Weed Science Field Day

Crowd at U of I today

Montgomery County Weeds

 I spotted this field early this morning as I headed to the University of Illinois Weed Science Field day.  If I knew who farmed this field, I would have taken him with me.

One of Hundreds of Combinations tested.

 The Weed Science Group is testing hundreds of combinations of hercides on the South Farm at Champaign -Urbana.  This combinations of herbicides seemed to be pretty effective.  I do not endorse products or give specific chemical advise.  This is just to show what was going on. 

This combination seemed pretty effective too.

One of the things being tested was single product soil applied herbicides.  No one product appeared to be effective on its own.  Multiple Modes of action and multiple chemistry is preached for a reason.  I asked one of the researchers about mechanical weed control (cultivation).  He said they did not have any cultivation plots even though it was in the news a bit this spring.  

Control Plot with no treatment

Just so no one gets the idea that there is no weed pressure on this site, check out the control plot.  It is very weedy.

The weed science day was a great opportunity for farmers and retailers to see what is really working in the field.   Lots of time was allowed to browse the plots in both corn and soybeans.  I did not post any corn potos because the crop is further along and it is really not as easy to see the weeds.

I also took the opportunity to network with U of I weed scientist Dr. Aaron Hager. I asked him if he was seeing any problems with herbicide effectiveness because of dry weather.  He said that one of the problems he has observed is dust on leaves.  I missed this when it was published in May, but it still applies to spraying soybeans.  He said the most effective solution is to slow down when spraying so you don't kick up as much dist.