thistles and ragwort.
- Can't use our GrassMate, because although it will control both those weeds at all growth stages, it's not clover-friendly.
- MCPA750 will control thistles at the rosette stage, but not ragwort. And it's going to temporarily suppress some clover species.
- 2,4-D Granules does control young thistles and ragwort, but you still have to graze the clover leaf off (as much as you can) first to minimise clover suppression. It won't handle large thistles & ragwort very effectively.
- Products containing a combination of both MCPB + MCPA, which we don't have an equivalent of, are more clover friendly than straight MCPA, and controls young thistles quite well, but it will not control ragwort.
- Other options, if practical, are spot spraying with GrassMate or with MSF600 (cheapest option), or direct application with our dry granule product BuckShot. These are useful for scattered thistles & ragwort at any growth stage, but impractical for heavier infestations. All these will cause pasture damage to the spot actually sprayed or sprinkled.
- Another option, and it's a good one if practical for you & your sites, is to weed wipe with MSF600 which is actually our gorse & brush weed spray containing metsulfuron-methyl. It can do no pasture damage when it's wiped of course, and it's very effective against all thistles and also ragwort, at any growth stage. And very inexpensive per hectare; by far the cheapest!
26 Oct
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Every NZ farm that uses hazardous substances needs an up-to-date chemical inventory and a current safety data sheet (SDS) for each product, kept where workers and emergency services can get to them. When WorkSafe checked 680 sheep, beef and dairy farms in late 2025, missing SDSs and inventories were behind 94% of the improvement notices issued. B..
08 Oct
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2131
A wetter helps spray droplets spread across a leaf and stay there, instead of beading up and rolling off before the herbicide gets in. Use a non-ionic wetter for everyday spraying, and step up to an organosilicone wetter for waxy, hairy, dusty or stressed weeds. Always check the herbicide label first, because it tells you whether a wetter is need..
30 Sep
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Spring is the only time of year a wasp queen is on her own. She's out of hibernation, building a small nest by herself and feeding her first larvae with no workers to back her up. Catch her now and that nest never forms, which means no colony of thousands and no new queens next autumn.
✓Queens are active from early spring, roughly September to..
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