Warmer weather is sure to bring with it a flush of weeds. That has farmers preparing for this season’s spring burndown.
With resistance always top of mind, weed scientists say it’s important to mix and match herbicides, and find products with different sites of action and timings.
Retailers are reminding farmers their options and choices may look different in 2022.
As of mid-March, supplies are solid, says Scott Stout, crop protection and seed business manager at Co-Alliance.
“There are some products we’re still waiting on,” he says. “For growers, that’s the hardest thing for them to comprehend—we’re still waiting for some of these key chemistries to come out because they haven’t come off the line yet.”
If you end up with a smaller-than-normal supply of herbicide, don’t fall into the “less is more” trap.
“If you cut the rate, you can get more acres out of it, right? That’s absolutely what we don’t want to do,” says Drake Copeland, technical service manager at FMC. “When you talk about herbicides, we’ve shown in research cutting rates on herbicides does nothing for us in terms of resistance. In the soil seed bank, when you let when one weed go, like a water hemp plant, you’re going to be dealing with that for the next three to five years.”
Copeland says a sub-lethal dose only drives increased weed resistance. He believes the goal should be to reduce soil weed seed bank over time and have zero tolerance for escapes.
Read more on weeds:
> Low Herbicide Supplies Offer a New Approach to Weed Management
> A Secret Seed Society at Michigan State Continues to Uncover Weed Seed Answers 142 Years Old
