As planting comes to an end, its time to remember critical weed free periods. This is a key step to maximize yield. Corn and soybeans, like many crops, are very week competitors in the seedling stage, so let’s keep the soybeans clean until at least V3 (third leaf) and the corn clean until V6 (sixth leaf).
One way to help with this is to have a residual herbicide in your pre-burn; yes, I know this is late for most producers but lets just tuck that in the back pocket for next year. Spring time is hectic on most farms and this can easily cause missing the prime time for the first post emergent herbicide application, so with a residual pre-burn you just bought yourself some time. Try and ensure your residual herbicide is effective on your most problematic weeds.
The goal would also have a post emergent application done well before the end of the critical weed free period. Let the plants have all the nutrients and room to grow and not fight the competitive weeds. And as we are talking post-emergent, lets bring up herbicide resistance. Every farm is susceptible to this no matter what. You can be the best steward of the land out there, but wildlife and wind can bring weed seeds onto your land that have resistance. There are multiple ways for you to get resistance. To help combat this, try to use different herbicide groups that are effective on the same weed. We need to keep all tools available in the tool box for as long as possible so if we start now, those tools will hopefully not be lost.
Here’s to a great end to planting 2018.
