With each growing season comes a new set of challenges. Some challenges are out of one?s control, such as the weather. Other challenges like weed growth can be effectively managed throughout the growing season. BASF assists farmers with weed management this growing season by offering flexible herbicide treatments.
The agricultural division of BASF strives to ?start clean and stay clean.? Daniel Waldstein, BASF technical marketing manager, says farmers can start clean by using pre-emergent herbicides and stay clean by layering residual herbicides throughout the growing season.
?That does a couple things for us,? Waldstein said. ?It gives us an opportunity to maximize yield, but it also minimizes weed escapes. What we?re really trying to get after there is reducing the weed seed bank for the future. What we do this year has an impact on subsequent years as well.?
A sound, weed management plan can offer farmers many benefits. Waldstein says farmers who start with a pre-emergence herbicide can receive good assurance throughout the growing season.
?It increases the margin for error on post-applications as we get through the season. A couple key weeds – Waterhemp and Palmer Amaranth – can grow up to an inch or two per day. If you get a few rainy days, you can go from no weeds to weeds over four inches, which is really our target height where we have the best success. You can go through that pretty quick, and then you?re playing catch up throughout the season,? Waldstein said.
Waldstein makes note of a couple flexible herbicide solutions: one for corn, another for soybeans
?Our Armezon PRO is a great example of a flexible herbicide,? Waldstein said. ?We can use Armezon from pre-emergence all the way up to 30-inch tall corn. As often happens – depending on the season – we get these rainy periods where we can?t get in the field. Having that extra ability to get in with Armezon PRO all the way up to 30-inch tall corn, that?s really an advantage for growers.?
?We have a relatively new product. It?s called Zidua PRO herbicide. It?s a pre-emergence herbicide for soybeans. We like to talk about Zidua PRO as an all in one jug solution. We get broad spectrum grass and broadleaf weed control, and we also get what we call built-in resistant management,? Waldstein said.
