United States Department of Agriculture – Farm Service Agency officials report 19.59 million acres filed as prevented from planting in 2019. Additionally, the Risk Management Agency paid roughly $4.13 billion in claims for prevented planting, $3.86 billion stemming from excessive moisture and flooding.
Such prevent plant acres pose threat to crop production in 2020.
Mark Storr serves as senior technical services representative for BASF. He says prevent plant acres can intensify weed pressure. Poorly managed fields aid weed development, hindering management options.
Storr admits “It is hard to manage weeds today without a pre-emergent herbicide.” He offers management tips ahead of the 2020 crop season.
?We (BASF) lean heavily on Group 15, products like Outlook and Zidua. Then we have a premix, called Zidua PRO, which is by far and above the most popular soybean pre-emergent herbicide used today for early season control,? Storr said.
Storr says it is best to prevent weed growth and development.
?If (weeds) get out of the ground, we have a difficult time controlling them post-emerge because of resistance in the environment today,? Storr said. ?We know the glyphosate struggles. We have Group 27 resistance and a lot of PPOs are not effective. That lends itself to genetically modified crops to use products like Dicamba and/or the LibertyLink system.
Storr encourages producers to form an aggressive weed control plan, featuring both a pre- and post-emergent herbicide, as well as advanced trait technology.
?Use a solid pre-, think about your post-emergent alternatives and consider using one of those traits, whether that be the new, Enlist E3 soybeans, which allows use of Liberty and Enlist One herbicides. Then take a look at Dicamba beans, which allow the use of Engenia,” Storr said.
