By now, growers are probably opening their new 2018 seed catalogs, browsing product options and thinking about a plan of attack for weed control next year. While your focus shouldn’t drift too far from preserving yield this season, it’s important to start planning for next year to ensure you manage the changing weed landscape with peace of mind. Here’s what you need to ask as you plan your herbicide program for next year.
- What’s my weed profile? To fully understand your weed profile, you need to compile a list of all of the weeds that caused problems this year and what fields they affected, and pull your notes from years past and include a full history of weed pressure. Check with your neighbors, too. Ask them what weeds were problematic for them this year, and if they foresee having those issues again in 2018. Map out the areas of concern for 2018, and the top weeds, such as palmer amaranth or waterhemp, you’ll want to be prepared for next year.
- What are my options? Each grower has a wide range of choice — from herbicide programs that include burndown, pre- and post-emergence applications to corn hybrids and soybean varieties that feature herbicide tolerance, exploring your options is essential when finding the best fit for your weed landscape. Stine carries a large selection of high-yielding hybrids and varieties that offer tolerance to glufosinate and glyphosate herbicides. From Stine® Agrisure® corn hybrids to LibertyLink® and Stine GT 27 soybean varieties, Stine is a great one-stop shop for planning your seed program to help manage weed control in 2018. Your Stine regional sales agronomist or independent sales representative can also guide you to effectively plan and manage your herbicide program in addition to selecting the right seed for your operation.
- What are the restrictions? When considering a herbicide program to target your weed pressure, you need to know your restrictions. Review the herbicide labels, note the restrictions for that herbicide and determine whether or not those restrictions make sense for how you farm. Review the use rates, rainfall and temperature restrictions, and the likeliness of drift and volatization. Environmental conditions can affect the volatility, so knowing ahead of time the risks associated with each can help reduce the risk of herbicide injury in your fields and in your neighbors’ fields.
- What should I communicate? Farmers are good stewards of the land, and they can learn a lot from talking with their neighbors and other area farmers to discuss plans for next year. Sometimes talking to a neighbor can give you an idea about which products worked best on their operation or what worked well for them with their weed control program. We also recommend talking to your neighbors about what soybean trait(s) they’re planting next year and what herbicide program they intend to use with those varieties and how that may affect your operations.
For assistance with your weed management plan for 2018, talk to your Stine regional sales agronomist or independent sales representatives.