Midwest Corn Roundup: Wisconsin

Gordon Vail

Crops in the Midwest are progressing well now, even in areas that had weather challenges earlier in the season. In Wisconsin during the last week of July, corn was healthy and well past tasseling, which means harvest will be here before we know it.

 

The majority of growers have had very good growing conditions this year. As was the case throughout much of the Midwest, planting took place early and a lot of moisture caused the corn to easily break the old “knee-high by the Fourth of July” motto. To date, disease pressure and insect pressure has been variable with some areas seeing more than others, however weed pressure from giant ragweed, lambsquarters and velvetleaf has been continually heavy. To control these, many growers have seen the benefits of relying on herbicides that have been proven to consistently perform well on a broad spectrum of weed species. Many herbicides provided initial burndown of emerged weeds but did not provide residual control, forcing growers to find a way to re-spray their corn acres.

 

Some areas also saw a lot of rain and were not able to initially spray their corn acres when they had planned and were forced to spray later. Luckily, Syngenta offers a wide portfolio of herbicides that can be sprayed preplant up to 30-inch corn so growers were able to find a solution to fit their farming needs.

 

What was your herbicide plan for 2010? Are you planning to change anything for 2011?