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Dealing with Possible Herbicide Carryover in 2022

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None of us need reminding how difficult 2021 was for farming in Western Canada because of the severe drought experienced in most places, along with the disruptions of a global pandemic. If it were possible, I would have asked my high school bully if that offer to slap me into next year was still on the table! But at last, here we are in 2022, looking forward to a much better year. However, like a boxer ready to step back into the ring, we may still be carrying a few scars from our last fight. One of those scars could be herbicide carryover.

What is herbicide carryover?

Herbicide carryover happens when a soil residual herbicide does not break down completely over the summer and leaves residues that may harm the next crop. Herbicides break down more quickly in warm, moist soils due to increased microbial and chemical degradation under those conditions. Therefore, the extremely dry conditions experienced in many areas during last year’s growing season have increased the potential for crop damage from herbicide carryover in 2022. In general, areas that received less than 125 millimeters (about 5 inches) of accumulated rainfall between June 1 and August 30 may be at risk, especially if the soils are sandy, have low organic matter, and soil pH is lower than 6.5 or higher than 7.5.

How to detect herbicide carryover before the start of the cropping season

A simple way to assess suspected herbicide carryover is to do a bioassay. This involves growing the intended crop or a sensitive crop in pots containing soil from a treated field and a ‘’check” soil from an untreated area close to the field. Seeds should be planted not later than a day or two after the soils are collected to minimize herbicide degradation of the soil samples under favourable conditions, which will skew the results. Place the pots in direct sunlight or under a suitable light source, at about room temperature. Water as needed but avoid waterlogging. Observe the plants 2 – 3 weeks after emergence and note any visual differences in plant height, root density, and overall plant health.  Plants experiencing herbicide injury will show symptoms of poor health when compared to the check.

How to manage herbicide carryover

Accurate record-keeping that indicates the type of herbicides and amount of rainfall a field received is important to assess potential herbicide carryover risks. Pay attention to rotational restrictions by the herbicide manufacturer and consult with the manufacturer for additional guidance in abnormal situations such as after the drought of 2021. If herbicide carryover is confirmed, the safe thing to do would be to seed the field to a crop with tolerance to the herbicide group that has been carried over, taking other essential farm management plans into consideration. Your SynergyAG team will be happy to provide the necessary agronomic guidance for a successful 2022 season.

– Ikenna Mbakwe, PhD, PAg

  Head of Research

  SynergyAG

Trick or Treat Your Seed

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October is here, and as we’re out buying treats for the trick or treaters, it’s also time we start thinking about treats for our seeds. Seed treatment, that is. Fall to Winter is the optimal time to treat seed, as crops are being sold and the bins are emptying out, and it saves us time in the race that is Spring. At SynergyAG, we are home to world-class seed treatment facilities, where we can treat anything from cabbage to corn and everything in between with a variety of different seed treatments.

So Why Treat Your Seed?

Your seed is at 100% yield potential up until it is put into the ground. Once seeded, it is exposed to many stressors that reduce seed survivability, seedling vigor, and plant health. These stressors are environmental, insects, pathogens, and overall lack of starter nutrients. It is the role of seed treatment to protect the seed from these stressors. 

Seed treatments that are available here at SynergyAG come in three main forms: Protectants (Insecticides and fungicides), Biologicals, and Nutrients. 

Protectants

Seed is treated with Insecticides – neonic, and non-neonicotinoids – to protect the seed and seedlings from insects such as wireworms, cutworms, and flea beetles. Typically, these products are systemic. This means that the insect must consume a small portion of the seed/plant for the insecticide to enter their body, move through the Central Nervous System, and kill them: preventing further damage.

The other main form of protectants is Fungicides. These are used to protect the seed and future plant from soil-borne and seed-borne pathogens. These pathogens can impact the germination or infect the seed post-germination. 

Biologicals

Biologicals are applied to the seed to help the plants grow in drought, cold, heat, and other non-ideal conditions, and helps the plants grow even better in ideal situations. These biologicals deliver microorganisms and other natural compounds that help ward off soil-borne pathogens and help with nutrient uptake. 

Nutrients

Finally, nutrients that are vital for seed germination and seedling survivability are applied to the seed for optimal uptake. Seed-applied nutrients help to feed the seedling until they can access and utilize nutrients in and outside of its row. Common seed-applied nutrients are copper, molybdenum, zinc, and calcium. Each nutrient plays its own role in seedling development and germination.

Germination is essential to plant stand, plant health, and overall crop yield. Treating your seed allows for the plant to get off to a vigorous start by minimizing exposure to stressors.

At SynergyAG, we are here to provide an even, and hassle-free seed treatment that is tailored to your needs.  Contact your SynergyAG representative to discuss what seed treatment options are best for you. Don’t get tricked by what the soil throws at your crop. Treat your seed to help maximize your yield potential!

Plant Re-Growth?

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Is your field still looking green after the combine has rolled through?

With the lack of moisture experienced this past year, some combines have fired up earlier then usual, as the lifecycle of plants may have been cut short. A combination of an earlier harvest with late season rains has also led to more plants, both crop and weeds regrowing after they have been swathed and combined.

Have you ever thought about how many nutrients are used when it comes to plant regrowth?

Any actively growing plants in a field are busy taking up soil water and nutrients as they build leaf and root tissue. Although small, young juvenile plants have a high concentration of certain nutrients like Nitrogen and Potassium and can assimilate a large amount in a short period of time. In fact, many crops like Canola and Wheat take up nearly 90% of their total Nitrogen within the first 6-8 weeks of growth.

While it may be tempting to assume that these nutrients will be available for next years crops there are many factors that affect mineralization rates including plant material growth stage, Carbon to Nitrogen ratio, incorporation, temperature, moisture, and many more. The other consideration is the uniformity of regrowth, is it on every acre or patchy? How much N should I apply across the field?

As with many decisions a grower must make, the 2022 fertility plan is full of uncertainty and tough decisions. The widespread reduction in yields caused by prolonged drought, hail, and unrelenting heat this year leave enough question marks as to what to apply in the spring, with the rapid and widespread regrowth only adding to this complication. While there is no crystal ball to know what to apply, soil testing coupled with the experience and knowledge of your Synergy AG team can help you with your decisions for the upcoming year. For further information please contact the Synergy AG rep in your area!

Planning Farming Practices Ahead of Dry Conditions

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For farmers, the start to a new crop year begins much before all the equipment hits the fields in the spring. To start off the new crop year, you must review the past years operations, and make a crop plan based on your past success and the commodity market. Planning consists of choosing which practices to utilize, what crops to grow, what inputs to use and many more. These decisions are usually made based on a prediction of what the growing conditions are going to be like for the upcoming year. Across the Canadian Prairies, specifically Saskatchewan, large areas have seen below average precipitation in the past four years. Some years receiving less than half the average rainfall, results in extremely dry conditions. Fortunately, there are many ways to adapt and change farming practices to ensure you will remain productive during dry conditions. Tools such as fertilizing, choosing crops to grow, and in-crop control can all be altered based on the condition’s farmers are faced with.

Fertilizing

When creating a fertilizer plan, you need to keep in mind that there are potential losses that can take place throughout the season. There is risk of fertilizer loss from a seedbed that’s lacking moisture, as well as increased risk if you get a precipitation event soon after seeding. Losses of nitrogen (N) can be minimized by adding stabilizers on either their dry or liquid fertilizers. For nitrogen, stabilizers prevent the enzyme urease from converting urea into ammonia gas. If there is not adequate available soil moisture at seeding, you may want to back off the nitrogen you put down. Should environmental conditions favor an increased yield goal, you can top up your nitrogen in season. If you get adequate moisture shortly after seeding, early applications such as broadcasting, dribble banding, and foliar nutrition (such as melted urea) would be an option to add to your herbicides. There are also fertilizers that are more plant available, such as orthophosphates and zinc sulphates. Incorporating these forms of fertilizers have shown very effective results in prairie soils under dry conditions.

Choosing which crops to grow

When growing a crop in dry conditions, it is very beneficial to get your soil tested to determine exactly what type of soil your fields have. Heavier soils with more clay particles have higher water and nutrient holding capacity then lighter soils with a silty/sandy texture. A representative soil test would help you analyze the makeup of your soil and determine the level of available nutrients your soil has. The next key factor is finding out how deep down the moisture is, and try to figure out the ideal depth to place the seed. During dry conditions, there will be an advantage to seeding cereals and pulses a bit deeper than normal to find moisture. Cereals are ideally seeded 1-2 inches deep and pulses 1-3 inches deep. Crops seeded closer to the surface will have more trouble germinating in dry conditions due to lack of moisture. Canola and other oilseeds are optimally seeded at 0.5-1 inches deep.

Another way to manage dry conditions will be to choose crops that are more drought tolerant. Try to choose crops that have lower daily moisture requirements as a way of coping with periods of inadequate moisture. These crops would be mostly cereals and pulses in our area. Cereals like barley have drought-tolerant traits in them and have lower daily water use than most other crops. Pulses, especially lentils, are very drought tolerant. They thrive in dryer conditions, as their daily water use is very low. The moisture requirements of common crops are as follows: cereals (380-430mm), peas (300-370mm), wheat (420-480mm), canola (400-480mm), and corn (580-650mm). Since pulses are an early maturing crop, they have the best chance at early germination, increasing the chance of having pollination completed before the driest part of the season.

In-Crop Control

Dry conditions, as have been seen in the last few years, bring different challenges to overcome when it comes time for in-crop control. Certain strains of insects are starting to become an increasing problem again as drier conditions persist. These pests can greatly impact yield. Insects such as grasshoppers, flea beetles, and cutworms can create detrimental losses to crops when it is dry. When plants are not able to grow fast enough, they struggle to compete with the economic threshold of the insect in the field. Dry conditions also present new or challenging weeds that may require different sources of control efforts. Kochia, thistle, and dandelions all seem to show up when conditions are drier. These weeds compete with the crop for water and nutrients. To control arising insect and weed issues when it’s dry, it may be beneficial to consider a enhanced control herbicide, such as a residual control herbicide. There are residual herbicides that are exceptionally good on kochia. It may also mean you might have to plan to spray an insecticide in season for grasshoppers in your cereals or flea beetles in your canola. These challenges can be watched carefully throughout the growing season by an agronomist.

Plan Ahead

Heading into the 2021 crop year, the potential looks very promising, amid the dry conditions. It will be a year of planning to adapt the farming practices that you can use during dry conditions, such as fertilizing, choosing which crops to grow, and in-crop control.

The commodity markets have also been on the rise for some time and are looking very strong with many markets being bullish. Now it’s time to start planning.

For further information, please contact the local SynergyAG representative in your area!

Treating Your Fertilizer

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As we transition into the winter months, we move away from fieldwork and into the planning stages for next year’s growing season. With crop rotation and soil sample results in mind, a fertility plan can be formed. Decisions must be made such as what type of fertilizer you will use, how much of each product you will need to achieve your desired lbs/ac, and how you would like to apply the fertilizer and when. One should always be thinking of the 4R’s: Right Fertilizer source at the Right rate at the Right time and in the Right place. 

All fertilizers are equally important, and one should not be prioritized over any others however macronutrients such as NPK&S are required in greater quantities and environmental losses are less tolerated by the crop – especially Nitrogen and Phosphorus. 

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a vital nutrient because it is a major component of chlorophyll: a major component of photosynthesis.  Nitrogen also produces amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins that are essential to all plant processes. 

There are a few different forms of nitrogen that are commonly used throughout the prairies. The first being anhydrous ammonia in a gaseous form (NH3), the second being a liquid form (NH4), and the third being a dry formulation such as Urea (NH2). Nitrogen must be transformed from its many different forms into a plant-available form of NH4 through nitrification. These changes are caused by exposure to oxygen and water. 

Treating Nitrogen

Nitrogen moves around in the environment readily and is transformed and lost very easily, it is important to use proper practices to ensure your crop is getting the nitrogen it needs for the growing season. Whether you are broadcasting, top dressing, or putting your nitrogen in a row it is a good idea to treat your nitrogen. There are different options for Nitrogen treatments and stabilizers that work in different ways like inhibiting enzymes and keeping nitrogen in its immobile form for longer. By treating your nitrogen, you are ensuring that 10% more nitrogen will be available to the plant throughout the growing season, increasing your overall Nitrogen efficiency. So, no matter what method of Nitrogen application you are using, treating it will provide long-lasting protection from volatilization and leaching. 

Phosphorus 

Plants need Phosphorus for pretty much all normal processes, helping the plant mature in a timely fashion, photosynthesis and many other functions. Phosphorus levels are key for the plant to be able to complete all stages of the production cycle. Phosphorus is very abundant in our prairie soils but 50-75% of the P is in an inorganic, non-plant available form. The other 25-50% is organic P, this P is transformed into plant available P through processes such as mineralization and immobilization. These processes occur in your soils naturally, but it does not supply enough P necessary for your crop. 

Treating your Phosphorus

Unlike Nitrogen, Phosphorus is not lost due to volatilization but by being fixated in the soil by other cations or (tied up). This fixation is caused by elements such as calcium, aluminum, iron which are positively charged and attract the negatively charged phosphorus ions. Phosphorus treatments work by reacting with these cations, in turn protecting the phosphorus from fixation. By treating your phosphorus, it protects your fertilizer from being fixated in the soil and allows your fertilizer to be almost 50% more plant available, ensuring your phosphorus is available for the plant when it needs it most.

At Synergy AG we want your fertilizer applications to be as efficient as possible. If you want to learn more about fertilizer treatment and your options, contact your local Synergy AG representative or agronomist today!

 

The Value of Soil Testing

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As the cropping season comes to an end, it is right to look back and give kudos to every partner who worked hard these past months to ensure we continue to produce high-quality food and feed; every partner – from the resilient farmer and his patient family to the persistent input supplier and the meticulous agronomist. But perhaps in the community of farming partners, none worked harder than the ground on which our crops grew. The soil held, supplied, and recycled nutrients for plant growth, detoxified pollutants, retained water for use during the drier periods, and served as a firm structure for cropping and other agricultural activities. So, as we take stock and prepare for the next cropping season, finding out the current condition of this priceless partner is of utmost importance.

During a cropping season, several processes impact the soil nutrient status. These include crop nutrient uptake, run-off, and leaching. Over time, the soil nutrient reserve becomes depleted and will need to be replenished. Soil testing provides a way of knowing the level of this nutrient reserve as well as other soil properties affecting how nutrients are released. It is a tool that helps match fertilizer application to the needs of the crop while avoiding wastage and possible contamination of the environment. 

When To Do A Soil Test

Although soil testing just before spring seeding may provide results most closely related to conditions during seeding, fall is a great time for the activity. Soil testing in the fall allows ample time to sample soils, analyze them, examine the data, and make fertilizer plans. Besides, in late fall when soil temperature has dropped to below 10 ⁰C, soil microbial activity has slowed down, so there will be minimal change in nutrient levels between fall and the next spring. Soil testing can also be done anytime during the growing season to determine and correct nutrient deficiencies.

Without data you will have to guess your way through the growing season, and you will either be lucky or wrong. Soil testing can help you take the guesswork out of your fertilizer plans. With the advancement of technology, soil testing is becoming easier, faster, and more accurate. This is what we provide in our soil testing laboratory.  Our agronomists combine soil test results with their expertise and local knowledge to design a prescriptive fertilizer plan to increase the probability of achieving high-quality and high-yielding crops.  

At SynergyAG we treat soil as more than ‘dirt’, we recognize and respect that soil sustains life. Talk to your SynergyAG team about your soil testing needs.

-Ikenna Mbakwe, PhD, PAg
Director of Research
SynergyAG

Fall Cleanup

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Harvest is well on its way in most areas of the province, which means there may be time left to do some fall work in the field. Adverse weather conditions add additional obstacles to get through when it comes to making management decisions be the most efficient and profitable as the season closes. We all know that herbicide efficacy is largely based on temperature and the growing conditions that the plant is living in. With that being said, there is always a sweet spot where the optimal performance will occur, but there are also some warning signs we need to look out for in these later months of the growing season.

As night time temperatures continue to drop, it is critical that we are keeping our best management practices at the top of mind when it comes to fall burn off. If the nighttime lows are dropping below 0°C, make sure to consider these key points before an herbicide application: Duration of the frost, the severity of the frost, the weather leading up to the frost, and the target weed species. 

Duration, Severity, And Weather Leading Up To The Frost

When temperatures drop to -2 to -3 there is usually minimal plant damage. At this point, you could spray later that day as long as the temperature reaches 8°C and stays there for 2-4 hours after application. As temperatures dip below -5°C, you will start to see greater damage to plants. You should hold off spraying for a couple of days so that you can assess the damage that was caused by the frost and make a better decision on whether or not an herbicide application is necessary. If there is enough healthy tissue left to take up the herbicide (roughly more then 60%), and the temperature is going to get up to 10°C, you could consider spraying. If there is a heavy frost the night after you spray, you could also see reduced efficacy with the application.

Spraying when weeds are actively growing is the key to getting good control with a herbicide. With cooler temperatures drastically slowing down the metabolism of the plants, they will experience less efficient take-up of the chemical. This is especially important when applying a systemic herbicide like glyphosate. 

Target Weed Species

When you are deciding whether or not you want to do a fall herbicide application, it may be useful to take a look at what weeds you are aiming to kill. Fall is a great time to hit perennials, biennials, and winter annuals. These species can undergo a more severe frost event than germinating spring annuals. If an annual weed species looks like it will set seed before freeze up, it may be worthwhile to spray. 

Research shows that Kochia regrowing after a mid-August harvest will likely not set seed before a killing frost event. This is important to note when it comes to herbicide resistance. If you are planning on using glyphosate to kill the annual weeds, specifically Kochia, you might just be adding to the selection pressure and increasing your risk of developing resistance. 

Fall is a great time to do some groundwork and get your fields ready for spring. Always keep the best management practices in mind to help you get ahead of the game! 

Making Smart Harvest Marketing Decisions

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Swathers, combines and grain carts have been pulled out of their hibernation.  There is a spattering of combines chewing up early crops already.  Harvest is just getting underway in parts of the prairies, and already grain marketing companies and media are estimating the cereal and oilseed harvest will be big.  Having a thought-out marketing plan is one of the first steps in establishing a profitable farm business.  Technology has allowed farmers to make marketing decisions on the go.  You don’t have to call the local elevator as they now post their bids, and there are services that can get a price up to 500 miles away.  Grain can can be sold online, or make hedging moves directly from a phone or tablet.  But what goes into making that “sell” decision?  

Cash Flow

There are several times during the year when farmers need a large influx of cash to cover expenses and debt.  It boils down to knowing what is needed for cash, and when it is needed.  During those parts of the year, managing the grain marketing plan to execute sales and receive cash will keep one alive.  This means setting a goal not only for the price of your grain, but also the point in time when you want to receive that cash from the sale.   Take into account the realities of the industry such as rail movement in the winter, or contracts that drag on.  If you can preplan cash flow needs, you will not be making reactive decisions. You will be making disciplined decisions that bring in revenue.  

Storage

Striking a balance between selling some grain at harvest and storing the rest is highly personalized.  Will you have excess storage or fall short?  Are you wanting to wait for higher prices in the future and using storage as a grain marketing strategy?  What happens if the price does not rally?  Will grain storage increase the speed of harvest by decreasing the time spent hauling and unloading grain?

Have you considered your costs for storing grain?  There are storage facility costs such as depreciation, return on investment, maintenance, and insurance.  Will there be extra drying, or aeration required?  What are your costs associated with moving the grain in and out of storage (labour, equipment, more craks/splits)?  Some hidden costs are the interest cost of having money tied up in stored grain inventory.  For example, you have a loan to pay that is accumulating interest, however, you aren’t satisfied with the grain price or can’t move the grain when you want to.

Margin Objective

Knowing cost of production is a useful base for forming a marketing plan.  Can you turn a profit at current prices?  What is the lowest price you can sell at and maintain profitability?  

Cost of production is taking into account your entire crop inputs as well as all other farm costs that go into the business of farming (fuel, depreciation, wages, land rent, power, administration, etc.).   Outlining the cost of production in the spring and then updating at harvest, when realistic yield estimates and inputs are understood, is important. Calculating and understanding your full cost of production helps take the emotion out of making the difficult “sell” decision.  

Incremental Sales

Hindsight is 20/20, and there will always be the fluctuation in grain markets throughout the growing season.  You may not always sell all of your grain at the market high, but realize that making incremental sales and building the best average price for your production over time equates to money in the bank.

Seasonality of Grain Marketing

This is associated to the growing season and is usually based on supply and demand.  During old crop months, when supply is typically lower, grain has a tendency to be priced higher than the farther out new-crop trading months.  When new crop is harvested, there is once again a higher level of supply.  This is why many of the grain markets tend to reflect their lowest seasonal prices during the new crop trading month. 

Know your marketing tools that are available to you, and what tools you should be using. This will help you achieve your price targets and sales deadlines. 

Flea Beetles – Chewing Their Way Into June

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As many people find themselves finishing up the seeding season, we also find ourselves at the beginning stages of the bug season. If you have been out and about in your fields you have probably noticed small black bugs that are the size of a pin head bouncing around. 

The striped and crucifer flea beetles are the two common species that feed on canola in the Canadian prairies. Hop flea beetles can also be found, but occur in low numbers throughout the prairies. All three species can vary in the way they look, how they feed, and when they emerge. 

When To Look For Them

Flea beetles emerge in early Spring, and can cause damage to your canola crop from emergence, up until the 3-4 leaf stage. They aren’t picky eaters, and are known to feed on the cotyledons, leaves, stems, roots or any fleshy tissue on the plant. Sunny, warm and dry weather is preferred by the beetles, but less ideal conditions don’t seem to slow them down either. They are known to increase below ground and underside of leaf feeding during the less than ideal conditions.

How To Manage Them

It is important to assess where the bugs are feeding and how much of it there is. Action threshold levels are when average leaf area loss is more than 25%, and it is considered economically beneficial to spray insecticide when the leaf area loss is above 50%. There are no established threshold levels for stem feeding, which is why it is so important to assess where the feeding is taking place. If the flea beetles are actively feeding on leaf tissue, stem tissue and/or the growing point, the action level might be lower. 

There are different control options and management practices to help mitigate the damage these guys can have on your canola crop. Seed treatment options like Prosper Evergol and Helix Vibrance are standard on your canola seed to protect against flea beetles, but you can enhance your protection by adding Lumiderm on your seed when you order it. There are also in-crop insecticide control options to cover you off if populations rise and leaf damage is above threshold levels. Lastly, there are cultural control methods such as seeding early to get crop establishment before the emergence of the flea beetles, allowing a higher tolerance to injury. The second practice is increasing your seeding rate, this can help you reduce the impact of the flea beetle damage by spreading it out over more plants allowing for easier recovery from the stress event. 

Don’t Fear Though

The sight of these pesky little bugs probably have you wondering a few different things. Such as, why your seed treatment isn’t working. The truth is, it is working. But, with the newer chemistries, the flea beetles have to feed on the plant to ingest the insecticide for it to work. Whereas older seed treatments were used as more of a deterrent or repellent. Also, seed treatments only give a 28-35 day protection window after the crop is seeded, in cooler, dry weather the crop could be slower growing and not past the 3-4 leaf stage so it is at risk for flea beetle damage. 

Contact our SynergyAG Agronomists and they can help you determine which is the right course of action against your flea beetles! 

 

Niki Beingessner CCA, PAg

Sales Agronomist – Yorkton

 

Weeding Out The Weeds

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Whether you are watching from the cab of a drill, floater, combine, or sprayer, this Spring you can see specks of green littering your fields that were unbelievably clean last year. This previous year was an anomaly on the Canadian prairies – A dry, cold Spring, where we had uneven germination, and weed-less fields for miles. Cue a timely rain in June, and that changed. Flushes of kochia, cleavers, and narrow-leaved hawksbeard took over our once clean crops. Fast forward to this year, we are seeing the repercussions of these flushes. Spring is a busy time, and a pre-burn is not always feasible, especially with the possibility of snow storms in April. Coming into post-emergence, we have to be prepared. 

Weeds such as kochia, volunteer canola, and wild buckwheat, although they look innocent, can prove to be detrimental to crop yields. High weed populations in the early part of the growing season create competition for water, nutrients, and sunlight, which are all essential for the developing crop. This is why it is important to have early control. A post-harvest application if possible, will reduce instances of winter annuals. A pre-emergence application will allow for a wide spectrum of herbicides to be used; in turn this doesn’t limit the weeds you can control. This will reduce stress on the plants and your sprayer operator, once the crop is emerged. 

Post-emergence, your options are limited a considerable amount. When this is the case, the best option is typically to wait until your crop reaches the appropriate staging for given herbicide options, and then spray. Given the way the growing season has started, our crops are going to have some early season vigour that we did not see in 2019. This means that it should have some competitive edge against weed pressure.

Another area we have advanced on in agriculture is herbicide rotation and herbicide layering. It is important to keep these in mind when spraying the crops, and when planning out your crop rotation. Herbicide rotation refers to using a different active on the same field with each pass. This is to ensure that weeds do not become herbicide resistant. An even more effective way to reduce herbicide resistance is to layer your active ingredients. This way, if one active only hurts the weed and doesn’t kill it, the next one will. This will limit the ability of the resistant plant to reproduce and make for a herbicide resistant mess in the following years. 

At the end of the day, your best option when it comes to weed control is to be proactive and to talk to your Agronomist. With them, you will want to discuss your options and the best way to control the spectrum of weeds in your field. Visit your local SynergyAG retail location and connect with their Agronomist.

 

Happy spraying!  

Karly Rumpel A.Ag., BSc.(Agr.)

Sales Agronomist

Synergy AG Govan