Not everything will be at an all-time low this fall, but when I look at Roundup, Liberty, metribuzin, and several others, I believe this will be the lowest net cost we will have ever had on our farm…

Since there is price protection on most ag chemicals again and many prices are at an all-time low, we recommend buying soon, if not right now. Just to be safe, we suggest you take products home, as well.

HERE’S WHY.

AFTER COVID HIT, MANY THINGS IN OUR WORLD CHANGED. At one point, many manufacturers declared force majeure (an act of God) and decided not to honor prices that others had paid for and “locked in”. While the odds are small this will happen again in 2024, why risk it?

IF YOU TAKE THE PRODUCT HOME, YOU KNOW YOU HAVE YOUR COST SET. While most products can be stored safely in cold storage, we still recommend storing all liquid pesticides in heated storage just to be on the safe side. Occasionally, we’ll see poly tanks crack when it’s cold and they get bumped into. It’s also possible for products to not come back into solution perfectly.

For example, if you have a few little black pieces floating to the top of your minibulk tank, that could just be an inert ingredient that didn’t go back into suspension like it should have, and you may want to screen off those little pieces. This isn’t common, but it happens.

LET’S COME BACK TO THESE PRICE CHANGES.

I’ve worked with farmers for years in setting herbicide, insecticide, and fungicide plans. How the conversation usually starts is I ask, “What did you use last year, and were you happy with it?” If the answer is yes, this year’s plan is often very similar to last year’s plan.

Here’s what I’m saying.
With some of the dramatic price changes we’re seeing, you may want to blow up your old plans and start from scratch. On the next page are some things to consider for soybeans, corn, and wheat when making your plans in this new pricing environment.

SOYBEANS

1. ADD METRIBUZIN AND A YELLOW (TRIFLURALIN OR PROWL) TO YOUR PRE-EMERGE/PRE-PLANT INCORPORATED PROGRAM.

These herbicides are very inexpensive, and I will promise you if you use them correctly they will give you very good activity on many of the toughest weeds you will face, including waterhemp, Palmer, kochia, and lambsquarters. The 3 Pre Program (yellow plus metribuzin plus either Valor or Authority) is the best in the world on most Roundup-resistant weeds.

2. SPRAY TWICE FOR VOLUNTEER CORN.

By waiting until your second post-emerge pass, there will definitely be more volunteer corn emerged, so I understand the desire to wait to spray. However, weed-for-weed, volunteer corn is the worst yield-robber you can get in soybeans. Plus, if you kill it early it can’t host corn rootworms any longer, and that’s a big deal. If you wait until late June to control volunteer corn, it’s just like you had no crop rotation because your volunteer corn effectively hosted corn rootworm larvae for that entire stage of their life cycle. In my opinion, late volunteer corn spraying is the number-one reason we are seeing record numbers of rootworms in many areas today.

3. TRY TWO FUNGICIDE APPLICATIONS INSTEAD OF JUST ONE THIS COMING YEAR.

Most farmers we work with have seen great benefits from spraying soybeans once with fungicide in the R2-R3 range. However, when you look at average humidity levels in late July and early August in most regions where soybeans are grown, it’s no wonder why disease pressure continues to increase in soybeans. Yields are going up. Crop canopy is often thick, and when you have that warm, humid weather to go with it, it’s very likely that a second application of fungicide three weeks after your first shot will pay, especially with slightly lower fungicide prices. I’m not saying everyone should automatically spray twice every year, but I am saying when conditions warrant and when your crop looks good, try splitting some fields and see what you get for a yield gain. On our farm, we spray twice almost every single year now that we’ve run lots of trials.

CORN

1. IS IT TIME TO ADD ROUNDUP BACK INTO YOUR PROGRAM AND AT A HIGHER RATE?

If the high rate only costs $2 per acre more than the low rate, why not kill more weeds and control them more quickly?

2. IF YOU HAVE LIBERTY-TOLERANT CORN, YOU CAN USE LIBERTY TO CONTROL ROUNDUP-RESISTANT/TOLERANT WEEDS.

Since Liberty was always expensive, you probably never even considered this – I know we didn’t on our farm – but now that the net cost for glufosinate is one-third what it was two years ago, it is an excellent option to control both grasses and broadleaves at a much lower price than common corn herbicides including Status and DiFlexx.

3. MORE GROUP 15 EITHER PRE OR POST – OR BOTH.

Group 15’s including Harness, Surpass, Outlook, Dual, Zidua, and all their premixes and generics can often be used at higher rates or early post-emerge in addition to pre to add residual and improve late-season control on grasses and many broadleaves.

WHEAT

1. USE A PRE.

Pre-Pare, Sharpen, and Anthem Flex are all great, and Pre-Pare especially is super-inexpensive.

2. ADD AN INSECTICIDE.

We’re looking at an all-time low price for 2nd-generation pyrethroids, so when the cost is under $2 per acre, why not kill your harmful insects?

3. MORE FUNGICIDE COMPETITION.

There are many new fungicides, which is helping drive down the price of the older fungicides. Whatever you use, there are lots of great, reasonably-priced choices now for wheat.

These are certainly not all-inclusive lists. Since ag chem costs for 2024 are down, and in some cases WAY down, you may be able to use better products this season for less money than you paid last year for inferior choices. That’s exciting, as it should lead to higher yields and greater profits.