The combination of some lingering supply chain issues, most notably Sharpen and Verdict are in tight supply, with the ever-increasing presence of herbicide resistant weeds has made burndown time more of a challenge. On a positive note, glyphosate is in great supply and down in price about 40% compared to last year. Continue reading
We have gotten several reports of wheat showing metribuzin injury this week. In some cases it clearly was caused by metribuzin (Picture 1). In other cases, the visual injury would suggest frost damage (Picture 2). Continue reading
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed additional mitigations and regulations on the use of atrazine. The open comment period will close this Friday October 7. If you are interested in commenting see this link. I know that it is a very busy time of year but please consider making a comment on this topic. You all are the experts since you steward this herbicide, on many acres, each spring and your comments have more value than many that are sent. Continue reading
Every fall we travel around the state and observe the overall success or failure of weed control in our row crops. From the Palmer amaranth standpoint a few too many fields look like a failure. Particularly, from Gibson county across to Lauderdale county cotton and soybean fields ranged from clean fields to fields with more weeds than one would like (Picture 1) to completely grown up pigweed messes (Picture 2). Continue reading
For the past several weeks we are getting reports of waterhemp escaping dicamba application/s from retailers and consultants scouting fields in Montgomery and Macon counties. As one retailer so aptly described it today “combines have spread it and we are fighting it all over the county now”. Continue reading
What are some options to control volunteer XtendFlex soybeans in XtendFlex cotton fields? As mentioned in an earlier blog both Envoke and Staple look to be potential answers to this new issue but without data it was difficult to say. It was brought to my attention that Dr. Alan York, emeritus Professor at North Carolina State University, actually has some data on this problem. A study was conducted in North Carolina and Georgia in 2000 and 2001 with the objective of examining if Envoke, Staple or MSMA could control Roundup Ready volunteer soybean in Roundup Ready cotton. Continue reading
The long hot and mostly dry June and July have driven a good bit of our corn crop to premature maturity. Similar to the drought of 2012 when the corn crop burned up, I would expect a good bit of the prematurely matured corn will be harvested in August and early September. In 2012 a good bit of that early harvested corn was planted to wheat well before the fly free date. I expect many will manage this disappointing corn crop similarly this fall. Continue reading
This long, hot and mostly dry spell has made this growing season a real challenge. Hopefully, we will catch a break this week and can get some much-needed general rain across the state. Herbicide drift is even harder for crops to recover from when drought stressed so please remember to use best management practices applying all herbicides but particularly products that contain dicamba and 2,4-D. Continue reading