No matter the crop, managing to avoid herbicide-resistant weeds is a priority for growers. Paul Neese, Product Development Manager – Herbicides, UPL, shares his checklist for resistance management in wheat.
1. Recollect & record Looking back on last year’s season and evaluating the effectiveness of your program – what worked and what didn’t work – is key. Just after harvest is a perfect time to take stock and assess for the next crop year.
2. Accurately identify weeds – Think back on what kind of weeds your field has experienced or which weeds you may want to avoid, and pair up those findings with the appropriate products to provide effective control.
3. Have a zero-tolerance policy – It’s important to have a “zero-tolerance policy” when it comes to escaping weeds. The faster you address the weeds, the sooner you can control and prevent them from going to seed.
4. Make sure your application is correct – Once you’ve identified the weeds and you know which product will match up, then you must be able to apply it properly to get the most out of the product. Consider the proper timing that matches up with the crop and the weed, spacing, pressure and full label rates.
5. Use a comprehensive herbicide combination and rotation strategy – The herbicide combination you’re using makes all the difference. Growers should be using at least two effective modes of action, whether premix or tank mix, to reduce the selection pressure on a single mode of action.
UPL recommends EVEREST® 3.0, an advanced flucarbazone-sodium formulation (patent pending) with new carrier technology giving you wave after wave of grassy weed domination. EVEREST 3.0 has greater stability of the active ingredients for enhanced performance, longer shelf life and unsurpassed ease of use. It provides relentless control of wild oats and broad-spectrum control of hard to kill grass and broadleaf weeds such as green and yellow foxtail, bromes and other hard-to-kill weeds.
6. Clean your equipment – As you’re getting ready for the next season, make sure your equipment is clean. The last thing growers want is to go through all the work and end up spreading weed seed back in areas where they’ve dedicated and implemented all these strategies.
Most importantly, growers should look at resistance management as a program or systems approach. Each component is important in itself; however, implementing all components together is what growers truly need for effective resistance management in weed control.
For additional information on resistance management and how to reach the high yields you’ve been striving for, contact your local UPL Representative.
