Weeds

Rethink Your Herbicide Strategy In High-Residue Systems

Wed, 13 May 2026 17:24:08 GMT

Waterhemp and other tough weeds are forcing farmers to rethink how they use herbicides in high-residue cropping systems, from heavy corn stalks to thick cereal rye covers.

Extension weed scientists say they increasingly hear from growers who did “everything right” with applying their preemergence products yet still see waterhemp push through and survive. Increasingly, one of the challenges is those fields carry a lot more residue than they used to.

“Every year, we have some situations where we get less than expected control of weeds for various reasons, and I’ve come around to appreciate the impact that residue can have on our success,” says Tom Peters, Extension agronomist and weed control specialist for North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota.

Oftentimes, the assumption has been that rainfall will wash herbicides off the residue and down into the soil, where they can do their job. Peters says that belief does not hold up in reality.

“I would argue that some of our performance challenges have been related to those herbicides sticking to the residues,” contends Peters, who made his comments during the 2026 Field Notes program.

That problem is on the increase as farmers are dialing back their tillage passes, planting into more corn and soybean residue and seeding more cover crops.

Reduction In Control Assessed

During graduate work with the University of Minnesota, Eric Yu, now a regional crops Extension educator, measured just how much product residue can intercept herbicides. In cover crop plots, he and his colleagues placed water-sensitive cards below cereal rye crops, applied a preemergence herbicide and then evaluated the results.

“We were seeing about a 50% reduction in the amount of product that reaches the soil compared to our control plots,” Yu says. “Yet despite that 50% reduction, we were seeing still significant weed control, specifically waterhemp control.”

The message, Yu says, is not that residue makes the use of pre products pointless. It is that farmers need to account for residue when they design their weed-control programs — and still keep a strong preemergence herbicide in the plan.

Peters agrees. Even when residue cuts the amount of product reaching the soil, pres are still the foundation of a good program, especially as waterhemp increases in resistance to postemergence herbicides.

“Start the season with pre products, observe your results and then decide what the best postemergence program is,” he advises.

For farmers managing crops in high-residue systems, Peters and Yu point to several practical steps:

Prioritize Soil Contact: Ensure herbicides are actually reaching the soil surface. In cases of extreme residue, it may be necessary to manage or move stalks and straw ahead of planting.
Adjust Product and Rate: Work with agronomists to select products and rates that can withstand some interception while still delivering enough active ingredient to the soil to be effective. Using full labeled rates is increasingly a best-practice solution for control and to reduce selection pressure for further herbicide resistance.
Tighten the Timing Window: Because residue can blunt the effectiveness of a pre product, escapes are more likely. Small waterhemp is much easier to control; once the weed reaches the 4- to 5-inch range, control becomes significantly more difficult.

Researchers Evaluate 21 Herbicides

A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists recently studied which herbicides make it to the ground and provide residual waterhemp control in high-residue farming systems. The controlled-environment study evaluated 21 single-active-ingredient corn and/or soybean herbicides compatible with high-biomass cereal rye. Here are the results, courtesy of GROW :

Corn herbicides identified as effective for waterhemp control and compatible with high-biomass cereal rye in this study included:

Acetochlor (Harness – Group 15)
Dimethenamid-P (Outlook – Group 15)
Pyroxasulfone (Zidua – Group 15)
S-metolachlor (Dual II Magnum – Group 15)
Atrazine (Group 5)*
Isoxaflutole (Balance Flexx – Group 27)
Mesotrione (Callisto – Group 27)

*waterhemp population used in this study is still susceptible to atrazine applied preemergence.

Soybean herbicides identified as effective for waterhemp control and compatible with high-biomass cereal rye in this study included:

Dimethenamid-P (Outlook – Group 15)
Pyroxasulfone (Zidua – Group 15)
S-metolachlor (Dual II Magnum – Group 15)
Flumioxazin (Valor – Group 14)
Fomesafen (Flexstar – Group 14)
Metribuzin (Group 5)

The Wisconsin researchers say soybean growers should pay close attention to application timing restrictions. Flumioxazin-containing products for instance must be applied within three days of soybean planting, while metribuzin must be applied prior to soybean emergence. The remaining soybean herbicides listed above can be applied preemergence or early postemergence, offering flexibility for growers who plant early and delay cereal rye termination until after soybean emergence.

A standard program in planting green systems where the cereal rye is terminated after soybean emergence may include glyphosate for cereal rye termination, combined with soil residual herbicides fomesafen plus a Group 15 herbicide (e.g., pyroxasulfone, S-metolachlor, or dimethenamid-P) and a Group 2 herbicide such as imazethapyr (Pursuit), cloransulam (FirstRate), or chlorimuron (Classic) for broad spectrum weed control.

Oregon Farmers Navigate The Ups And Downs Of A Changing Ag Landscape

Wed, 06 May 2026 22:05:35 GMT

Helle and Bruce Ruddenklau make almost every agronomic move on their Willamette Valley, Oregon, farm with their balance sheet in mind. Crop rotations, contracts and niche markets are the core tools they use to maneuver through and survive today’s costly inputs and soft crop prices.

The couple farm about 1,100 acres near Amity, Ore. They own a third of the ground and rent the rest.

About half the acres are in commercial grass seed — perennial ryegrass and fescue for lawns, golf courses, sports fields and parks. The rest of their acreage cycles through wheat, an oilseed called Meadowfoam (highly sought after in cosmetics, skincare products, and specialty industrial applications), green beans, occasional sweet corn and peas, radish seed for export to Japan, clover seed and hazelnuts.

The crop diversity is critical. It helps even out the economic ups and downs of farming, and it also helps address a problem the couple didn’t even know they had initially in the 1990s: herbicide-resistant grass weeds, a challenge exacerbated by the fact they produce commercial grass seed.

“We had to come up with a different way of fighting some of these grassy weeds without chemistry, and that was through rotation. And no-till was the other big, big thing,” Helle recalls.

In the late 1990s, the couple invested in a no-till drill and redesigned their rotation.

“The (commercial) grass seeds stay in for two to four years, and when they come out, we have at least two years of other crops in those fields so we can get new chemical applications on, try to rotate and get on top of any grassy weeds that may have built up,” Helle tells Andrew McCrea during a recent episode of Farming The Countryside , available on Farm Journal TV.

Focused On Crop Diversity To Create Income

Crop rotation is a framework for stacking income streams. Every crop has to pull its weight against rising fertilizer and fuel costs.

“As with all farmers, our input costs are higher than what they have been. That’s been a huge challenge. Everybody here’s trying to find something that’s more profitable to grow,” she says, adding that she believes Midwest farmers have an even harder time generating ROI.

Grass seed has delivered strong margins at times, but COVID-era demand whipsawed the market. A surge in lawn and turf projects sent prices sharply higher in 2020. Seed companies then pushed acres. A couple of variable years later, and the industry became awash in seed.

“We’re still working through that oversupply from three years ago or so,” Helle says. “Our price has dropped in half, basically, from what it was.”

With prices cut and input costs elevated, some growers are rolling the dice and producing grass seed on speculation.

“You have the option to grow grass seed without a contract, and then you have it on the open market,” she says. “If there’s a market for it, you can sell it. If not, you just sit with [it] in the barn and wait.”

The Ruddenklaus work hard to avoid being in that position, growing most everything under contract.

“We have one field that we have an open market Kentucky 31 variety on. But other than that, everything we grow is under contract on both the grass seed, specialty crops, hazelnuts, vegetables, everything.”

Relationships Play An Important Role In Farming

That contract-first mindset shapes what they plant and who they do business with.

“A lot of it is relationships with different dealers… that we know they will treat us fairly, and they know that we will produce a quality product for them,” she says.

Those relationships open doors to new niche markets that fit within their existing rotation.

“A few years ago, a local economic development company came to us and said a local soy sauce manufacturer was looking to have some local production of hard red spring wheat,” she recalls. “Oregon traditionally grows soft white wheat, so it’s not something we had worked with in the past, but we decided to try it, and that’s become a very valuable little niche market for us that has worked out well.”

Through that same connection, the farm links with AgLaunch, a Tennessee-based network that brings farmers and ag tech startups together.

“The companies come in [and] want to get the support of the farmers, the advice, the on-farm trials,” she says. “In exchange, they have to give up some equity to the farmers’ network. So through that, we also are getting exposure to some new companies and potentially new opportunities. We are definitely always looking at things.”

Some experiments — like trying grain corn and soybeans — have not become permanent fixtures on the farm. But even those tests help the Ruddenklaus calibrate where their competitive edge really lies: in specialty crops backed by contracts and rotations that help them manage weeds and other risks at the same time.

“I think agriculture has an amazing, amazing story. Farmers are innovators, and that’s just part of what we have done through generations,” Helle says.

“I’m not pessimistic about where we’re at,” she adds. “I believe agriculture has a bright, bright future. We belong in society. We have an important role to play. It won’t look the same as it has in the past, but we’ll figure it out.”

Helle was the recipient of the Top Producer 2026 Woman in Agriculture award . The award was sponsored by ProFarmer.

Know someone you would like to nominate for the Top Producer Woman In Agriculture? Nominations are open! Recommend your candidate here .

Metabolic Weed Resistance Crisis Builds Across The Heartland

Wed, 06 May 2026 16:50:37 GMT

Waterhemp, Palmer amaranth and some other tough broadleaf weeds and grasses are no longer slipping past just single herbicides. Across the Corn Belt and beyond, they are tolerating entire herbicide programs. Weed scientists say that pattern points to a critical issue more farmers are facing: metabolic resistance.

Unlike traditional target-site resistance, which is often specific to a single herbicide class, metabolic resistance is even worse because it can confer cross-resistance to multiple, unrelated herbicide groups .

Aaron Hager, University of Illinois Extension weed scientist often warns that when a tough weed like waterhemp learns to metabolize one herbicide, it becomes easier for it to “learn” to detoxify others. That ability has helped lead to the 7-way resistance with waterhemp seen in some Illinois counties, according to weed scientist Patrick Tranel, one of Hager’s colleagues.

At least 13 states have reported having some degree of “highly suspected” or confirmed cases of metabolic weed resistance. Here are three of the broadleaf weeds demonstrating metabolic resistance and states where they’re located:

Along with these broadleaf weeds, some common and giant ragweed, marestail/horseweed, annual (Italian) ryegrass and barnyardgrass populations have also demonstrated metabolic resistance.

(Weed Science Society of America, GROW, BASF, Syngenta)

Target-site resistance can be identified through DNA tests. But metabolic resistance is a “guessing game” involving potentially dozens to hundreds of genes working in tandem, making it difficult for scientists and farmers to know which products will still work in their specific fields.

Tommy Butts sees the trend for metabolic resistance taking root in Indiana. He says HPPD resistance in waterhemp is “getting widespread,” and the failures are expanding to other chemistries as well.

“We had more complaints last year about things like mesotrione or Callisto starting to fail, which is really scary in the corn acres,” says Butts, Purdue University Extension weed scientist. “Corn is supposed to be our easy year to control waterhemp, and now, all of a sudden, we start losing Callisto.” He addresses this in detail in the latest Purdue Crop Chat .

The bad news does not stop there.

“You start talking auxins and glufosinate, and we have confirmed resistance in the state to those,” he says. “I wouldn’t say that’s as widespread, but it’s definitely popping up.”

With metabolic resistance chipping away at PPOs, HPPDs, atrazine partners, auxins and glufosinate, the old playbook of “just switch products” no longer works well.

Glufosinate alone 😀⁰Mesotrione alone 😕⁰Glufosinate + mesotrione 🔥😎

That’s the power of effective herbicide tank mixtures.

Deploying synergistic tank mixes with multiple effective sites of action is critical for improving weed control and helping delay herbicide resistance… pic.twitter.com/FggZJrQQ1Q
— Rodrigo Werle (@WiscWeeds) May 6, 2026

“Hammer With Residuals” And Build Effective Combinations

Butts’ first message to corn and soybean farmers is straightforward: no more solo herbicide passes in the field.

“We have to hammer weeds with effective residuals and then mix up our posts as much as possible,” he says.

In his view, that means at least two things for row-crop growers. First, use layered residual programs that keep fields clean as long as possible and reduce the number of emerged weeds that ever see a post pass. Second, use post-emerge applications that combine multiple, truly effective modes of action at full labeled rates.

Cutting rates, he warns, is exactly how growers “train” metabolism-based resistance to take root.

With soybean trait systems, he pushes hard against relying on a single flagship product.

“If we’re growing Enlist soybeans, don’t just rely on Enlist and don’t just rely on Liberty,” Butts advises. “Do the tank mix. The tank mix trumps everything.”

This field shows the result of waterhemp seeds that were spread during harvest by a combine.

(Aaron Hager, University of Illinois)

Pay More Up Front To Avoid Making Expensive “Revenge Sprays”

Metabolic resistance can thrive when weeds are hit with chemistry they can partially tolerate. That is why Butts keeps coming back to strong, early, soil-applied programs.

He hears pushback from farmers every year on using multiple products in the tank.

“A lot of people tell me, ‘Well, it costs way too much up front with $20 for a pre. Corn gets even more expensive,’” he acknowledges.
However, Butts points to work by Purdue University Extension and other states showing those dollars pay off when the entire season is measured.

“If you can get a strong residual program out and get it activated, the whole-season economics of it makes sense,” Butts says. “It’s consistently shown that if you have that strong pre up front, you don’t have what I like to call the revenge sprays in August, where we’re going across the field three different times trying to kill waist-high waterhemp.”

Check out this tool from GROW on how to address waterhemp specifically.

Protect Herbicide Tools To Extend Their Use

As more herbicide modes of action come under pressure, Butts singles out metribuzin as an example of a product that still pulls its weight in soybeans.

“Metribuzin is a big one in soybeans, because we don’t have a lot of resistance to that,” he says.

“I will also put in the plug for AMS in general, across the board,” Butts says. “That always helps with some of those products… when we start getting later in the season, we get more stressed weeds. AMS even tends to help there.”

Butts does caution farmers that AMS is not allowed in dicamba tank mixes for XtendFlex soybeans.

Underlying all of it is a blunt warning about what happens if growers decide to skimp on their weed control efforts.

“If you let it go even one year, now you’ve made yourself a mess for the next five to 10 years,” he says. “You’ve got to try and stay on top of weeds as much as possible.”

5 Practical Recommendations To Address Metabolic Resistance

Because metabolic resistance is so unpredictable, weed scientists have shifted their advice away from “rotating chemicals” toward a “zero-threshold” approach to control. The following metabolic resistance management recommendations have been presented by Aaron Hager, University of Illinois Weed Scientist, and Beck’s agronomists:

1. The primary focus of metabolic resistance management should be on decreasing the weed seed bank. This means that weeds must be eliminated before they ever go to seed.

2. A robust residual herbicide program should be used, not because residuals represent a different herbicide family but because they eliminate weeds at the earliest growth stages – slashing contributions to the weed seed bank.

3. Physically cutting weeds out of the crop must be included in the management plan, because physical elimination of weed escapes further slashes contributions to the weed seed bank.

4. Post-herbicide programs should shift from calendar-based timing to scouting-based timing. Once weeds break through a pre-emerge residual program, they must be eliminated. Such early targeting further slashes contributions to the weed seed bank.

5. Mechanical techniques, field cultivators, etc., should be used where possible to further the cause of decreased seed production.

Why Your Herbicide Can Fail Even if You Follow the Label

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:35:29 GMT

When weeds break through your herbicide, it’s easy to blame the product, rate or application timing. However, weed-control experts Greg Dahl and Joe Ikley suggest the real culprits might be something else altogether: the water in the tank and the adjuvant — or lack thereof — mixed into it.

Dahl, a retired research manager at WinField United, says hard data tells the story best. After reviewing thousands of university trials, he found
that skipping the herbicide’s required adjuvant is an invitation for weed-control failure.

“We saw a 30% to 90% reduction in weed control when the adjuvant was left out,” Dahl says. “That’s a pretty big sting.”

But simply using an adjuvant isn’t enough. The trials showed that using the wrong class of adjuvant in the tank can slash performance by up to 50%. Even settling for a “good enough” product over a premium version can result in a 25% drop in efficacy. Notes Dahl: In the world of weed control, “close enough” often isn’t.

(Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology)

Solutions That Work

Hard water in the spray tank is often a contributor to poor weed control. When spray water is loaded with calcium and magnesium cations, that can create a hostile environment for weak-acid herbicides like glyphosate. These minerals physically bind to the herbicide, forming particles the plant cannot absorb.

“Plants don’t eat rocks,” says Ikley, a weed specialist at North Dakota State University Extension.

To counter this, he and Dahl recommend using ammonium sulfate (AMS) as a dedicated water conditioner. Dahl’s research indicates that in cases of extreme hardness, adding at least 8.5 lbs. of AMS per 100 gallons is necessary to fully neutralize the water and restore herbicide efficacy.

However, the battle isn’t just in the tank; it’s often on weed leaves. Ikley points out that certain weeds, like velvetleaf, actually secrete their own calcium crystals onto their leaf surfaces.

“Several of our weed species actually need higher AMS rates because of the crystals on the surface of that leaf,” Ikley explains. “We have to account for that interaction on the weed surface, not just in the water.”

While “all-in-one” adjuvant blends offer convenience, Ikley and Dahl urge caution. To hit a specific price point or fit multiple ingredients into the jug, manufacturers sometimes compromise on the water-conditioning component. University trials consistently show that very few “convenience” products can outperform the gold-standard combination of AMS plus a nonionic surfactant, Ikley and Dahl say.

Conditioners Aren’t All Created Equal

Dahl and Ikley both note that water conditioners and “all-in-one” adjuvants vary widely in performance. To get everything into a gallon and hit a certain price point, they say manufacturers sometimes compromise and come up short on one of the functions, often the one for water conditioning.

Ikley says university trials show only a handful of conditioners outperform the standard combination of AMS plus a nonionic surfactant.

“A few of the water conditioners do quite well,” he reports. “The rest don’t perform as well as AMS plus surfactant.”

Before they select or change the adjuvant used, Dahl and Ikley tell farmers to test their water, and ask the laboratory to report the results to them in parts per million.

“Some labs report in grains, and then you’ve got to do more math,” Dahl says.

Ikley adds a practical tip: always run the water for a few minutes before taking a sample to ensure you aren’t testing stagnant residue from the lines.

Ultimately, adjuvants are a valuable safety net for herbicide performance and weed control. As Dahl puts it, “You can raise herbicide rates until you can’t anymore. When you need help, the adjuvants can help.”

Betting on Biomass: How Two Farmers Turn Cover Crops Into Weed Control

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:37:16 GMT

When herbicide-resistant waterhemp began rewriting the rules of weed control for farmers in Illinois, Frank Rademacher didn’t respond by using more products. Instead, he doubled down on no-till and cover crops, betting that a living carpet of rye and roots could do what herbicides alone no longer could.

Rademacher, who farms with his father in Champaign County, recalls the initial transition was a steep learning curve, complicated by making too many changes at one time.

“When we got into cover crops heavy, that was also basically the same year we switched everything over to no-till, and the same year we switched all of our crops to non-GMO,” he says. “Boy, that was a mistake on a lot of fronts, because your weed populations really shift in the process of switching to no-till, at least initially.”

Despite the early hurdles, cereal rye became the foundation of Rademacher’s weed-control program. On his east-central Illinois fields, drilled cereal rye—planted early at roughly 50 pounds per acre—has provided enough biomass to simplify herbicide programs in his non-GMO soybeans.

“There [have been] a lot of times where we have just done like a one-pass herbicide program, so no post spray, and that was in non-GMO beans, and they were really clean,” Rademacher says.

Match Cover Crop Species to Farm Goals

Hundreds of miles away in Virginia, Paul Davis follows a similar philosophy. No-tilling since 1999 and using covers since 2005, Davis views weed control as inseparable from soil health.

“They do so many things,” says Davis, who farms in New Kent County. “Providing erosion control, providing something growing all winter to scavenge any nutrients... making nitrogen, especially this year for my corn crop.”

While Rademacher leans on cereal rye for soybeans, Davis centers his program on a cereal rye-vetch system ahead of corn. Both farmers aim for enough biomass to smother weeds while keeping the cash crop competitive and thriving.

Managing the Fine Line Between Weed and Crop Control

The balance is delicate, particularly with corn. Rademacher warns: “As it relates to corn, the line between enough biomass to fight weeds all season long, and the line between that and having no crop at all can be a pretty fine line. It’s pretty easy to have really good weed control, but also really good crop control.”

To avoid tying up nitrogen, Rademacher opts to use wheat or barley ahead of corn rather than the more aggressive cereal rye.

Davis manages these tradeoffs by decoupling his grass and legumes in the spring. He kills the cereal rye early with a grass herbicide to prevent the Carbon-to-Nitrogen (C:N) ratio from becoming too high.

“I don’t want the cereal rye to go that long, because once it gets a hollow stem, it takes a lot of bacteria eating nitrogen to break that hollow stem down,” he explains.

By late March, Davis terminates the cereal rye but feeds the vetch, letting it grow until it blooms. By mid-May, the vetch forms a two-foot-tall mat that suppresses weeds and allows him to scale back on products.

“That’s really where I’ve cut my herbicide program back the most, in my corn rotation with the heavy vetch stand,” he says.

The Biomass Trap and Termination Timing

Both farmers emphasize that covers complement, rather than replace, good chemistry on their fields. Rademacher warns that a “middle ground” of biomass can actually be detrimental.

“There is kind of a point where you’ve got enough biomass that inhibits some of your herbicide from hitting the ground—too much residue, but not quite enough to get really good weed control to replace that impact,” he says.

He is also “hyper vigilant” about the weather during termination, noting that nighttime temperatures should be above 50°F to ensure the plants don’t shut down. He also cautions about the spray mix used. He sometimes sees termination failures when farmers add clay-based residuals like atrazine in poor temperature windows.

Davis scales his herbicide use based on biomass volume. “If you’re planting into [6,000 to 8,000 pounds], you definitely can reduce your herbicide program,” he says. However, “If you have a weak stand of rye... don’t plan on cutting your herbicide program back.”

On a related front, Davis and Rademacher have been able to reduce their insecticide use. After noticing spider webs in his fields 12 years ago, Davis stopped using them entirely. “I haven’t used an insecticide since—not on corn, beans, wheat, pumpkins, anything,” he says.

Rademacher reports that beneficial predators on his farm now control pests like slugs. “We’ve got such a huge beneficial population... because we haven’t used insecticides now on anything going on six or seven years,” he says.

Weed Control As Part Of A System

Both farmers say weed control is now the product of a broader system they’ve adopted: no-till, continuous roots, high-residue covers, and a more complex biological community above- and below-ground.

To get started with cover crops, Rademacher tells farmers to begin where he believes there’s room for error: with soybeans. “I would get cover crops to have soybeans figured out,” he says. “Just plant… whatever [your] local NRCS recommendations are for cereal rye rates.”

Davis would start out using covers ahead of corn, using a focused cereal rye–vetch program and learning to time termination for both weed control and nitrogen. He stresses growing enough biomass to matter, killing the cereal rye before it gets too lignified, and then letting vetch build the mat that suppresses weeds and feeds the crop.

His main advice to farmers is to think long-term. “It takes five or six years before you really start seeing the benefits,” he says. “God didn’t make Earth in one day, so don’t expect miracles in one day.”

Davis and Rademacher shared their experiences incorporating the use of cover crops on their farms during an online GROW farmer forum addressing the topic of using cover crop mixes for weed suppression. GROW stands for Getting Rid Of Weeds. The organization is a scientist-led network coordinating research to help farmers across the U.S. fight herbicide-resistance with a greater diversity of weed control strategies to complement chemical use.

Are You Planting Second-Year Soybeans And Skipping Corn?

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 20:26:30 GMT

As input prices and markets fluctuate, many U.S. farmers are considering a shift from corn to soybeans this season. For some, like northwest Missouri farmer Todd Gibson, continuous soybeans aren’t just a one-year pivot—they are a long-term strategy to capture ROI on challenging soils.

Gibson, based near Norborne — a farming community that proudly bills itself as the “Soybean Capital of the World” — keeps a traditional corn-soybean rotation on his Missouri River bottom ground. But most of his fields with tougher, gumbo-type soils haven’t seen a corn planter in two decades.

“Growing corn on some of this heavy ground just doesn’t pay,” Gibson explains. “I’ve got some fields that have been in continuous soybeans for 20-plus years now.”

More Second-Year Soybeans In U.S. Farmers’ Plans

Gibson says he will grow more soybeans this season and on his better ground. “I’m going to cut my corn acres maybe in half. I’ll have more beans on the better dirt this year, mainly because of input prices,” he says.

Other U.S. farmers – many without Gibson’s experience – are looking to grow second-year soybeans. The Allendale Report released March 18 says private acreage estimates point to a shift toward more soybeans this season, notes Rich Nelson, chief analyst. He estimates U.S. corn planted area at 93.678 million acres, down about 5.1 million acres from 2025, while soybean acres are pegged at 85.659 million acres, up roughly 4.4 million acres over last year.

In southern Illinois, farmer and broker Sherman Newlin says the conversations he has with farmers these days are dominated by input costs and fertilizer availability concerns. While some tell him they’re sticking to their corn-bean rotations, others are considering a 100% shift to soybeans. Newlin is keeping his options open.

“I’m not planning on switching, but we’ll see,” he says. “We’ve still got a few weeks to go where we can swap out seed if we need to.”

Iowa Soybean Association Agronomist Lucas DeBruin says the farmers he works with in the state are sticking with their regular rotation and planting corn if that’s what the original plan was for this season.

“We use a lot of fall anhydrous here, so most guys are pretty locked into growing corn,” DeBruin says. “A lot of them also need the corn for livestock feed. Sometimes you can still squeeze a little bit more margin out of corn than the soybeans,” he adds, “and guys like growing corn more than soybeans. It’s more fun to pick corn.”

Look Before You Leap: The Ferrie Checklist

For farmers looking to change their seed order, Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie suggests taking a hard look at your balance sheet and your fields first. Here are some of his key recommendations:

Consider What You’ve Invested To Date: If you’ve already applied fall anhydrous or dry fertilizer for a corn crop, the “switch to beans” math doesn’t work. “You can’t afford to go to beans, because you’ve already spent the money,” Ferrie contends.

Account for the Yield Penalty: In a beans-after-beans scenario, Ferrie tells growers to expect a 5-to-7-bushel yield drag due to more stress from potential disease, insect and weed pressure. His question: “If you take 7 bushels off your bean yield, does it still cash flow against your corn APH?”

The Management “Claw Back": You can potentially mitigate some of the yield penalty in second-year soybeans by moving your planting date up from May to April, Ferrie says. Early planting helps the crop get an earlier and longer flowering period which can help recover some of the lost potential.

One morning this past week, Ferrie noted that the market was leaning back toward corn and that the see-saw between crops could continue this spring — another factor to keep in mind.

“Looking at the markets this morning, I think a lot of guys would prefer growing corn at $4.90 than beans at $11.10,” he contends.

The Continuous Soybean Playbook

For Gibson, success with continuous soybeans works based on a disciplined management system he relies on every year:

Fertility is Foundational. Even if you shift from corn to soybeans, Gibson says be aware that the beans could require more nutrients. He monitors his soil fertility closely, noting that continuous beans often require extra sulfur, phosphorus and potassium. He also keeps a close eye on micronutrients to ensure the crop won’t hit a hidden yield ceiling.

Non-Negotiable Seed Treatments: In continuous soybeans, the soil is more likely to become a reservoir for pathogens. Gibson hasn’t put a bare seed in the ground in 20 years. “Seed treatment guarantees me 100% replant,” he says. “It lets you sleep better at night knowing that if you get a heavy rain, you have that insurance to fall back on.”

Row Spacing and Canopy: Gibson plants in 15-inch rows at a rate of roughly 130,000 seeds per acre. The goals are quick emergence and a quick canopy. He believes a fast-closing row is your best defense against weeds and helps preserve soil moisture in the heavy gumbo. Seed treatment use and regular scouting help him feel confident in using narrow rows.

Keep Your Boots In The Field: In a corn-bean rotation, the “break” in the cycle helps farmers manage various diseases, insects and weeds. In continuous soybeans, you lose that advantage.

Gibson compensates by routine scouting and being prepared to address problems. “If you hear your neighbors have bug pressure, assume you will, too,” he says. “Don’t have the attitude that you can ‘get by,’ because you probably won’t.”

He has similar thoughts regarding weed pressure – “be proactive.” His program typically starts with a pre-emergence/burndown or early post application, with residual herbicides used to hold back weeds. If weeds break through, he is prepared to return with a post pass.

“We kind of wish sometimes we didn’t have to worry about weeds so much,” he says. “But if you don’t, then next thing you know, you think, ‘Oh, I wish we would have sprayed.’”

The Genetic Advantage: The final piece of the puzzle for Gibson is the advancement in soybean technology. He recalls the days when he says Williams 82 was his only real option for continuous soybeans. Today, advanced traits have made managing weeds and disease in continuous systems much more manageable, he notes.

On his continuous soybean acres, Gibson consistently sees yields average in the 50-to-60-bushel range. When he factors in the lower input costs compared to growing corn on heavy gumbo ground, he believes the decision to go with continuous soybeans is a good one. For Gibson, it’s not about following a trend— it’s about knowing what his land does best and having the management practices in place to succeed.

Use This 4-Step Checklist for 97%-Plus Waterhemp Control

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 19:44:09 GMT

In the constant battle to keep soybean fields clean, few weeds have proven as difficult for farmers to control as waterhemp.

“Last year, in 2025 we struggled a lot with waterhemp, and that’s a weed that’s going to continue to present problems for us,” notes Mike Hannewald, field agronomist with Beck’s Hybrids.

Seasonlong competition by waterhemp (more than 20 plants per square foot) has been shown to reduce soybean yield by 44%. Waterhemp emerging as late as V5 soybean reduced yields up to 10%, according to Take Action .

Hannewald’s message to farmers for 2026 is this: Controlling waterhemp isn’t about a single product or pass. It’s about designing a thoughtful, layered herbicide program that starts before the planter rolls.

Here is a summary of the four key practices he recommends:

1. Begin the season with clean fields.

The first principle is deceptively simple: start clean.

Hannewald advises using a burndown herbicide pass or properly set tillage if you’re in conventional tillage to completely remove existing weeds before planting.

“Make sure the tillage tool is actually set to tear the weeds out, checking that they’re fully uprooted and not just being knocked over,” he says.

2. Use a “three in the pre” herbicide application

Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR) data shows when three modes of action are used in a pre-emerge application to control waterhemp, 97% control was achieved and maintained 45 days after treatment.

“That residual can be either made after we do our tillage or combined with our burndown pass,” Hannewald says.

Adding a third site-of-action chemistry delivered an 8% boost over the use of two SOAs.

(Beck’s Hybrids)

Because there are many active ingredients available — and even more brand names — it’s easy to not succeed in getting three different chemistries in the tank. To help minimize confusion, Hannewald recommends tuning into the chemistry group numbers.

He recommends soybean growers use some combination of three herbicides from these four groups:

Group 2: Amino acid synthesis inhibitors, such as cloransulam.
Group 5: Photosynthesis inhibitors, such as metribuzin.
Group 14: Cell membrane disruptors, such as sulfentrazone
Group 15: Seedling root growth inhibitors, such as metolachlor, acetochlor and pyroxasulfone

“Now, if you are planting XtendFlex soybeans and you’re using an approved version of dicamba as your burndown, dicamba does have residual value, so that counts as one of the three,” Hannewald says. “But if you’re using 2,4-D on Enlist soybeans, 2,4-D does not have residual value, so that doesn’t count. You need to add three additional modes of action there.”

For more insights on specific Group Numbers, the MOAs, and product brand names, be sure to check out the 2025 Take Action Herbicide Classification Chart.

3. Make a post-herbicide pass prior to flowering

If building a strong pre strategy is partly about chemistry, the next step—timing the post pass—is about mindset. For many soybean growers, waiting to spray until weeds are obvious is a common course of action. Hannewald believes it’s time to change that thinking.

“This is the biggest mindset shift for us to stay ahead of waterhemp, and that’s spraying your soybeans before flowering,” he says.

In practical terms, this means moving the post pass much earlier than many farmers are used to—often when the field appears relatively clean (e.g. around V3 rather than R1).

“In most cases, you’re probably going to be driving through the field thinking, ‘I don’t need to be out here at this point because there’s not much weed pressure, if at all,’” he says.

But targeting small weeds early, before the beans canopy, allows you to get good coverage and control. This is especially important if you’re going to spray glufosinate (Liberty), reports Isaac Ferrie, Crop-Tech Consulting field agronomist.

According to the label Liberty can be sprayed on LibertyLink soybeans from emergence up to the R1 growth stage (first bloom).

“That means once 50% of those plants out there have one flower on them, we can’t spray Liberty,” Ferrie says.

Another consideration is the impact of later herbicide applications on yield potential.

A PFR study that compared herbicide applications in soybeans at V3 to those made at R1 found the latter application caused a yield decrease.

“We saw losses of 1.2 bushels to 2.5 bushels per acre just from the R1 application stressing that soybean plant,” Hannewald explains. “Even though our beans are tolerant to these herbicides, it still takes energy for that soybean plant to process that herbicide, metabolize it, break it down and get rid of it, and that energy causes stress on the plant.”

A post application with glufosinate (Liberty) gets another chemistry in the weed-control mix, which helps stop weeds and the opportunity for resistance to build.

(Beck’s Hybrids)

4. Add an in-season residual with the post pass

Step four is adding an in-season residual to the post pass. This is what makes the early post pass work.

“At this point, we still have some soil visible, and when we add that in-season residual, it’s like you’re laying a blanket across that soil to stop late-emerging waterhemp from growing,” says Hannewald.

He adds that he likes using a Group 15 herbicide as the residual now, because they’re effective on small-seeded broadleaf weeds.

Hannewald says Beck’s PFR shows farmers get 6% additional control – going from 88% to 94% control of waterhemp at harvest – by adding the in-season residual.

“While 6% may not seem like a whole lot, that works out to 17.1 million fewer viable waterhemp seeds per acre going in our seed bank for the next year and future years,” he says.

Fewer weed seeds means fewer waterhemp to deal with the following year.

(Beck’s Hybrids)

In summary, Hannewald boils his recommendations for 2026 down to a four-step framework: start clean, layer three modes of action into the pre pass, move the post application earlier—before flowering—and add an in-season residual to carry the field through canopy and into harvest with fewer waterhemp.

He adds that soybean growers can adapt those four steps to their own equipment, weed spectrum and trait platforms, but the underlying strategy remains the same: think proactively, diversify chemistry, and protect yield potential for this year and in the future. Listen to his full list of recommendations here .

Next-Gen Herbicides Target Tough Weeds In Corn And Soybeans

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:43:22 GMT

Several companies have announced new weed-control tools for row-crop growers’ use in the upcoming season. Here is a brief summary of the technologies:

Helena Agri-Enterprises plans to give corn and soybean growers more weed-control options this season with the launch of Testament. The new herbicide provides early-season weed control and strong crop establishment in pre-plant and pre-emergence applications, according to Michael Cox, Helena products group brand manager.

The herbicide combines three active ingredients—saflufenacil, pyroxasulfone, and dimethenamid-p—to create a powerful defense against tough weeds. In trials conducted across diverse regions, including the Dakotas, the Texas Panhandle, and the Mid-South, Testament proved effective against Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, marestail, morningglory and annual grasses.

“Testament fills a gap by providing great weed control in areas where crop rotation sensitivity is a concern,” Cox says in company news release. “Its broad application rate allows you to customize it based on your specific soil type and how long you need the protection to last.”

Timing and Resistance Management

Cox notes one of the standout features of Testament is its versatility. It can be used during fall burndown, pre-plant, or pre-emergence windows. Because it offers generous plant-back restrictions, growers have more flexibility when dealing with unpredictable weather or changing planting schedules. Additionally, by using multiple modes of action, Testament helps farmers manage the growing challenge of herbicide resistance.

In addition to Testament, Helena announced the EPA registration of Sinister Nexus, a three-way soybean herbicide. While Sinister Nexus will have limited availability starting in 2026 (pending state approvals), Cox says it represents Helena’s ongoing commitment to expanding its portfolio of weed control solutions.

Growers interested in learning more about Testament or Sinister Nexus can visit www.helenaagri.com for availability in their state.

The Future Of 2,4-D From Nufarm

Nufarm announces its 2,4-D-based product Weed Master XHL is available for use in 2026. The product features Nufarm’s patented Dual Salt Technology and lower-volatility DGA dicamba.

Four key features of WeedMaster XHL:

controls 90+ annual and perennial broadleaf weeds
provides reduced volatility and is a low odor formulation
offers improved handling and tank-mix compatibility
delivers superior cold storage performance

BASF Introduces Engenia and Zidua Plus

BASF announces it has received notice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of federal registration for Engeniaherbicide for over the top (OTT) applications on dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton.

The new registration gives U.S. soybean and cotton farmers an additional tool to battle 200-plus weed species, including Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, kochia, morningglory and ragweed.

Stewardship is a critical component of any pesticide registration, and BASF says it continues to work with the EPA and state agencies to create national and state-specific training materials. The company will offer a suite of training options to ensure farmers and applicators understand the new Engenia herbicide label requirements.

On the horizon — potentially coming to U.S. farmers in 2026 — is new Zidua Plus herbicide. BASF says, upon registration, the herbicide will bring application flexibility, comprehensive weed control and residual endurance to soybeans with two modes of action. The product will be available for application from pre-plant through post-emergence.

First Dual Mode-Of-Action Classification

While not a new herbicide, FMC’s rimisoxafen has been classified by the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC) as a dual mode of action herbicide, designated under HRAC Groups 12 and 32.

This is the first dual mode-of-action classification in HRAC’s history. The unprecedented classification recognizes rimisoxafen’s unique ability to simultaneously inhibit both phytoene desaturase (PDS) and solanesyl diphosphate synthase (SDPS), two critical biochemical pathways in weeds. The dual mode of action makes it far more difficult for weeds to survive and adapt, providing a critical new tool in the fight against herbicide resistance.

“HRAC’s historic classification of rimisoxafen validates the breakthrough nature of this technology,” said Seva Rostovtsev, executive vice president and chief technology officer, in a press release. “Studies show this molecule delivers control of palmer amaranth and waterhemp, giving farmers an effective solution against weeds that have become resistant to multiple herbicide classes. This is the kind of innovation growers need to protect their crops and their livelihoods.”

Rimisoxafen’s dual mode of action creates a significantly higher barrier to resistance development compared to single mode of action herbicides. Rimisoxafen is designed primarily for use in broadacre crops such as corn, soybean, cereals, pulses and sunflower, and will provide effective control of troublesome and resistant broadleaf weeds.

Know The Rules For Dicamba Use In Your State

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:50:50 GMT

The EPA has finalized the dicamba label for the next two growing seasons, bringing much-needed clarity to U.S. farmers. But while over-the-top (OTT) use is officially back, it arrives with the most restrictive federal requirements farmers have seen to date for products like Engenia , Tavium , and Bayer’s new XtendiMax replacement, Stryax .

In some cases, states are adopting stronger regulations for dicamba use, especially with regard to temperature and calendar cutoffs:

Temperature Cutoff: The federal label mandates a 95°F forecast high as a hard cutoff. If the National Weather Service forecasts a high above 95°F, you cannot legally spray OTT dicamba that day.
No Federal Calendar Cutoff: Unlike previous labels, the EPA has not set a nationwide calendar deadline.

State-Specific Restrictions In Place

Illinois and Minnesota are two states, so far, that are going with stricter regulations for temperature and application timing cutoffs for dicamba.

Illinois is using an 85°F forecast high as the cutoff for dicamba applications in soybeans.

“If you load your sprayer and it is 78 degrees at 10 a.m. in the morning, but the forecasted high by the National Weather Service is supposed to be 85 or 86, that is a do-not-spray day,” says Kevin Johnson, director of government relations and strategy for the Illinois Soybean Association.

Deadline for application: Plan for a June 20 cutoff for OTT applications, Johnson says.

Minnesota:

Temperature: Minnesota is using an 85°F forecast high cutoff for dicamba applications in soybeans.

Deadline for applications: June 12 cutoff south of I-94; June 30 cutoff north of I-94, according to Dicamba Restrictions Announced for 2026 Growing Season .

Shifting Your Weed Control Strategy

Because of the tighter application timing windows in Illinois, Johnson anticipates there could be a shift in how farmers there use the chemistry. He expects many Illinois farmers to move dicamba to a pre-emergence timing rather than post-emergence, saving OTT dicamba only for “super high weed” pressure situations.

With many seed trait packages now stacking dicamba and glufosinate (Liberty) tolerance, Johnson says to expect “a lot more guys using Liberty on the back end.”

In addition, the EPA is tying dicamba use to mandatory conservation practices. Farmers can find more details on the Bulletins Live! Two Website

“We’re still waiting on a lot of details on what those conservation practices are,” Johnson says. “Bulletins Live! Two is a good website, but it’s, I’ll say clunky… it’s not real easy to just find one thing and find what you need,” he cautions.

Record Keeping: Don’t Risk A $700 Fine

The most immediate hurdle for many farmers interested in using the technology this spring will be the paperwork. In Illinois, the Department of Agriculture uses a 22-question record-keeping sheet specifically for dicamba.

“If I can stress anything in this call, do your record keeping,” Johnson emphasizes. “If you ever get called in on a complaint, the first thing they ask you for is your record keeping. If you do not have all 22 questions filled out, you are going to get a $700 fine. There’s no questions asked.”

To stay ahead of that risk, Johnson advises Illinois farmers to complete records on a timely basis, not “later when things slow down.” He urges them to fill out as much of the form as possible before the season begins, including static information about equipment, farm identifiers, and general practices, then finish the day-specific entries in the cab during or immediately after the job. Some of the information—like wind speed, wind direction, and exact application timing—can only be captured accurately in real time.

For custom applications, the legal burden for record keeping falls on the applicator, Johnson adds, but growers should still ask for copies for their own files and talk openly with retailers about documentation expectations.

All of this points toward one overarching need, Johnson says: have a clear herbicide game plan for 2026, especially if you plan to use dicamba, and build in contingencies. He addresses more of the dicamba requirements specific to Illinois farmers in a recent Field Advisor podcast, available here .

4 Biocontrol Strategies To Shrink Your Weed Seed Bank

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:27:28 GMT

Mother Nature has a way of balancing the scales, and for farmers looking to manage persistent weed pressure, biological control—or biocontrol—is one testament to that.

Unlike making a traditional herbicide pass with your sprayer, biocontrol isn’t about fast or even total eradication. Instead, it’s usually a long-term strategy designed to tip the scales in your favor, using living organisms to keep weed populations at a “manageable level,” according to William Curran, Penn State emeritus weed scientist.

While biocontrol methods are common in rangelands and perennial systems, Curran notes they can require more effort to adopt in row-crop settings where tillage and rotations can disrupt the very organisms farmers are trying to put to work.

Curran says if you’re interested in using biocontrol measures as part of a comprehensive weed-control program, there are four primary categories to consider, including:

The Classical Approach: This involves introducing a specific natural enemy into a weed-infested area. The goal is for that organism to establish a permanent home, feeding on the target weeds year after year to naturally suppress their growth and seed development. An example of this would be the use of a Canada thistle rust pathogen .
The Augmentative or Inundative Method: Bio-herbicides are one example of inundative methods. The intent is to overwhelm the weed population quickly. This practice often requires multiple applications to be effective.
Conservation Management: Sometimes, the best helpers are already in your fields. By adjusting your cropping system to be more “predator-friendly,” you can boost the populations of native organisms, like ground beetles, that naturally snack on weed seeds.
Grazing: One of the oldest tools in the shed is still one of the most effective. Utilizing cattle, sheep, or goats to graze down weed-heavy areas can significantly reduce seed banks and keep invasive species in check.

For more information on biocontrol weed control practices, check out a newly updated webpage , authored by Curran and released by the GROW network.

Is Zero Tolerance For Weed Escapes The New Standard?

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:08:08 GMT

Across the country, Extension weed scientists are rewriting the rules of acceptable weed pressure in corn and soybeans. For many, tolerance for a few late-season escapes of tough weeds—like Palmer amaranth and waterhemp—is a thing of the past. Increasingly, the Extension community is encouraging farmers to draw some harder lines. One of those is for zero tolerance for weed seed production.

“We have really kind of shifted to this idea largely because of herbicide resistance. That is a huge threat for our crop production systems,” explains Sarah Lancaster, Kansas State University weed management Extension specialist and assistant professor.

Lancaster emphasizes that effective weed control is no longer about picking one or two individual tools to address weeds and prevent seed dispersal. Instead, it is about stacking as many tools as feasible into a single season.

“If you think about this as a multiple-choice answer, it’s not about using A, B, or C. The right answer is D—use all of the above,” she says.
Herbicides, cultural practices, strategic tillage, cover crops, rotations, and sanitation all play a role in stopping weeds.

During a recent episode of The Crop Science Podcast Show, available here , Lancaster addressed specific tools and practices to help farmers work toward the “zero tolerance” goal this season. Here are five for consideration:

1. Herbicides Will Still Be A Core Tool For Weed Control.

Despite the push for diversification, Lancaster believes herbicides remain the central tool for row-crop farmers.

“In our conventional broad-acre ag systems, herbicides are still going to be the most efficient, most economical way to [control weeds]—I’m going to say for the rest of my career,” she says.

However, decisions about product selection, rates, application timing, and application quality are increasingly critical—even more so under stress conditions like heat and drought. In western Kansas, Lancaster sees farmers adjusting their practices to meet these challenges.

“When it gets hot and dry, our farmers are really good at modifying their herbicide applications to make sure they’re still going to be efficacious in those very difficult conditions,” she explains. “They know that if they skimp on the water, they’re wasting their time, so they do a good job of accounting for that, modifying their adjuvants, and knowing when to adjust.”

2. Use Cultural Practices To Make The Crop Competitive.

Lancaster stresses that managing the crop can be just as important as managing the weeds.

“Other things that we talk about would be cultural control practices, looking at planting dates and row spacings,” she says. “How do we manipulate that crop to make it as competitive as possible and maybe support our herbicides a little bit better, so that we have fewer weeds to control?”

For growers, this means considering narrower rows, if suitable for the cropping system, and using optimal planting dates to favor the crop over the weeds.

These tactics don’t replace herbicides, Lancaster adds, but they make every herbicide dollar go further.

3. Consider Using Strategic Tillage In No-Till Systems.

In Kansas, no-till is widely adopted to conserve soil and water, but Lancaster points out that it can reshape the weed spectrum and the tools required to manage it.

“Here in Kansas, no-till is a very important soil conservation practice, but it brings its own set of weed management challenges,” she notes. “The number one reason that tillage is a good thing is to kill weeds. When you remove that, you’re 100% reliant on herbicides.”

She believes there are scenarios in no-till where strategic or occasional tillage has a place. One example is the return of perennial warm-season grasses in long-term no-till fields, such as tumble windmill grass.

“That’s an example of a situation where strategic or occasional tillage is becoming a more accepted, more common idea for managing some of these key weeds,” Lancaster says.

Her bottom-line message is to use tillage strategically whenever tough weeds require it.

4. Technology Can Help Improve Control, Reduce Rates, Cut Costs.

Lancaster sees real promise in camera- or sensor-based systems that spray only where weeds are present, such as “See & Spray” or “Weed-It” systems. She finds the technology is especially beneficial on fallow ground or in stubble.

She notes that in some cases, these tools are what make no-till financially viable. Referencing one farmer she works with, Lancaster sayss they used this technology to stay aggressive on weed control while actually reducing input costs.

“They’ve looked at the economic numbers, and now they know that they can kill the weeds with herbicide applications and drop that herbicide cost below the cost of running a sweep plow,” she says. “It’s allowed them to gain those benefits of conserving moisture.”

5. Prioritize Prevention and Sanitation.

Lancaster urges farmers to lean into prevention and sanitation—two tools she believes are often undervalued. In Kansas, where many farmers also raise cattle, she sees clear risks in how feed and manure are handled.

“Livestock manure is very valuable, but if it’s not been composted well, or if that animal has had a diet that’s full of weed seeds, that’s going to introduce a whole other set of problems,” she warns.

People, vehicles, and animals are potential vectors for weed seeds. Lancaster advises farmers to be intentional about cleaning all equipment—including combines—to prevent spreading seeds from one field to another.

She extends this advice to anyone moving between multiple farms, especially.

“I remind students that if they’re a field scout in the summer, they need to be careful to not make their four-wheeler or their work boots a weed seed dispersal instrument,” she says. “It only takes one instance of seed introduction to have a serious problem for a long time.”

Put More Spray Where It Pays

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:58:40 GMT

When you pull the sprayer into fields each spring, you’re banking that the product coming out of the nozzles will land where you need it to work. That’s where drift reduction adjuvants (DRAs) can become one of the most profitable—and protective—ingredients in your tank.

Consider what happens when you spray a crop protection product. Each nozzle throws out a spectrum of droplet sizes, from big “marbles” that fall quickly to tiny “dust” droplets that hang in the air, explained Greg Dahl, director of adjuvant education for the Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology (CPDA), during a recent Agricultural Retailers Association webinar.

Those tiny droplets, called driftable fines, are the troublemakers. They lose energy fast, ride the wind and can move well beyond your field. That’s not the case for larger droplets.

“Big droplets have to land. They are going to land, and they’re going to land close to where you spray,” Dahl says. “Small droplets, they probably are not going to land. They will lose their speed, and then they’ll just float in the air and go wherever the air goes.”

By design, DRAs shift more of your spray volume into larger, heavier droplets that are still effective but far less likely to drift. Across a wide range of nozzles, Dahl says industry research shows that adding a DRA can reduce the spray volume made up of driftable fines.

“Going across the whole system of nozzles, we get about a 50% reduction in the amount of spray volume that is made up of driftable fines,” he reports.

In practical terms, that means less product left hanging in the air and able to drift toward your neighbor’s crops, garden or yard.

There are at least four benefits to adding a good quality DRA in the tank.

(WinField United)

Drift Control Is Only Part Of The Benefit From DRAs

Many farmers are concerned that bigger droplets going out of the nozzles will automatically result in poorer coverage, particularly in post-emergence applications. In some cases — especially with ultra-coarse sprays — that’s true, Dahl says. Coverage can suffer, and penetration into the crop canopy can be weak. The right DRA, though, has been shown to increase droplets’ speed as they leave the nozzle, which improves penetration into the crop canopy.

“If we look where we have added in a DRA, it has actually increased the amount of speed of those droplets, so they’re going to go farther before they run out of energy, and we’re going to get better penetration of the canopy, better deposition farther down,” Dahl says.

Side-by-side comparisons in corn and soybeans using fluorescent dye tell the story more completely (see below). Without a DRA, Dahl’s slides illustrate that coverage is good on the top leaves of the crop but falls off quickly as the product moves down into the plant. With a deposition-type DRA, coverage is more balanced from the top to below the ear leaf in corn and throughout the soybean canopy.

A good quality DRA helps provide good product coverage all the way through the crop canopy, as noted in the plant on the right.

(Greg Dahl)

The ROI Of Improved Product Applications

Better coverage does show up in yield results, Dahl reports. Across hundreds of corn fungicide trials, for instance, he says adding a DRA to the tank delivered an average yield increase of about 5.7 bushels per acre compared to fungicide use alone.

In wheat, similar work showed nearly a 4‑bu.-per-acre advantage.

There’s also an economic advantage in terms of product retention. When you reduce the number of driftable fines, more of the active ingredient you paid for actually lands and stays in your field instead of drifting away.

Dahl says not all DRAs and nozzle combinations are created equal. Some thicker, polymer-type products can narrow the spray angle or even increase driftable fines with the wrong nozzle used, especially Venturi designs. That’s why choosing proven products matters. He says oil-emulsion DRAs, in particular, have shown they can cut driftable fines without creating an overly thick spray or sacrificing pattern quality.

“There’s almost 500 labels that recommend using CPDA-certified adjuvants, and there’s over 200 products that are CPDA-certified adjuvants,” Dahl says, referencing the website CPDA.com . “We think that’s where you should go for information, and we thank you for that,” he adds.

HERMON Offers Farmers Fresh Hope In The War On Weeds

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:30:47 GMT

Herbicide-resistant weeds aren’t just a here-and-there nuisance in the Midwest anymore. From herbicide-resistant waterhemp to Palmer amaranth (pigweed), ragweed and ryegrass, more farmers are seeing them and finding they can shrug off nearly anything sprayed to control them. That’s the reality the new HERMON project is built around.

HERMON stands for Herbicide Resistance Monitoring Network. It’s a multi-state effort funded by a United Soybean Board grant and led by Eric Patterson, Michigan State University weed geneticist.

The idea is to connect farmers, university weed scientists, and diagnostic labs in a way that finds herbicide resistance in weeds sooner, figures out what’s contributing to it, and turns those insights into useful recommendations to help farmers address the problem in their fields before it gets totally out of hand.

Moving Beyond The Gold Standard

Patterson says that until now, the way resistance was confirmed has been slow and clunky. It usually starts when a farmer spots a patch of weed escapes and suspects something more than a sprayer skip.

“You’re looking at plants coming [into a lab] in the fall, getting screened all winter long, and growers not having the results until the spring,” Patterson says. “Growers [are] already putting out pres when they’re learning about what resistance they have in their field.”

Patterson calls that traditional “whole-plant greenhouse work” the gold standard for the industry, and he’s not looking to throw it out. But HERMON is providing faster testing methods and results in addition to that, so farmers aren’t always waiting months for answers.

One of the big tools weed scientists are leaning on is DNA testing. Any time a weed evolves resistance, there’s some sort of change in its DNA. If researchers know what mutation to look for, they can test for that directly.

“If we can do enough research and know what all of those mutations are, we could technically just screen for those mutations and use that as a proxy or as a marker that that plant is likely to be resistant,” Patterson explains.

The DNA testing already works well for certain types of resistance, he adds, like for Group 2 ALS (acetolactate synthase) inhibitors and a lot of glyphosate-resistant waterhemp and Palmer amaranth.

“We know that target site for pretty much every major weed, so we can just sequence up that gene and it either comes back ‘yes or no,’” Patterson says.

However, DNA tests aren’t a perfect solution.

“We can usually confirm that something would be resistant, but we cannot confirm that it would be susceptible,” he says.

There can always be a new mutation or a different mechanism, especially with more complicated metabolic resistance. Still, DNA-based tests can often get an answer back in three or four weeks.

HERMON researchers are also working on other practical lab tests. One promising approach is called a leaf-disk assay.

“You take a little bit of a leaf [called a disk] and soak it in a herbicide, and then you can kind of monitor the health of that leaf, and you can compare that to a leaf disk that was not put in the herbicide,” Patterson says. Researchers use a camera or scanner to measure how green the disks stay. For contact herbicides like glufosinate and many PPOs, this can give a good read on whether a specific weed population is resistant.

“This is kind of the intermediate between going fully into DNA, but still being able to do something in the lab that helps you monitor things quickly,” Patterson says.

Breaking Down The Walls

HERMON bridges 10 land-grant universities across states like Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The goal is a transparent exchange of data and weed populations.

“We’re trying to share those resources with each other and not hoard them or sit on them,” Patterson notes. “I think there’s been many, many walls between different groups that if we can reduce those barriers, we can have better monitoring.”

Joe Ikley, North Dakota State University Extension weed specialist, has already seen the value of collaboration. By working with industry partners like BASF on a rapid test for PPO-resistant kochia, his team identified many resistant populations in a fraction of the time it might have taken before now.

“If we’d had to do this the old-fashioned way to find the mutation two years ago, we might be talking only 10 populations we know of versus a couple hundred,” Ikley says.

Proactive Management for the Future

Looking ahead, Patterson sees HERMON as a starting point for something that could be used across the U.S. “I kind of see HERMON as a test balloon to see if there is interest in a fully nationalized project where resistance monitoring becomes kind of an established thing that every state and every land-grant university contributes to,” he notes.

Sarah Lancaster says the opportunity to have a platform where weed specialists can share information across a state or area about resistant weed populations and their location could be a game changer for farmers.

As she puts it, if a Kansas farmer in one county knows there’s confirmed resistance just a county or two away, “[they’re] going to be more vigilant and more proactive” with herbicide selection, trait choices, and overall weed management, says Lancaster, Extension weed scientist at Kansas State University.

While HERMON offers hope that resistance can be addressed better and faster in the future, no one involved in the project is expecting to develop a miracle product that resets weed control. As Ikley jokes, “Silver bullets are for werewolves, not for weeds.” Instead, the goal is to tighten the loop between what farmers see in the field and what scientists can confirm in the lab, so growers get earlier warnings and better information to protect the herbicides they still have available.

Patterson notes that in corn, there are still several chemistries for farmers to move between. But soybeans don’t have that luxury.

Growers end up “putting a lot more pressure on PPO inhibitors, as well as some of the new traits that are coming out,” Patterson says. The scary question he and other researchers ask is, “What happens when there are no viable herbicides left, and how do you manage that?”

With help from HERMON, researchers hope to not have to answer that question anytime soon.

For additional insights on HERMON, check out the War Against Weeds podcast, featuring Patterson and hosts Sarah Lancaster and Joe Ikley. The podcast was promoted by GROW (Getting Rid of Weeds), a scientist-led network coordinating research to help farmers across the U.S. fight herbicide resistance.

End of an Era? Glufosinate's Tight Grip On Waterhemp Finally Breaks

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:55:10 GMT

For many farmers, glufosinate quietly became the last dependable post-emergence option to control tough broadleaf weeds like waterhemp in fields where glyphosate, ALS, PPO, and HPPD herbicides had already slipped in performance. Glufosinate’s “last herbicide standing” status is why what’s happening in Illinois now should grab your full attention.

University of Illinois weed scientist Patrick Tranel and his colleagues announced in December that they have confirmed several glufosinate-resistant waterhemp populations in Carroll County, in northern Illinois.

That confirmation is a big deal. Boiled down, what this means for Illinois farmers is stark: Every post-emergence herbicide available to control waterhemp in the state—seven different herbicide groups—is now compromised to some degree.

Tranel adds that some preemergence chemistries are also declining in efficacy. How that plays out in fields: he says pre herbicides that might once have provided four weeks of residual control now keep weeds in check for only three weeks.

“Let that set in for a moment,” he says. “That means we can’t just go out there and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to use this herbicide to control waterhemp.’ You might not have resistance in your field yet to that particular herbicide, but it’s out there in the state, and if you rely on that single post product, you are going to get resistance.”

Farmers in states outside Illinois aren’t off the hook, either. The problem of glufosinate-resistant waterhemp is suspected in at least six other states including Missouri, Indiana, Iowa , Nebraska, Ohio and Tennessee.

“ Missouri farmers are facing declining control of waterhemp with two of our most common post products—glufosinate and 2,4-D—and that continues going into 2026,” says Kevin Bradley, University of Missouri Extension weed scientist.

Why Waterhemp is a Driver Weed

Waterhemp is considered a “driver weed” for many row crop growers across the Midwest and South due to its ability to severely impact yields.

Yield Losses: Uncontrolled populations can cause extensive yield losses—up to 74% in corn and 56% in soybeans—according to research by Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee Extension weed scientist.
Dominance: In the 2025 Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) broadleaf crops weed survey, waterhemp surpassed Palmer amaranth (pigweed) as the most problematic weed.
Biological Challenge: The reasons for waterhemp’s dominance include prolific seed production (up to 1 million seeds/plant), season-long germination, rapid growth, dioecious nature (male/female plants for high genetic diversity), and widespread resistance to multiple herbicide sites of action (SOA).

One Of The Challenges: Subtle Resistance and Regrowth

Tranel calls what Illinois researchers are seeing the early stages of resistance evolution. Critically, what they observe isn’t the obvious kind of resistance where the herbicide does nothing. This low-level resistance makes it difficult to detect in the field.

“It looks the same as what the symptomology looks like on a glufosinate-sensitive plant, except not as severe… you’re going to see that burning, but you’re not going to see the continued progression of that control,” Tranel says. “You’re going to start seeing regrowth.”

In Illinois field trials, resistant plants were sprayed small, with full rates, under near-perfect conditions (hot, humid, sunny, with ample soil moisture), and still, some waterhemp survived.

Tranel’s research suggests some resistant plants may be able to detoxify glufosinate faster at higher temperatures:

“We saw actually worse control of the resistant population under higher temperatures… we think that’s because the resistant population is able to metabolize or detoxify the glufosinate, and at higher temperature it’s able to do that faster,” he says.

Bradley agrees, reporting similar scenarios in Missouri. This low-level resistance can be easily confused with application issues, which makes confirmation difficult. Farmers often report poor glufosinate control due to weeds that were too big, poor spray coverage under a canopy, or less-than-ideal temperature and humidity.

“It can be difficult to distinguish between, ‘Do I really have a resistant population, or was my application not quite right?'" Tranel explains.

The Harsh Reality: No Chemical Safety Net Left

The urgent message for farmers is that they can no longer rely on any single product to deliver control of waterhemp and other tough weeds. Furthermore, the old rule of simply rotating sites of action is no longer sufficient.

“Fifteen years ago, almost all our resistance was due to target site change,” Tranel explains. “All the new mechanisms we’ve discovered in the last 15 years have been due to mechanisms other than a target site change.”

This shift in the plant’s biology means that merely switching group numbers will not keep growers ahead of waterhemp for long.

“You can’t manage chemical resistance with chemicals,” Tranel says. “We cannot exclusively rely on herbicides like we have been able to do in past decades.”

Strategies for the Long Haul: Don’t Cut Weed Control Rates

Farmers face going into the 2026 season with paper-thin margins. During a recent farmer panel discussion, Kevin Bradley asked several high-yield Missouri growers what keeps them up at night.

“Every single one of them said input prices,” he recalls. “Many of our growers are just doing what they believe they have to do to be able to stay on their land and farm. The problem is we are just seeing more performance failures with our post herbicide products that we rely on now,” he adds.

Bradley and Tranel are concerned about farmers choosing to trim herbicide programs. They both strongly recommend that farmers use full rates of herbicides, especially in fields with tough weed issues. Cutting herbicide rates will save few if any dollars.

“With glufosinate, we’re talking pennies between lower and full rates. It’s not going to be a whole lot of money to get better control of weeds and prevent them going to seed,” Bradley says.

Diversify and Aim for Zero Seed

Glufosinate must be treated like a valuable resource. The weed scientists encourage farmers to protect it by making every application as effective as possible and reducing the number of weeds it has to kill. Key practices they recommend include:

Use Multiple Products: Tranel advises against leaning on a single post-emergence herbicide. Instead, “use two or more, either tank mixed or in sequence,” and use an overlapping residual.
Integrate Non-Chemical Tools: Practices like using cover crops that produce significant biomass can suppress waterhemp and other weeds, reducing the number of weeds that ever see a spray pass. New technologies such as weed zappers, harvest weed-seed management products, and weed flamers are also gaining traction. As these options prove viable, they give producers additional tools to the current chemical options for weed control, notes Matthew Woolard, WSSA Science Policy Fellow and Texas Tech University graduate assistant.
Have a ‘Zero-Seed’ Goal: The ultimate long-term strategy is to deplete the soil seed bank. “At the end of the growing season, if you don’t have a weed going to seed, you’re not going to get evolution of resistance,” Tranel says. Achieving this goal will reduce pressure on your herbicide program.

Tranel says he sometimes ponders where the farming community would be today with regard to weeds if glyphosate had been stewarded better. It’s a lesson he hopes row crop growers take to heart.

“Glufosinate might be the best thing we have for the next 10 years. How can we make sure we can keep using it for the next 10 years?” Tranel says.

The answer is not more glufosinate use on its own. Better systems—using multiple SOA products, more crop diversity, more scouting, and allowing fewer escapes to go to seed—can help keep the chemistry in play.

Bottom line: The clock on glufosinate is already ticking down, and how fast it runs out is now largely in farmers’ hands.

Four Strategies To Save Money On Herbicides Without Sacrificing Weed Control

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:17:53 GMT

If the 2025 season felt like the “same old, same old” for your weed control program — it shouldn’t. When farmers have the mindset that every year is just like the last, it’s easy to fall into the decision paralysis of: “It worked OK last year, so I’ll just do the same thing again.” That approach can leave money on the table and weeds in the field, reports Meaghan Anderson, Iowa State University Extension field agronomist.

She says the ongoing battle with broadleaf weeds and grasses should encourage farmers to re‑evaluate their control program for next season, especially in fields that ended up weedier than expected.

Start With Your Weediest Field
Anderson says a useful exercise right now is to ask yourself: What was my weediest field this year—and why?

“Most corn and soybean growers can point to at least one field that stood out,” she tells Farm Journal. “In many cases, the same herbicide program was used across multiple fields, but it failed in that one.”

Anderson says that’s a clear signal something needs to change in that field for next year—whether that’s:

Using a stiffer preemergence program
Spiking a premix with more active ingredient effective on key weed escapes
Adjusting your application timing or adding layered residuals

“Dollars invested in a strong preemergent herbicide, especially in known problem fields, is almost always an investment that pays for itself,” she adds.

Other key considerations for the 2026 season: If grass weeds were a problem this year, consider whether you could benefit from using products more targeted to specific species. Also, plan to monitor fields ahead of post applications to catch weed escapes early.

Three Specific Issues To Look For Next Season
1. Expect more volunteer corn. Some fields in Iowa and other Midwest states were “carpeted” with dropped ears of corn by harvest time this fall, Anderson says.

Two questions she says farmers who had a lot of ear loss can benefit thinking through are: How much corn hit the ground but didn’t germinate this fall? How much will survive this winter and emerge next spring?

“We’ve seen this movie before — volunteer corn can quickly become a major issue if it’s not addressed,” Anderson says.

2. Winter annuals are prevalent. Anderson notes that winter annuals like henbit, marestail, and pennycress had an excellent start in soybean stubble this fall. Where fields looked green late into the fall, farmers can expect to see them show up again next spring and will want to be proactive early with control measures:

Aim for late March to early April burndown applications (spray even earlier if it’s an unusually warm spring).
Wait until plants are green and actively photosynthesizing, with day and night temperatures warm enough for good herbicide activity.

Timing control measures can be a bit tricky. “By the time winter annuals are flowering in the spring, it’s usually too late for effective control,” Anderson notes.

3. Look for herbicide-resistant weeds. Cross-resistant and multiple-resistant Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, Italian ryegrass, barnyardgrass, and others are on the rise in row crops, researchers report.

Just this month, dicamba-resistant waterhemp was confirmed in Missouri, according to Kevin Bradley, University of Missouri Extension weed scientist.

Where To Spend Money If Margins Are Tight
With the outlook for high input costs and lower commodity prices, the impulse for farmers is to cut their herbicide spend across the board.
Anderson says a better strategy would be to shift investment from products to planning and scouting. She offers four recommendations that can help improve your weed-control ROI next season:

Spend more time scouting and truly understanding which fields are your problem acres.
Do the math on herbicide programs, compare prices, and tailor rates and products to field history and weed spectrum.
Consider using a full residual + strong post program on your worst fields.
Pull back some where fields are consistently clean and not building a weed seed bank.

This approach doesn’t necessarily slash costs per acre dramatically, but it can chip away at your total herbicide program costs without sacrificing control—or future profitability, Anderson says.

She adds that “thoughtful analysis, targeted programs, and timely applications are the real ‘new chemistry’ most farms need” going into the 2026 season.

Iowa Farmer Battles Today's Pests While Eyeing Tomorrow's 'Mean Sixteen' Threats

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:52:50 GMT

For Worth County, Iowa, farmer Sarah Tweeten, the list of high-priority agronomic threats isn’t a political abstract — it’s a harsh reality she deals with every season.

Farming with her parents, Brian and Julie, and her uncle Roger, Tweeten has been steering the partnership toward more resilient cropping practices since joining the operation in 2021. This includes shifting from conventional tillage to strip tillage and splitting nitrogen applications.

The changes are part of a broader mindset: Protecting yields today from weeds, disease and insects while aggressively preparing for the next generation of agronomic threats. This forward-thinking approach is what led Tweeten to Washington, D.C., earlier this week as a Farm Journal Foundation farmer ambassador to help introduce a new report: “ The Mean Sixteen: Major Biosecurity Threats Facing U.S. Agriculture and How Policy Solutions Can Help. ”

Today’s Battles and Tomorrow’s Warnings
Researched and developed by Stephanie Mercier, PhD, the report takes an in-depth look at 16 significant pest issues U.S. farmers face now or could realistically in the future.

Tweeten is already battling a couple of the problems that underpin the urgency behind the research. For example, Palmer amaranth (pigweed) is gaining ground in her fields and across Iowa. The pervasive broadleaf weed can drastically reduce yields, with studies showing corn yield reductions between 11% and 91% and soybean yield reductions of 17% to 68%.

“We’ve struggled with pigweed as it continues to establish more resistance to our herbicides in our toolkit,” Tweeten says.

Two additional agronomic issues the report details include:

1. Asian Soybean Rust. First detected in the U.S. in Louisiana in 2004, this fungal disease has spread to southern states like Georgia and Mississippi. Scientists warn that warming winters could enable its migration to the Midwest, adding to existing disease pressures.

2. Corn Ear Rot. It can lead to aflatoxin production, making corn unmarketable and posing risks to humans and livestock. Aflatoxin is an issue Pickens County, Ala., farmer Annie Dee says is an ongoing problem for corn growers in her area.

“If we have aflatoxin, it can be impossible to sell the corn,” says Dee, also a Farm Journal Foundation Farmer ambassador.

A more recent threat she references is the impact of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (bird flu) on local poultry farms.

Since January 2022, HPAI has been confirmed in a commercial or backyard poultry flock in all 50 states.

(USDA)

“An important market for us is poultry feed meal, so that’s a constant worry. The trickle-down effect is if we can’t move our corn then we can’t meet our financial obligations,” Dee adds.

Despite agricultural R&D offering a high ROI — $20 in benefits for every $1 spent — the Farm Journal Foundation report notes public funding for ag research has been declining over the past two decades.

“Farmers urgently need sustained support for aflatoxin research and prevention because these risks threaten our yields, our markets and the trust consumers place in American agriculture,” Dee says.

U.S. public spending on ag research and development has been falling for two decades.

(USDA-ERS)

African Swine Fever Has ‘Devastating Potential’
Looking to the future, Tweeten says she is concerned about African swine fever (ASF) and its potential to impact crop farmers as well as hog producers. The highly contagious swine disease hasn’t been detected in the U.S. mainland, but it isn’t far away. ASF has been confirmed in the Caribbean countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, roughly 700 miles from Miami, Fla.

“Being a farmer from Iowa, where we have probably eight times the amount of pigs as we do people, an outbreak of ASF would be just devastating to our state,” Tweeten says.

Hogs are among the biggest customers for the corn and soybeans Tweeten and her family grow. If African swine fever were to shut down hog production or exports, it wouldn’t just be a blow to livestock producers – it would hurt the entire agricultural community, she contends.

Read about 5 livestock diseases that could impact U.S. food security and economic stability.

Food Security Is National Security
When it comes to justifying funding for ag research, Tweeten knows there’s competition for every federal dollar. But she believes agriculture deserves a front-row seat — not only because of its economic weight and impact on farmers, but because of its role in national security.

“There’s that argument that food security is national security,” she says. “If there’s one thing COVID made us aware of, it’s that a disruption to our food chain can be terrifying, quite frankly.”

The pandemic made consumers and policymakers more aware of supply chain vulnerability. In 2020, the shock to the supply chain came from a human disease and logistical bottlenecks.

(Sarah Williams Photography)

Next time, Tweeten says, the disruption could just as easily come from animal or plant disease — whether African swine fever in hogs, Asian soybean rust or some other pathogen in crops. She worries about scenarios where farmers could face a fast-moving disease or crop pest while critical tools are still hung up in regulatory delays.

Her message: Farmers need a full toolbox, not one that’s half-built by the time a threat arrives.

“Ag needs to be in a good position when these sorts of emerging diseases and pests come into the country,” she says, “to have the tools in our toolbox ready for farmers to pull out.”

About the Farm Journal Foundation
The Farm Journal Foundation is a farmer-centered, non-profit, nonpartisan organization established in 2010. It works to advance agricultural innovation, food and nutrition security, conservation, and rural economic development.

Corn Yield Champions Share Their Top 4 Hybrid Selection Strategies

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 19:54:56 GMT

Yield potential is always top of mind for farmers in the middle of evaluating and selecting corn hybrids for the next season, and this year is no exception. If anything, farmers are more tuned in than ever on hybrid evaluation, given the outlook for commodity prices in the year ahead.

Here are four ways David Hula and Randy Dowdy are approaching their hybrid selection process for 2026 and, in sharing, they hope their information will be helpful to you as well.

1. Balance yield potential with the other top two or three agronomic benefits you need.
“My No. 1 focus for a hybrid is it had better be standing when I get ready to harvest it, because there is nothing more miserable than having to take more time and risk equipment damage in harvesting down corn,” says Dowdy on the latest Breaking Barriers With R&D podcast.

His second priority is grain quality. Dowdy says he studies data from hybrid field trials and the performance of hybrids he tests on his own farm to evaluate plant health and what vulnerabilities they might have to specific diseases and insects common to the area.

His third priority is yield. While this ranking might differ from what most agronomic experts recommend, Dowdy puts it in perspective this way:

“We can make high yields with nearly all the hybrids out there that fit our farm today, so for me it’s more about managing the risks associated with them than just the yield potential alone,” explains Dowdy, who farms near Valdosta, Ga.

Dowdy and Hula share more insights on how they pick hybrids during their discussion earlier this week on AgriTalk:

2. Select hybrids for broad acreage use only if you have tested them on your own ground first.
Hybrids change so quickly today that Hula says it’s more important than ever to have evaluated new seed technology on your own ground.

“I challenge growers to try just a couple, three to five, new hybrids and evaluate them,” says Hula, Charles City, Va. “The results from your own personal management style, soil type, and weather conditions are going to give you the best data.”

Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie agrees with Hula.

“I’ve seen the same hybrid vary by 20 bu. to 40 bu. per acre because of different management practices used in a company test plot versus a farmer’s field,” Ferrie says. “Few farmers do plots, but the cost of seed today makes it worthwhile.”

Hula adds that he makes a point to split his planter with two different hybrids. “So when we’re going across most of our acres, that’s a way for us to compare a hybrid we know against a new one,” he says.

3. Look at a variety of performance data beyond your farm
While Hula and Dowdy are especially tuned in to how new technologies perform on their respective farms, they believe it’s still important to evaluate hybrid performance trial data companies provide.

“I like to consider how the trial is harvested, whether the data is just done by a yield monitor on a combine or with an actual weigh wagon,” Hula notes. “Sometimes the winning hybrid is not the one that the yield monitor says it is, so you have to be careful to filter out data that might not be accurate.”

Look for hybrids that perform consistently across locations and are well adapted over a wide range of climates and conditions, advises Jon LaPorte, Michigan State University Extension farm business management educator.

“Alternatively, evaluate data for testing locations nearest to you and your soil types. Make sure you consider at least three years of data for each hybrid. This will provide insight to how a hybrid performs over different weather scenarios. No two years are the same. Hybrids that are consistently performing at the top indicate that they are well adapted to various climates, LaPorte says in his article, Seed Selection: Beyond Yield and Disease Resistance.

4. Build relationships with seedsmen whose companies have a good product lineup for your area and who will help you succeed with their products.
Good seed dealers have integrity, a deep understanding of their company’s products, are good problem solvers and are looking for mutual success.

“Ask your seedsman what hybrids you need to be looking at,” Hula advises. “They’ll want to stack the cards in your favor and theirs, so they’re going to tell you the best hybrids to look at out there from start to finish.”

Talking to your seedsman and reading his company literature can give you some insights into product performance, but be prepared to ask more questions to get answers to the nitty gritty details about yield potential--especially for those new-to-you hybrids.

“Sometimes you have to read between the lines to figure out how a hybrid will perform,” Ferrie says. “With disease ratings, which can go from 1 to 9, the company literature might only use the 7 to 9 ratings and nothing lower because they know the competition would pick them apart otherwise. A good seedsman knows this information and will tell you the weaknesses to look out for, where to put that hybrid on your farm or whether you should even grow it,” he adds.

Your next read: 8 Expert Tips for Choosing the Best Seed Corn for 2026

Watch this week’s Breaking Barriers With R&D on YouTube . In this episode, lifelong farmers and founders of Total Acre, Randy Dowdy and David Hula, explore how technology, genetics, and innovation continue to redefine what’s possible on the farm.

Environmental Groups Want Enlist Registrations Vacated

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 23:48:25 GMT

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) and partner groups have filed a motion for summary judgment in federal court to vacate the EPA ‘s registrations for Enlist One and Enlist Duo herbicides.

The lawsuit alleges the EPA violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) by improperly approving the herbicides, relying on outdated data, and downplaying health and environmental risks.

Farmers use Enlist One and Enlist Duo herbicides, manufactured by Corteva Agriscience, to control tough broadleaf weeds like marestail and waterhemp in corn, cotton and soybean crops.

Enlist One contains 2,4-D choline salt, while Enlist Duo contains 2,4-D, choline salt and glyphosate.

Kristina Sinclair, staff attorney at CFS says in a press release that EPA approved the Enlist products “without performing the rigorous cost-benefit analysis the law demands.”

Another Round Of Legal Challenges

This is not the first legal challenge to the Enlist system. CFS and its partners previously challenged the EPA’s approval of Enlist Duo in 2014, leading to a 2020 Ninth Circuit ruling upholding the registration, keeping the technology available to farmers.

If the federal court would vacate the registrations for the Enlist technology, the products would be unavailable for sale or distribution in the U.S.

Corteva Agriscience has been granted intervener status to the legal challenge. Intervener status in this scenario means a person or group, that is not an original party in the lawsuit, is permitted by the court to become a party to the lawsuit, effectively joining the case to protect their interests.

“We fully stand behind our own as well as the EPA’s stringent review processes, which have affirmed, and reaffirmed, the safety and benefits of our products when used as directed,” a Corteva Agriscience spokesperson told Farm Journal via email.

EPA has until Oct. 20. 2025, to file a response to the litigation.

Corteva will have until early November to file its responses.

Your next read: Corn Ear Drop Before Black Layer Signals Yield Loss Is Ahead

Revenge Applications: Why They Don’t Work, Cost You Money and Bushels, and Are Frankly Illegal

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 14:51:59 GMT

With sub-$4 corn, fungicide decisions were a bit harder this year, says Erin Marlow. But in the last two to three weeks, disease pressure has increased with identification of southern rust, gray leaf spot and tar spot.

“In some cases, you get into fields that have a little bit of everything, and it really starts to add up,” says Marlow, a crop consultant in Maryville, Mo.

But on Wednesday, she got three calls throughout the day that were easy answers. Farmers asked her if they should make a late season herbicide application.

“Most people aren’t going to spend money on something that they don’t see the value in, in a lot of cases,” she says. “This is being fed by emotion. There’s just kind of that psychological pull for it.”

Late-season weeds popping through the soybean canopies and tall green weeds standing out in browning corn fields have some farmers questioning if a late-season application can be a weed management tool.

“It’s difficult for a person to drive by a field they farm and see that,” Marlow says. “There’s this overwhelming feeling to try and do something. The education part for us is trying to explain to them that you’re going to hurt yourself more than you’re going to help yourself in this scenario.”

Marlow says for her geography, overall fungicide application is up this year over the average. And while talking with other consultants, she says this idea of a late season herbicide application is being fielded in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio as well.

Aaron Hager, Extension specialist, weed science/IPM at University of Illinois, gives three reasons why applying a herbicide right now is a bad idea.

1. The Weeds Are Too Developed
“Farmers are trying to clean up a mess that’s the result of either not getting complete control or another weed emergence event,” he says. “While fields may have looked clean on July 1, by the third or fourth week of July, weeds spike above the canopy. Now these are old plants — by now, rarely are these plants not already flowering.”

Marlow says the most expensive herbicide program is the one that doesn’t work.

“If we have late-season weeds, what we’ve been doing isn’t working. There are better and different options, which means we have to have a management shift,” she says.

2. It’s Illegal
“Each post product has its own application timing. For glufosinate, R1 is the latest application in soybeans,” Hager says. “There’s a reason for preharvest intervals — you can’t have pesticide residue on harvest crops. I’d hate to be the farmer who, because of a later-season application, meant an entire bin of soybeans was going to be condemned.”

3. There’s Adverse Impact on Yield
“The damage these weeds have caused in yield was weeks ago. They aren’t causing much additional loss for yield potential,” Hager says. “Applying a herbicide is throwing away your money, and you run the risk of adversely impacting the soybean yield.”

Marlow adds an example to illustrate the economic cost.

“If it costs $10/acre to add the herbicide to the tank, the yield loss in soybeans can be as much as 12 bu., and let’s assume it’s half of that you’ll lose 6 bu. at $10 beans. So, this could end up costing a farmer $70/acre.”

This is Nothing New
“These late-season herbicide applications have happened for decades,” Hager says. “That’s not saying it’s alright to do. Thinking there’s ROI on throwing in a herbicide with a fungicide application — it’s a complete misnomer.”

Hager says if waterhemp is the target species, this reinforces best practices to fight herbicide resistance.

“We’re never going to spray our way out of this,” he says. “We’ve tried for 30 years, and the only thing we’ve accomplished is speeding up the evolution for resistance against all chemistries.”

Marlow says farmers need to apply an updated lens for their weed management expectations.

“If we can get 90% to 95% control, that’s doing really good, and that could be a great expectation for chemistry,” she says. “However, if you have a field that has an area where waterhemp produced 100,000 seeds last year, with 90% control, that still leaves 10,000 waterhemp plants.”

As such, she says perfect weed control may be difficult to get to or may not exist. Once weeds start growing, they become even harder to manage.

What Can Farmers Do Different?
First, Hager and Marlow both say farmers need to understand the weed species they are targeting.

“We call them driver weeds because they drive your decisions,” Marlow says.

Second, choose the right chemistry programs.

Marlow advocates farmers use overlapping residuals in both corn and soybeans.

“We know we can kill weeds before they come up,” she says. “It’s important to choose a strong chemistry program and get applications done in a timely fashion.”

Artificial Intelligence Joins The Fight Against Weeds, Insects And Disease

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 19:43:03 GMT

The crop protection industry needs a reboot, according to Tony Klemm.

As CEO of Enko, a crop-protection startup, he says the company is taking a different approach to solving one of agriculture’s biggest problems – developing safe, effective and sustainable crop protection products that can be brought to the marketplace faster and more economically.

Traditional discovery pipelines for herbicides, fungicides, insecticides are not keeping pace with real challenges farmers face, such as resistance issues, he told Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk on Thursday.

A 2024 study funded by Crop Life International reports the costs associated with bringing a new active ingredient to major U.S. and European markets now top $300 million. In addition, the survey says the average lead time between the first synthesis of a new crop protection molecule and its subsequent commercial introduction is now over 12 years.

Part of the long development time required is related to regulatory hurdles. “There’s just increasing demand for meeting environmental safety needs, rightfully so,” Klemm says.

A Paradigm Shift
Enko, based in Mystic, Conn., is using artificial intelligence (AI) and a machine learning discovery platform to guide the company’s research and development efforts. Klemm describes the strategy as a paradigm shift from the current industry practices for how small molecule crop protection discovery has been done.

“We use DNA-encoded libraries, and these libraries allow our scientists to explore this massive, diverse chemical space in a very targeted, automated and expansive way,” he says.

The technology allows Enko scientists to look at billions of molecules and screen them for safety and efficacy and, in the process, develop them faster and more economically.

“We still have to take the regulatory journey that, right now, no one’s figured out a way to expedite,” he notes. “But getting to that regulatory queue faster and better on the front side is really what’s bringing us that cost savings, that efficacy and is going to allow for more products to be put into the regulatory queue in a faster manner.”

Progress To Date
So far, Klemm says Enko has delivered about 50 active programs that cover all facets of weeds, insects and disease. Many use novel or new modes of action that Klemm believes will help farmers fight resistance issues, such as herbicide resistance in Palmer amaranth and pigweed.

“We’re really working on how we can bring new modes of action to farmers, give them fresh tools to win that fight. And our chemistries work using fewer active ingredients, from perspective of the load on the acre, so we’re designing safer chemistry for the future,” he says.

Specifically, Klemm says Enko recently announced a new grass herbicide is in the pipeline for the European cereals market for control of black grass. The company also has conducted field trials for corn and soybean products in the U.S. that he anticipates are five to 10 years away from market launch, depending on how long they take to move through regulatory channels.

Your next read: Bayer Affirms Support of Glyphosate, Optimistic for a Future with Over the Top Dicamba Labels

Corn Growers Alarmed Key Herbicides Face Uncertain Future

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 20:41:29 GMT

Blake Hurst considers glyphosate to be one of the most valuable crop production tools available in his farming toolbox.

The northwest Missouri farmer expressed concerns, during a media briefing hosted by Modern Ag Alliance, that the popular weed-control product would be targeted by the Make America Healthy Again report.

Hurst was right to be concerned.

Three technologies – glyphosate, atrazine and chloripyrifos – were called out in the Report, albeit via comments buried on page 35 of the 68-page document. The Report referenced the three weed-control chemistries as part of its list of products that can contribute to chronic disease in children.

In response to the Report, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) said it has spent the ensuing months “sounding the alarms about the MAHA Commission’s focus on herbicides.”

The association sponsored a farmer survey between June 17 and July 2 to assess farmer sentiment about glyphosate and atrazine, specifically.

The two products are used extensively in U.S. corn production to address various grass and broadleaf weeds. Industry estimates are that atrazine is used on about 60% of U.S. corn acres, while glyphosate is applied on nearly all herbicide-treated corn acres – 90.4% in total, according to the National Corn Growers Association .

Farmers and  more than 300 agriculture organizations  have engaged with the MAHA Commission in recent months to share concerns.

Corn Growers Surveyed Say Weeds Are Their Top Pest
Respondents indicated overwhelmingly – 85% – that weeds are the top pest plaguing their crops and that atrazine and glyphosate were their top two herbicides of choice.

(NCGA)

Survey responses were gathered from more than 1,000 farmers nationwide and a summary of the findings was released this week.

“American corn growers say they would face higher costs and reductions in crop yields if they were to lose access to key herbicides like atrazine and glyphosate,” the NCGA reported in a press release.

NCGA said its findings show that if the pesticides in the initial assessment were to disappear completely, crop yields could decrease by more than 70% due to pests, weeds and disease.

“These results are in line with what I am hearing in conversations among farmers,” said Illinois farmer and NCGA President Kenneth Hartman Jr., in a prepared statement. “We are concerned that claims about herbicides in the pending MAHA recommendations could remove access to the tools we need to safely and sustainably produce a crop.”

Farmers Want The Commission To Hear Their Concerns
NCGA said the survey findings reveal high stakes for the MAHA Commission’s next report, a set of policy recommendations expected to be released sometime yet this month, as early as August 12.

The NCGA said the crop protection tools in question have been thoroughly tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other regulatory bodies and shown to be safe for their intended uses.

“Given that the EPA’s robust regulatory process has found these products to be safe when used according to label directions, there is no reason to suggest that they are harmful,” Hartman noted. “Doing so will come at a great cost to farmers and rural America.”

Blake Hurst said that outcome would be likely for his Missouri operation.

“As a corn and soybean farmer, I use [glyphosate] to control weeds, keep my yields up and my costs down,” Hurst said. “It’s reliable, affordable and effective. Without it, I’d be stuck using alternatives that don’t work as well and might not be as safe.”

Learn More about the Survey Here .

Your next read: Can Pulse Crops Double Acreage by 2030? The Push to Include More Pulses in the MAHA Movement

Precision Spray Drones: The Future of Invasive Species Control

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 15:32:35 GMT

While addressing weed control and pressing agronomic issues is a farmers’ priority during the growing season, ensuring adjacent wetlands and riparian buffer zones within crop fields are healthy and free of invasive species is imperative, too.

Today, there is novel research from the University of Waterloo showing a single, targeted herbicide application from a spray drone can suppress common invasive reed species with more than 99% effectiveness. The outcome is among many research findings recently published online in a Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) research journal.

If you’d really like to get into the weeds, you can review the full scientific study results here.

“The 99% reduction in live common reed stems observed with drone-based herbicide application demonstrates its capacity to suppress invasive common reed effectively,” says Rebecca Rooney, Ph.D., the University of Waterloo. Rooney is also a professor in the school’s biology department and the study’s corresponding author.

Rooney says the drone application method “matched or exceeded the efficacy of conventional helicopter and backpack applications.”

That’s a key aspect of the study findings because, as any farmer knows, managing invasive weeds in wetlands or buffer strips can pose significant challenges, due to limited access via hand weeding crews and ground rigs.

Spray drone applications allow for smaller spray widths and lower flight heights compared to manned helicopters, Rooney says, and the study results also show a reduction in off-target impacts and spray drift.

“This approach also holds promise for accelerating ecological recovery in wetland habitats,” says Rooney, adding that future research efforts around spray drone application in wetland settings should focus on long-term native vegetation recovery and quantify the accuracy of herbicide applications to minimize off-target damage to native vegetation in wetlands.”

Here’s a video from nuWay Ag showing the process of spray drone application in an Ohio wetland:

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Are You Planning a Foliar Fungicide Application in Soybeans?

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:53:36 GMT

Many early-planted soybeans in the Midwest are somewhere in the R2 to R3 growth stages now, exhibiting excellent pollination success and ready for fungicide applications, according to Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.

Here are three quick reminders Ferrie and other agronomic advisers offer to help you make the call in this year’s soybean crop.

1. Weigh the financial pros and cons.

If your fields have little disease pressure this year, does it make sense to apply a foliar fungicide in soybeans? Probably in only a handful of scenarios, according to 2021 research by university Extension agronomists and pathologists published in Nature’s Scientific Reports .

The researchers determined that “except for a few production environments located in the northern fringe of the U.S. north-central region, there was an economic benefit to using foliar fungicides in soybean production [only] when prices are near or above average.”

While some crop protection companies tout plant health benefits from making foliar fungicide applications to soybeans, agronomists say this is the year to carefully weigh a $35 to $40 per acre fungicide application against the potential payoff in yield per acre with $10-per-bushel soybeans.

2. Stage your soybean crop.

The sweet spot for foliar fungicide use is generally considered the R3 (beginning pod) growth stage. Look for that growth stage to be present in at least half of the field prior to treatment. Most years, the R3 growth stage will last approximately 10 days.

Learn how to stage your crop here .

Why treat at R3? Approximately 70% of a soybean plant’s yield comes from nodes 6 to 13. Many of the uppermost nodes of this region of the plant do not exist at R2 (full flower); therefore, a fungicide application this early has a limited impact on pod/seed retention and seed size, reports Beck’s Hybrids in this article .

“Conversely, at R4 (full pod), many of the lower nodes of this region are too far along in pod/ seed development for a fungicide to have a meaningful impact. Fungicide applications at R3 (beginning pod) work because the nodes that do the heavy lifting (6 to 13) are beginning pod development and are present at the top of the canopy at this time,” Beck’s says.

There are some reasons to treat soybeans at times other than R3.

For instance, the best foliar fungicide application timing for white mold at R1 growth stage (one open flower per plant on 50% of the plants), according to Michigan State University Extension.

In addition, applications made at R2 have performed well in recent research conducted in North Dakota.

3. Pick the right product for the job.

Determine what fungicide mode of action groups will provide the best efficacy to achieve maximum disease control, says Stephanie Porter, CCA and Illinois Soybean Association outreach agronomist.

Porter notes the North Central Regional Committee on Soybean Diseases has developed information on foliar fungicide efficacy for control of major foliar diseases . These efficacy ratings are based upon the level of disease control achieved by the product and are not necessarily reflective of yield increases achieved by the product application, she says.

4. Consider whether you need a herbicide rescue treatment.

OK, so that has nothing to do with addressing soybean diseases with fungicide, but here’s the deal: when soybeans are at R3 and you go after weeds you’re likely to lose some pods. Ferrie says to make sure your weed problems are worth treating now.

They very well could be, given how tough waterhemp pressure is in the Midwest this season.

“I am finally getting some reports of a lot better control with the second pass of Liberty, so conditions have changed in such we’re bringing down some pretty big weeds out there, but what a frustration,” he says. “Just be careful and stage your soybeans before you spray.”

Your next read: Flying High and Digging Deep — Precision Ag from the Sky to the Soil

Unexpected Impact From Illinois Dust Storm Hits Corn, Soybeans

Wed, 28 May 2025 17:44:08 GMT

It was bad enough Illinois farmers affected by the May 16 dust storm saw priceless topsoil blow off their fields and into the hinterlands. Adding insult to injury, many corn and soybean growers now face not only damaged or destroyed crops but will need to reapply fertilizer and herbicide products in some scenarios, says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.

“If you ever tried to imagine what the Dust Bowl was like in the 1930s all you had to do was be in central Illinois that Friday afternoon,” Ferrie says. “You didn’t need your imagination to experience the Dust Bowl, you got to live it. Now, granted, it was only a few hours long. But it blew soil, it blew residue, it blew trees over, did property damage in some areas, and some of our most precious, McLean County soil was deposited in Lake Michigan.”

On Friday, May 16, 2025, an NOAA satellite captured images of a dust storm that pushed across northern Illinois, northern Indiana and the metropolitan area of Chicago. The dust storm was driven by strong winds, gusting over 60 mph at times.

(NOAA)

Not only McLean County topsoil went north to Chicago and beyond. Ferrie is concerned recent surface-applied herbicides and nitrogen were likely blown away with the soil and residue, too.

“Some of these fields that were sprayed that did not receive a rain to move it into the soil and get it activated are at risk now,” he explains. “We’ll need to keep an eye on these fields for weed escapes and the loss of nitrogen. We can make some estimates on the nitrogen losses with nitrate testing, but herbicide losses will only show up in weed escapes.”

Additional Consequences From The Storm
Ferrie, who is based just south of Bloomington, Ill., reports the dust storm generated a number of farmer requests, calls asking him to come inspect fields for crop damage. He notes that affected cornfields looked like they received a hard frost. With soybeans, some fields had plants sheared off at the ground level.

“In most cases with corn, I saw mainly cosmetic damage, and the corn will bounce back,” Ferrie says. “But in cases where the corn was covered up by dust, the crop will not come back, and it’ll need to be replanted. This occurred mainly where grass strips worked like a snow fence and the dirt piled up on the corn. In some areas buried in residue, we may need to burn that off the field before we can replant.”

Farmers who want to apply fertilizer or herbicides will benefit from holding off making any spray applications until affected crops show signs of a robust recovery, primarily in the form of new growth, he adds.

“Growth out of the whorl tells you that things are getting back on track,” Ferrie says. “We e do want to apply [herbicides] based on weed height, but this would be one time where I would put a pause on it and let this corn recover before we come back in with our post applications.”

Third Consecutive Year Of Spring Dust Storms In Illinois
Rains totaling 1” to 3” in the days following the storm, helped replenish soil moisture levels and start the recovery process in some affected corn and soybean crops.

But Ferrie points out that the dust storm marked the third year in a row such an event has swept through parts of Illinois, and the storms have cast a bad light on production agriculture in the region.

“Guys, we need to step back and take a minute to evaluate what we just witnessed,” Ferrie says. “Our soil went a quarter mile in the air, blew all the way to Chicago, closing roads and causing accidents.”

Such risks and consequences from dust storms are garnering more critical attention from the general public and scientists.

A 10-year study done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and published by the American Meteorological Society in 2023, found a total of 232 deaths occurred from windblown dust events between 2007 through 2017.

“We found that dust events caused life losses comparable to events like hurricanes and wildfires in some years,” says Daniel Tong, research scientist at NOAA and an associate professor of Atmospheric Oceanic and Earth Sciences at George Mason University, in a news release. “Greater awareness could reduce crashes and possibly save lives.”

Haboobs, another term for intense dust storms, can occur anywhere in the U.S., but are most common in the Southwest , according to the National Weather Service. El Paso, Texas, has seen 10 in 2025 alone, reports Inside Climate News .

El Paso, Texas, has been hit by 10 dust storms so far this year.

(Tom Gill)

Two other recent examples of severe dust storms include:

March 3 – a crash involving 11 vehicles on Interstate 10 occurred near Albuquerque, N.M., left three people dead. Authorities there say heavy dust storms contributed to the crash by severely limiting visibility.

March 14 – Kansas Highway Patrol officials reported eight fatality victims from an Interstate 71-vehicle pileup that occurred during a dust storm.

Fortunately, no fatalities were reported as a result of the Illinois dust storm that occurred May 16.

Calls For Action To Reduce Dust Storm Numbers
A number of individuals and organizations in Illinois are calling for agronomic practices that will prevent or limit such events in the future. One of those is Robert Hirschfeld, Director of Water Policy at Prairie Rivers Network, an independent, state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation

“These are man-made ecological disasters, driven by a form of agriculture that exploits and depletes the land, leaving millions of acres of soil exposed and eroding for half the year,” Hirschfeld said in a statement distributed three days after the Illinois storm. “We can’t keep farming this way.”

Hirschfeld wants the issue to be addressed formally via legislative action: “If we want real change, we have to move beyond voluntary conservation and start requiring practices that keep soil in place and pollution out of our water.”

Steps Farmers Can Take
While no one can control the weather, farmers can adjust their management practices to reduce the risk of dust storms, according to Illinois Extension. A logical first step is to reduce the number of tillage passes, especially in fields adjacent to busy highways, to begin moving toward conservation tillage.

Additionally, increased soil productivity can be achieved through reduced erosion, enhanced water infiltration, and decreased water evaporation during dry periods, according to the USDA Managing Crop Residues in Corn and Soybeans research report.

Ferrie says many of the farmers he works with are “great stewards of their land and are able to keep their soils in place.”

He advocates using a systems approach in production agriculture that will protect vulnerable soils and other resources (see A System for Every Soil) .

“There are many tools in the toolbox we can use to accomplish this,” he says. “We can work together to implement practices that will eliminate [dust storms] from happening in the future.”

Check out Ferrie’s latest Boots In The Field podcast to hear his specific recommendations and additional insights.

John Deere-Sentera Tie Up: Here’s What We Know So Far

Fri, 23 May 2025 21:07:32 GMT

John Deere has announced its acquisition of Minnesota-based aerial optics innovator Sentera. Although specific details are few and far between this early in the process, here’s what we know so far:

The two companies have a long history. John Deere was the first enterprise customer Sentera signed onto its system over a decade ago, and the two companies have had an API link in place between Sentera’s drone management software and John Deere’s Operations Center since 2016.
Financial details are not being disclosed. We do know the deal is not subject to any further regulatory or shareholder approvals.
In a similar fashion to the Blue River Technologies and Bear Flag Robotics acquisitions, Sentera will maintain its independence as a free-standing business unit. Once fully integrated into the Deere family, Sentera will operate under the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) framework. Sentera leadership will remain at its St. Paul, Minn., headquarters.
For the time being, no major changes are planned for either company as we head into the heart of the summer crop scouting and spraying season. The two companies anticipate having more details to share about the nuts and bolts of the acquisition this fall.
The two groups are a natural fit. Sentera is aggressively marketing its SmartScripts drone weed mapping program, and the technology is complimentary to John Deere’s Operations Center and its See & Spray and ExactApply application technologies. One driving force behind this deal, Farm Journal is told, is Deere’s motivation to integrate more real-time agronomic data into its Operations Center platform, and Sentera’s aerial data capture capabilities can help make that happen.

(John Deere)

A deal to lift both boats. John Deere has built up a deep bench of artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous technology expertise within ISG, and Sentera has a long track record of aerial sensing and camera payload innovation. Considering how many cameras and sensors are included from the factory on new John Deere machines and within its Precision Upgrades retrofit kits, there should be a healthy cross pollination of sensor and camera innovation between Urbandale, Iowa, (where ISG is based) and St. Paul, Minn.
Sentera can help make See & Spray even better. SmartScripts uses drone-based imaging to scan a field and build a weed pressure map which is then loaded onto the sprayer’s in-cab computer. Now the sprayer operator can see exactly where weeds are in the field and focus their spraying efforts there first. There’s also a logistical and planning aspect to SmartScripts: by knowing exactly how many weeds are present in the field, and even what type of weeds are there, an adept operator can have the right active ingredients premixed and the exact amount needed loaded into the tank or staged nearby in a tender truck to keep that sprayer running all day long.

“Farming is becoming a very sensor and data-centric business, and in our opinion, there isn’t anyone doing it at broad scale today better than John Deere,” says Eric Taipale, chief technology officer, Sentera. “The way we can bring these data-driven insights and improve grower outcomes — it’s just what we’ve always been about. It’s what John Deere is all about. There’s such a great mesh between the two cultures, the objectives and the mission of the two organizations.”

Joseph Liefer, global technology marketing lead at John Deere, adds, “We’re excited about how this complements our existing portfolio with See & Spray, and then not just that (product). Now a farmer with an individual nozzle-controlled sprayer from any manufacturer can also leverage this technology. A drone can fly their field, generate a weed map, turn it into a prescription in Operations Center and the machine can go execute the plan. From an ag retailer standpoint, that might have a mixed fleet, and this gives them more tools in the toolbox to do targeted application for growers and help them save on herbicide. We view this deal as complementary to our overall tech strategy.”

Your Next Read: MAHA Report’s Surprising Stance on Glyphosate, Atrazine Explained

Farmers Brace for Impact: What the MAHA Report Could Mean for Agriculture

Wed, 21 May 2025 21:34:34 GMT

With less than 24 hours to go before the specifics are expected to be unveiled in the Make America Healthy Again report, some members of the agricultural community wonder if they can take Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at his word.

Specifically, Kennedy, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, has said the report will not disparage the herbicide glyphosate, which many farmers across the country rely on for weed control.

“[In] the drafts that I’ve seen, there is not a single word in them that should worry the American farmer,” Kennedy said on Tuesday before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.

“Tell that to a sugar producer who heard him say a few weeks ago, ‘sugar is poison,’” responded Jim Wiesemeyer, Washington policy analyst.

Wiesemeyer added that Kennedy’s previous statements, as well as his work as an environmental lawyer, have contributed to farmers’ ongoing angst over what will happen to glyphosate.

“[Kennedy has an impact on food, dietary guidelines, but he doesn’t have the jurisdiction over on the chemical side, so his reach is only so far,” Wiesemeyer said, during a conversation with AgriTalk host Chip Flory.

Get the complete details here:

Farmers Highlight Their Concerns
A number of farm groups have voiced concerns collectively and individually this week, leading up to the report’s release, which is the first report of the MAHA Commission President Donald Trump formed in February.

“We do anticipate, unfortunately, that pesticides will be a key piece of that report, and that much of it may be guided not by science but on a misinformation that exists across the countryside,” said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, executive director of Modern Ag Alliance. The organization describes itself as a coalition of more than 100 agricultural organizations across the U.S.

“We are here today hoping to bring not only a concerted voice forward, but also making sure that the voice of farmers – those farmers that are actually out in the countryside using these products, depending upon these products – are brought to the forefront,” added Burns-Thompson during a media briefing hosted by her organization with two farmers sharing perspectives.

One of those farmers, Blake Hurst, said he considers glyphosate one of the most valuable crop production tools in his farming toolbox.

“I’ve read a number of news reports over the last few days saying that crop production products, and glyphosate in particular, may be targeted in the upcoming MAHA commission report. If that’s the case, it will be a terrible development for American agriculture,” said Hurst, who farms in northwest Missouri.

He estimates U.S. farmers lose about 40% of their crops to weeds and diseases annually, and that without the help of crop protection products, such as glyphosate, that number would double.

“As a corn and soybean farmer, I use [glyphosate] to control weeds, keep my yields up and my costs down,” Hurst said. “It’s reliable, affordable and effective. Without it, I’d be stuck using alternatives that don’t work as well and might not be as safe.”

Policy Decisions Impact Farmers And Consumers
Iowa farmer Scott Henry said he is concerned that if the MAHA Commission’s report drives future policy decisions, food prices will likely increase. “Instead of making America healthy again, we’ll be making America hungry again,” Henry shared during the Alliance media briefing.

Henry referenced how U.S. farmers are under financial pressure this year from low commodity prices, high input costs and trade uncertainty and must also contend with misinformation that some activists spread about food production practices.

“To have anti-ag activists who have never stepped foot on a farm or taken our perspective or the science into [consideration] … they’re getting away with impacting both farmers and consumers, and the impacts of that could be severe. Bottom line is this, without glyphosate, yields will drop, costs will rise, and higher prices will get passed on to the consumer,” Henry said.

More than 10 farm groups echoed Henry’s concerns in a joint statement earlier this week, calling for the Trump administration to consider the consequences of the MAHA report before it is finalized.

“…We have heard disturbing accounts that the commission report may suggest U.S. farmers are harming Americans through their production practices and ‘creating foods that [are] destroying our microbiome and bodies—leading directly to our chronic disease crisis.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” the joint statement said.

It added, “Nutrition matters, health matters, and the confidence of consumers in the food supply matters tremendously. Such a conclusion would run counter to the scientific evidence and decades of findings from the Environmental Protection Agency.”

Participants in the joint statement included the American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Association of Wheat Growers and the International Fresh Produce Association

Illinois farmer Steve Pitstick is more wary than worried about what the report will reveal. It is expected to be unveiled Thursday. He is planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

“I find it a stretch to believe it’s not going to impact us somehow,” Pitstick said during the AgriTalk Farmer Forum on Thursday. “But we’ll deal with it as it comes and try to do our best to talk up what we do in agriculture every day to the best of our ability for consumers, ourselves and our families.”

Hear more from Pitstick and ASA President Caleb Ragland, as they weigh in with their thoughts on MAHA:

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Why U.S. Agriculture Needs More AI Investment to Stay Ahead in Global Crop Innovation Race

Tue, 20 May 2025 18:15:48 GMT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key tool in accelerating the discovery, development and manufacturing of new crop protection molecules to fight yield-robbing weeds, pests, and diseases in U.S. farm fields.

The technology helps researchers shorten the discovery window and find new and novel active-ingredient molecules that are much more difficult and expensive to uncover using traditional research methods.

That was among the talking points that emerged from Tuesday’s congressional hearing on AI in farming, held in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee in Washington, D.C.

Related: The New Space Race: Why America Must Focus On AI

At the hearing, key agricultural stakeholders advocated for increasing government investment in AI technology and infrastructure. The group warned Congress that America’s status as a world leader in AI has been usurped by Japan and China, while other rival countries are also gunning for top positions.

Testifying on behalf of U.S. agriculture was Corteva Vice President of Agricultural Solutions Brian Lutz, University of Florida associate professor Chris Swale and University of Illinois assistant professor Boris Camiletti.

“AI is without a doubt one of the most profound technologies ever to be invented,” Lutz said. “We believe there is tremendous opportunity for our government to support and incentivize advanced innovation — including by leveraging the benefits of AI — to benefit American farmers. If we want to win, we need to move smarter and faster than our competition. Corteva believes with the support of our government, we will do exactly that.”

Lutz said researchers at Corteva recently used AI to model how 10,000 different molecules might be used in crop protection, all within a matter of weeks. The Corteva model was able to identify dozens of new potential crop protection molecules that its overworked chemists could not have found otherwise. He said the company is currently testing a handful of these molecules and AI will also play a role in moving the testing phase along more quickly than traditional lab-based methods.

Lutz also told Congress how Corteva scientists have deployed AI technology in its fermentation processes, which the company uses to create what he called “molecules of interest” for evaluation. Over the past few years, Corteva has used AI modeling to engineer various bacterial strains that drive fermentation reactions and optimize reaction conditions, allowing the company to run a manufacturing operation that is as efficient as possible. This application of AI helps Corteva maintain a strong U.S. manufacturing base in the Midwest, Lutz said.

“This is the new face of ag innovation,” he added. “We can accelerate discovery of new classes of crop protection products, like biologicals — nature-based solutions that help farmers grow more food by working alongside traditional crop protection products. With AI, we can begin to predict the incredible diversity of biomolecules and metabolites that are produced by microbes and other organisms, with the goal of unlocking the secrets within plant biology to develop the next generation of safe, highly targeted, nature-inspired products.”

Swale testified to AI’s role in helping researchers on his team find and develop biological-based treatments to combat Asian citrus psyllid, an invasive pest that has left the Florida citrus industry — valued at almost $10 billion just five years ago — teetering on the brink of collapse. Effective synthetic chemicals to manage the Asian citrus psyllid exist, but the regulatory hurdles to get those products onto the market are too high, he said

“We have turned to using AI to help discover chemicals of the natural world because the registration requirements are significantly lower when compared to synthetic insecticides,” Swale said.

Camiletti leads a team of researchers combining plant pathology, remote sensing and AI to help U.S. soybean farmers overcome red crown rot, a soil-borne disease first detected in Illinois soybean fields in 2018.

Illinois has been hit the hardest by the yield-robbing disease, Camiletti said, and the pathogen is spreading rapidly to Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. The disease is difficult to detect visually, he added, and once symptoms appear it’s often too late for successful remediation.

“My team uses satellite imagery and machine learning to identify red crown rot hot spots, and we train the models with high resolution multi-spectral data to near-infrared bands and use ground observations to teach the algorithm what diseased plants look like,” Camiletti said. “This technology has real on-farm impact. We are building tools that generate prescription maps so instead of applying fungicides across entire fields farmers can target only the affected areas.”

After key witness testimony concluded, the committee opened the floor to questions from members of Congress. Watch the full hearing via the video embedded below:

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