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Farmers trying to stay in front of first weed flush

Farmers are trying to keep up with early season weed pressure.

Channel agronomist Matthew Nelson says giant ragweed, marestail, and pennycress are off and running in central Iowa.

“I’ve already heard from a few growers that they’ve got beans planted but do not have their preemergence herbicide put down yet. There’s always some risk there that we could be delayed by wet weather and have emerged soybeans before we can get a pre put on.”

He tells Brownfield timely spraying is nearly as important as timely planting.

“That’s been my big advice, if you have your herbicide plan ready and you feel comfortable either planting and then spraying directly after or I think in most cases it’s best to wait until you’ve got that pre put down.”

Nelson says planting is off to a good start and he’s hopeful weekend rains will activate herbicides that have been applied.