Cropside: What’s the best herbicide for you?

A GROWER WALKED into my office about five years ago, frustrated having just come from a soybean field with inadequate weed control. We talked about options for next year and I pulled several University of Guelph research reports off my shelf to show him trials that evaluated herbicide performance on weeds that weren’t being controlled on his farm. As we looked through the piles of reports he said something that stuck with me, “It would be nice if this work could be summarized in a place where I could access it more easily.”

That comment was the catalyst for the herbicide selection program, www.weedpro75.com, where growers and agronomists can review weed control strategies in corn, cereals and soybeans. There are four basic steps to getting the pre-season answers you need:

 

Step one
Review your field notes to identify weed species that exist in your fields.

Step two
Go to www.weedpro75.com and select the crop that you intend to plant and the weeds that you need to control.

Step three
Look at the options that weedpro75.com supplies. The weedpro software considers how competitive the selected weeds are, how well those weeds are controlled by the herbicide options and how much residual weed control the herbicides supplies. The price of the herbicide is also a big consideration. Pricing information can be changed at any time to reflect your true costs.

Step four
Take the list of treatments that weedpro75.com provides and talk with your certified crop adviser to see if they are suitable for your operation.

Now all that’s left to do is apply the agreed upon treatment. •