Don't Pass on Full-Rates

Winter is finally over and planting season is right around the corner. With the warmer weather and sunshine, areas are starting to green up. It will be very important before we start planting to take a walk through the fields to see what kind of weed pressure will be present when we spray the field.

A full-rate of application up front is always recommended. It is tempting to try to save a little money by cutting rates, but usually it will cost you in the long run. By using a full rate, we can alleviate the weed pressure that the second pass will have to take care of. My preferred program on beans would be a full rate of Matador S. At three pints you would get 1.33 pints of S-Metolachlor, 5.9 ounces of Metribuzin, and 3.94 ounces of Pursuit. I recommend waiting 25-30 days after the first pass to apply the second-pass chemical. At that time there may not be very many weeds and what's there may be small, but that is the point. Make sure to add a second-residual like Outlook to the second pass. It is a lot easier to kill the seed than it is to kill the weed.

Make sure to regularly scout your fields for weed pressure. SFG employs summer interns to scout fields to help us make the best recommendation for your field. Even the best programs can fail if they are not used correctly. If you are interested in having SFG scout your and fields and make chemical recommendations, give your local SFG agronomist a call.