Supply Chain Headaches: Why U.S. Farmers, Ag Retailers Are Planning Their Herbicides Early for 2022
If you are a retailer, grower, or custom applicator, chances are you are paying close attention to how well the new(ish) 2,4-D and dicamba technologies are controlling Palmer amaranth and pigweed populations. In a limited number of fields, the answer is, not so well — and naturally, there is a fear of the snowball effect, writes Jackie Pucci at CropLife.
To put into perspective how costly the battle has become, farmers surveyed by BASF say they are spending 10X the amount to control pigweed than they were just 10 years ago, according to Kate Greif, Liberty Product Herbicide Manager with BASF.
Greif was part of the initiative BASF launched to take on waterhemp and pigweed in 2019, dubbed Operation Weed Eradication, which is now an industry-wide coalition. That effort is aimed at changing the approach and entire mindset around weed management.
“To me, the keystone, or the top building block is the diligence to control the last weed standing on the farm. That comes back to even one pigweed or Palmer can produce up to a million seeds per plant. That’s the legacy that particular weed is leaving in the field for following season,” Greif says.
“It comes back to residuals,” Dan Beran, Director of Technical Services, Nufarm, tells CropLife®. Beran attended University of Tennessee Extension Weed Specialist Larry Steckel’s field day on June 16, where the two Ts – tank-mixes and timing — were the take-homes for their role in helping control the spread of resistant weeds.
“You can imagine that if your residual package runs out of control at 21 days and it rains for two weeks, your weed size is going to be way too large for any of the available post-emerge herbicides,” Beran says. Tank-mixes with glufosinate (for example, Nufarm’s Cheetah) play a key role, in addition to layering residuals, such as metolachlor and acetochlor over the top. The main message, he says, was don’t spray Xtend or Enlist as a standalone treatment.
“I think with the flexibility that the rise in commodity prices has given it is not necessarily as difficult for a grower to pencil in additional dollars for weed control,” Beran adds. “New traits are very helpful and very welcome but are not bulletproof.”
Rebounding grain prices, says Dane Bowers, Technical Product Lead with Syngenta, offer growers a better position to select more premium herbicides to provide the control that they need preemergence. “I think maybe we saw that this year, and it feels like there was a return to using some of the better products pre to provide that residual activity that we really need. That’s a good sign.”
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