2
Nov
2020
Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)® data has shown Enlist One® + Liberty® resulted in very effective control of glyphosate-resistant (GR) waterhemp and marestail.
Categories: Agronomy, Agronomy Talk
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29
Oct
What is the best time of day to make Liberty applications?
23
Liberty® and glyphosate are considered to be weak acid herbicides. Water hardness will greatly influence the performance of a weak acid herbicide. Much of the spray water many applicators use comes from wells and is considered to be “hard water.”
20
Contact products like Liberty® require proper coverage to achieve successful weed control. One factor that will influence coverage is the carrier rate. Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)® data shows a 12% increase in waterhemp control when Liberty is sprayed at 20 GPA vs. 15 GPA. Contact herbicides do not move in the plant like a systemic herbicide such as glyphosate does. Therefore, control will be heavily impacted if a contact herbicide does not cover the entire plant.
15
Glyphosate is effective on many of the same weeds on which Liberty is weaker, like grasses, velvetleaf, etc. Therefore, manage a Liberty + glyphosate application just like Liberty alone, since the Liberty is doing the heavy lifting.
Contact products like Liberty® require thorough coverage due to lack of herbicide movement in the plant. This means that the herbicide must come in contact with the plant tissue in order to achieve control. Systemic products such as glyphosate can translocate throughout the plant, making coverage not as crucial.
12
Canopy closure is one of the best defenses to prevent the germination of weeds. The competition from canopy closure will reduce the amount of light, making it much harder for weeds to germinate. When applying a pre-emerge herbicide, followed by an in-season residual, the goal is for the blanket of protection to last until canopy closure. Therefore, it is critical for the residual herbicide to last until canopy closure, which may not occur on wider rows. Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)® data shows narrow rows can help reduce waterhemp pressure in the untreated check.
7
Do you face the same challenging weeds you faced 20 or 30 years ago? In the past 30 years, farmers have adopted more soil conservation practices such as no-till and shallower tillage methods. This shift in tillage practices will impact the weed species in your fields.
5
Cover crops not only play an important role in soil heath, but also in weed control. Cover crops can reduce selection pressure on current, effective herbicide options, and they can also suppress weeds due to the large amounts of biomass they produce. Similar to canopy coverage, biomass will shade the soil and reduce weed emergence.
30
Sep
WHAT IS A WINTER ANNUAL?
Winter annuals will germinate in the fall, overwinter, and produce seed in early spring and summer. Common examples include marestail, henbit, purple deadnettle, prickly lettuce, common chickweed, shepherd’s purse, pennycress, etc. Most winter annuals will overwinter as a rosette and bolt in the spring, producing seed in early summer. However, marestail can have extended germination which can result in additional flushes of weeds in the spring and even early summer.
One of the first steps to a successful herbicide program is starting clean to allow the pre-emerge herbicide to reach the soil surface. The burndown also allows the opportunity to utilize other “effective” SOAs that can’t be used in-season such as Gramoxone® SL 2.0. Spraying early in the spring provides the opportunity to control winter annuals like marestail as well as emerging summer annuals such as giant ragweed.
21
Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)® data shows the importance of using pre-emerge herbicides with multiple effective SOAs in order to lay the foundation for a successful herbicide program. The question is whether the pre-emerge herbicide will last until canopy closure. Once we reach canopy closure, the limited light makes it difficult for new flushes of weeds to emerge.
17
Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This quote can be applied to weed management today. Preventing weeds from emerging protects yield.
10
The easiest weeds to control are those that never emerge. Cliché? Maybe. But as weeds continue to adapt, mounting resistance to herbicides builds every year. Sustainable control has become increasingly more challenging to achieve.
Categories: Agronomy
Aug
Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
This quote can be applied to weed management today. A successful pre-emerge application lays the foundation for a successful post-emerge application.
Jun
With summer heat comes summer storms- and occasionally, hail damage. The impact (no pun intended) of hail on your crop depends on the severity of the initial damage, the growth stage of the crop, and weather conditions as the crop recovers.
22
May
Farmers are itching to get back into the fields after recent rains and to finish soybean planting for 2020. As we start to put planting into road gear, we are focused on finishing the job, but what about the next step in weed management? As planting is delayed, the June 20 cut off for applications of dicamba inches closer for some states in the Midwest.
Categories: Agronomy Talk
This agronomy brief covers the damage caused by the most common early-season soybean pests, how to identify them, and how to manage them.
This agronomy brief covers the damage caused by the most common early-season corn pests, how to identify them, and how to manage them.
Soybean yields ultimately depend on the number and weight of the seeds harvested per acre. Soybean yield is determined by nodes per acre (plants per acre x nodes per plant), pods per node, seeds per pod, and seed weight.