Don't Skimp on Weed Control

With spring rapidly approaching, some farmers are trying to cut expenses for the 2025 growing season. I’m often asked, “Do I really need to spend money to apply a pre-emerge chemical in front of my crops?” and “Should I add a residual to my post application?” For the best outcome, the answer is a resounding “yes” to both questions.

Parts of our trade territory have weeds that are tolerant or resistant to many of our post-applied chemicals. Certain weed populations, such as water hemp, have only one post-emerge option, and that option is not the same in all areas. That means we must kill the weed before it starts with pre-emerge spraying.

Tillage may kill many emerged weeds before planting. However, residual control of weeds must also be applied for effective control. Also, with no-till being the system of choice for many, that leaves only chemistry to take care of weeds.

With no completely new products coming on-market for the next few years, it is important to use as many modes of action as practical to slow resistance to available chemistries. Many top-performing, pre-emerge chemicals offer multiple modes of action. Following up with a post-emerge chemical will take care of any escapes from the pre-emerge program. Adding another layer of residual at post-application will give us a chemical program offering many effective modes of action to control the resistant/tolerant weed populations.

Yes, you may get by without using a multi-mode chemical program or even get by with a one-pass program for now. But it will eventually catch up with you. Exposing weeds to herbicides without killing all of them only leads to larger populations of weeds that are resistant/tolerant to what chemistries we have available. If we have had any train wrecks in chemical programs, they have been a result of not using a pre-emergent chemical program and trying to cut back on the number of applications.

Talk to your local SFG agronomist to help with a good two-pass chemical program that will add value for your acres in 2025!