Weed Control

Weed control seems to have reached a crisis level in some fields.  I sampled a field in early July that had been sprayed with something, based on some crispy leaves, but nothing was dying.  I had a client who sprayed and seemed to get a good kill, but the waterhemp was sprouting at the base of some of the plants.  Lots of people are using something to make the glyphosate work better.  Lots of people are using soil applied residual herbicides especially on corn.  I saw corn fields that were clean because of the residuals.  I know some of them were not sprayed at all with glyphosate.  That is a step in the right direction.  It would appear that there was not as much residual material applied to soybean fields.  Yes, I am still seeing some clean fields, but weeds are the rule in a lot of areas.  Additives and or products like Cobra are burning the soybeans.  It looks sort of like the Basagran and Blazer days. Wetness has made timely spraying difficult.  I like seeing the 2 foot tall weeds dying when they get sprayed, but the kill would be much more effective if they were sprayed when 2 inches tall. 

No-till Farmer had a question this morning about using UAN 28% solution with glyphosate.  The advice is sound.  The nitrogen product with the glyphosate does not provide enough N to really affect a nitrogen deficient crop.  It also does not provide enough sulfur to correct a sulfur deficiency. 

Surprisingly, I have seen very little mechanical weed control.  I have one customer who used a cultivator to incorporate some supplemental urea.  I suspect the added weed control and aeration made the operation more than  pay for itself.  I have not seen anybody either walking or riding a4 wheeler in soybeans with a hoe trying to kill escapes.  I know this practice is labor intensive, but some fields  have few enough weed escapes that lots of ground could be covered quickly.  All it takes is one resistant weed to start a problem.