IS IT TIME TO RE-INVENT YOUR HERBICIDE PROGRAM?

This summer, I saw a lot of weedy fields throughout the Midwest. Farmers told me the biggest reasons they didn’t get great control included:

• WEED RESISTANCE
• DROUGHT
• EXCESSIVE HEAT

While I agree that all these factors and more played into poor control, you can overcome all those things and just about every other issue we saw this year by following these three steps.

1. PICK BETTER HERBICIDES (and on a related note, stop picking herbicides that are terrible)

2. USE STRONGER RATES

3. SPRAY TIMELY (this could mean you have to make an additional application if another flush shows up)

When you look at all three of these things, your first response can likely be summed up in one word — cost. Right? Who wants to spend more on a different herbicide, spend more for a higher rate, and spend more for an additional application?

Here’s the good news.
Ag chemical prices for 2024 will be down!!!

Today, you can likely pay less for glyphosate or glufosinate than you’ve ever paid. Pretty much every generic product is down in price, and most name brand pesticides are either down or we expect them to be down when manufacturers come with the rest of their prices this fall. With lower prices, it’s easier to add the tankmix partner you know you need or bump the rate of the herbicide that could give you more residual.

Here are examples of each of these three points in corn, soybeans, and wheat.

CORN

1. BETTER HERBICIDE

Status post-emerge is better than any HPPD or straight dicamba product out there. If you are struggling to kill waterhemp, Palmer, kochia, ragweed, or any other broadleaf, spend the money on Status. It’s the best, hands-down.

2. HIGHER RATE

If you’ve been using a reduced rate of a Group 15 pre-emerge, go back to the full rate. Harness at 2 pints, for example, isn’t bad, but 2.7 pints is significantly better on small-seeded broadleaves, and it gives you much longer residual for grass and broadleaves.

3. SPRAY TIMELY

Instead of waiting until V5 or later to spray your corn, start at V2 or V3. That’s what we went to a few years ago on our farm, and our control is so much better. The weeds are smaller, but the big thing is when it rains or is too windy to spray, it doesn’t push your application to much later when the weeds are huge. No herbicide will kill 12-inch-tall weeds consistently. Start spraying earlier.

SOYBEANS

1. BETTER HERBICIDE

Use the 3 Pre’s. This means a yellow (Trifluralin or Prowl), a PPO (Authority or Valor), and metribuzin. While there are alternatives, none are as effective on the weeds you need to control.

2. HIGHER RATE

Use 43 ounces of Liberty instead of 32 ounces. In many cases this will dramatically boost control, and it will help you prevent weed resistance.

3. SPRAY TIMELY

Instead of waiting until your second post-emerge pass to spray volunteer corn, spray volunteer corn when it is one to two inches tall in late May or early June. By the time many people get to their volunteer corn application, it’s July, the corn is more than a foot tall, and then we “wonder” why the herbicide didn’t work well and blame it on antagonism, drought, or weed resistance. Volunteer corn is easy to kill when it’s two inches tall or less.

WHEAT

1. BETTER HERBICIDE

WideARmatch/Huskie Fx. Okay, this is two herbicides, but both are amazing and significant upgrades from their old versions, WideMatch and Huskie. If you are spraying anything else for broadleaves, you don’t have a product that is nearly as broad-spectrum or likely as effective as either WideARmatch or Huskie Fx.

2. HIGHER RATE

It’s a wheat acre. Can you honestly tell me you’ve never cut the rate on herbicide before? Use the full rate for better control, longer residual, fewer resistant weeds, and higher yields.

3. SPRAY TIMELY

Use a pre-emerge herbicide. Whether it’s Sharpen (wipe out 90% of your kochia), Pre-Pare (kill 80% of your grasses), or Anthem Flex (stop 80% of most ALS-resistant broadleaves and 90% of most ALS-resistant grasses), you need a pre if you are having any weed issues at all. Since most wheat is produced in dry areas, keep in mind that when you kill weeds before they emerge those weeds can’t rob your water and nutrients, so typically yields are much higher when pre-emerge herbicides are applied in wheat.

These are certainly not all-inclusive lists. If you want better weed control, simply use better products, higher rates, and spray more timely.

Since ag chem costs for 2024 are down, and in some cases WAY down, you should be able to accomplish all this and get higher yields without spending much more than you did in either of the last 2 years.