Farming Question - Weeds in Fields

[Reprobait]

On my recent travels I noticed that a lot of standing fields have a lot of weeds in them near harvest time. In some cases you can hardly tell what they are trying grow. I am not sure if it is just this year or something that has been building for a while. Are combines better at sorting theses day? Resistant weeds? Just wondering.

 

[Tikka280ai]

some of it is resistant weeds or weeds that can't be easily killed out of the crop they are growing in. edible beans are one of the worst in terms of keeping clean because of the limited amounts of chemicals there is to kill broadleaf weeds but not the beans.

ijn my area a lot of the problems can be solved with a chisel plow or field cultivate in the fall but farmers don't like the extra tillage pass in the very sandy fields.

 

[pluckem]

Maybe related to the slow start many saw with the drought in June and July. Crops didn't grow well and form a canopy to outpace the weeds?

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Crop rotation or actually lack of crop rotation has seemed to be showing a difference in a lot of fields as well.

 

[remm]

Lotta weeds becoming more and more resistant to chemicals. Good old roundup no longer does the trick for everything. New chemicals being developed which also will mean new seed varieties to be made. Lotta trial and error involved to come up with the right seed/chemical combo to keep weeds at bay. I think these new strains of resistant weeds caught up with chemical technology, will take a year or two I spose to figure out what works. My farming and spray knowledge is limited to food plots and the yard so somebody in the know will probably shoot my theory to hell, but that's what I think is going on because I noticed the same things in a lot of fields this year- looks like some people are trying to grow kochia.

 

[north14]

Many factors in our area. As stated above, the drought slowed the crop emergence and growth resulting in less canopy. Lots of herbicides used now a days require moisture to activate, some require 3/4 of an inch. No till has shown that some weeds that never used to be a problem are showing up, ie: best control for some weeds is tillage. Lots of farmers in our area didn't use a strong herbicide package this year as yield was a concern with the drought. Herbicide tolerant weeds are also becoming a problem.

 

[espringers]

kochia is worth big money this year i heard. and pre emergent herbicides generally require some water to be effective. i would guess most pre emergents applied this year ended up being wasted $.

 

[mills423]

I know a lot of guys put chick peas this year and those are likely the fields you are seeing with the weeds. The majority of the land that we own was put into chick peas. Those can't be sprayed from what I understand. Ragweed, Kochia, and foxtail were thick in some of the areas.

 

[Justin]

Chemical is expensive so I think some guys have been courting cost with expected yield loss from the drought

 

[LBrandt]

Weeds put down a better root system to get to moisture when its dry.

 

[BDub]

Look up palmer amaranth. The weed from hell.

 

[tikkalover]

These are a few things that we seen around here. As mentioned above, due to the drought there was no canopy. Weeds like sun and if the crop doesn't grow and bush out the ground isn't shaded. A lot of crops weren't sprayed at all, because the farmer thought there would not be a crop there to spend the money on. With that being said some farmers spray their soybeans at least 1 if not 2 times (roundup is the cheapest chemical to spray). Some didn't spray at all and some only sprayed them 1 time early and not the second time. We did a lot of preharvest roundup on wheat and flax. We even sprayed a lot of preharvest on soybeans this year because of all the weeds.

 

[Magpie]

It's due to the dry conditions this summer. The rains later in the season got the weeds going after the crop was sprayed. Spray doesn't kill weeds that aren't there. With a thin crop canopy weeds go wild. The best weed control is a heavy crop.

 

[Kentucky Windage]

Residual herbicides kill weeds that aren't there.

 

[johnr]

A Horsch Joker tillage routine is becoming a needed step in weed control. No till practices are to the point that some till needs to be brought back into the weed control, and seed bed needs to loosened, aireated, old fashioned weeded.

 

[Kentucky Windage]

On my recent travels I noticed that a lot of standing fields have a lot of weeds in them near harvest time. In some cases you can hardly tell what they are trying grow. I am not sure if it is just this year or something that has been building for a while. Are combines better at sorting theses day? Resistant weeds? Just wondering.

Combines have a lot more power these days. Sending anything really green through them is still tough on them. You can hear them grumble. A lot of green weeds going through can smear the grain with green juices from the weeds , causing seed appearance issues. Train wrecks happen, but a lot of times it's just bad farmers not using multiple modes of action on their farms. A pre emergent herbicide is a must. Post emergence applications with more than one mode of action including a residual help. For those with weed issues, they should be trying to use at least 3 modes of action across the growing season. IMO the same guys who used and abused glyphosate ( wait till the weeds are all there and then spray OR 2 shots of glyphosate POST only) will abuse 2,4-D and dicamba tolerant soybeans as well, more than likely ruining it for everyone else. There are many cases of herbicide resistant weeds across the state. Different areas have different problems. Ragweed and waterhemp are the biggest problem in our area. When the crop starts to turn, weed problems shine like the sun. I drove past a field a couple weeks ago and I had a hard time telling if the guy was raising soybeans or common ragweed.