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Growers need to draw on every tool and resource at their disposal
To paraphrase an old saying: It’s OK to lose a battle or two as long as you win the war.
When the battlefront is your cropland and the enemy is weeds — waterhemp, pigweed, marestail and company — winning the war means employing all the resources you have at hand to come out on top in yields. Beat back the yield robbers, and you’ll have a strong chance of success.
Easily said but not so easily done, thanks to the many variables that are always lurking in the fields. One such factor is weed resistance — a growing problem, and one without enough tools to fully combat it. Another is weather, which can wreck the best-laid plans for weed control. Timing, too, can make or break a herbicide application’s efficacy.
On the other side, farmers have strong tools and practices to stem the advance of weeds.
For Hunter Grills, soybean grower in Tennessee along with his brothers and dad, the primary tool against weeds is rotation, on two fronts. “We try to be on pretty good crop rotation. And then we also try to use different chemistries,” Hunter said, combining and rotating multiple herbicide sites-of-action to stay ahead of resistance.
Those are vitally important because the weed pressure is high. Describing his pigweed situation, Hunter said, “We have a lot — in every field. Pressure to the full extent of the word.”
PRE applications and residual herbicides play a powerful role. “Our ultimate goal is to overlap our PREs because we don’t ever want to have to kill the pigweed; we don’t even want to see it [in the first place],” Hunter stated. “That’s our ultimate goal. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case because rain gets in and you can’t get in the crop to apply another PRE,” he added.
To make things even worse for the Grills operation this past season, their spray rig broke down, so they lost ground on the timing front. “Fortunately,” Hunter said, “we have a product like Engenia® herbicide from BASF, so it gives us an option to come back in and clean the crop up.”
Hunter’s brother Rusty Grills liked what he saw this year: “You know, those pigweeds that are an inch, two inches tall, the Engenia cleaned their clock. I kind of like that. I like to see those babies wilting,” he said with a wry smile. Hunter added, “We were very fortunate. When we do have pigweeds break through, we had the chemistry to go in and help us with that. Having those options really, really helps us a lot in making sure that we can have a successful year.”
So season after season, the presence of weeds is pretty much a guarantee for growers like the Grills. But what about weed control? Is there any kind of guarantee for that?
Chemical companies are working hand in glove with growers on the weed front, seeing what resistance and other factors are doing to their crops and creating effective solutions. And some are taking an even bigger step forward in that fight. BASF, for example, is demonstrating the confidence it has in its herbicide chemistry and stewardship training by instituting a Weed Control Guarantee. When growers follow the best management practices outlined by BASF when using Engenia herbicide such as following application requirements and using both preemerge and postemerge residual herbicides, BASF is confident it will meet commercially acceptable control. If commercially acceptable control is not met, talk to your BASF representative to learn more about potential respray assistance on affected areas. (See details here.)
It goes back to all the variables at play. Whether it’s weather or some other curveball thrown at you, even the best practices and most proven chemistries may lose a battle or two here or there. That’s when it’s most important to focus on winning the overall war, using every resource and tool you have at hand to protect those precious plants and yields.
And along with all the tools and resources, attitude is also key, especially against a persistent foe like weeds. “A farmer’s the eternal optimist,” Rusty added. “You know, a farmer’s the only person in the job world that has, what, 35 to 40 chances to get things right. So, you know, we wouldn’t put in that much time and effort if we weren’t optimists.”
With a glass-more-than-half-full approach, and beautifully clean fields as far as the eye can see, growers like the Grills can enjoy the peace that comes after a hard-fought but winning season.
Engenia Herbicide is a US EPA Restricted Use Pesticide. Additional state restrictions may apply.
Always read and follow label directions.
Engenia is a registered trademark of BASF.
