News

Start strategizing fall weed control now

A weed specialist says now is the perfect time for farmers to start planning their fall weed-control strategies for difficult to manage weeds.

Purdue University’s Bill Johnson says weather in the Eastern Corn Belt prevented farmers from controlling problematic weeds early in the growing season this year.  “What resulted then was a very challenging environment to control marestail in,” he says.  “

He tells Brownfield farmers need to figure out what to do different next year so the same problem doesn’t persist.  “What guys can start to think about then is – alright I have these fields that have bad marestail problems, so I should incorporate a fall applied treatment,” he says.  “If growers are going to no-till the field next year, fall applied treatments should be used to get those fall emerging marestail under control.”

By managing weeds this fall, Johnson says farmers will have less tough-to-control weeds that need to be sprayed next spring.

AUDIO: Bill Johnson, Purdue University