One Farmer's Revamped Weed Control That Worked
When Richard Zablotney saw healthy pigeongrass in his hard red spring wheat two weeks after spraying he wasn’t happy. Zablotney isn’t new to farming and knew this wasn’t new pigeongrass in the field. They were the same weeds that had received a full chemical treatment at the right stage with a trusted grassy weed control product.
Zablotney has been raising wheat, Durum and other crops on the gently rolling, loamy soils around Minot, North Dakota, since the 1970s. He shoots for a 50-bushel/A wheat yield if the weather cooperates. The pigeongrass problem in a rented field was new, and there was no question in Zablotney’s mind that it would hurt yield.
“I called the chemical reps. They came out that fall and took seeds from the pigeongrass,” says Zablotney. “As I understand it, they planted the seeds and then sprayed the seedlings with the chemical I had used, but they wouldn’t die.” Herbicide-resistant pigeongrass, or green foxtail, was taking a heavy toll on Zablotney’s wheat yield when he discovered it in 2003.
"It was terrible,” he recalls. “Resistant pigeongrass reduced my yield dramatically. I’d say it took 45 bushels down to 25 – almost a 40 percent reduction in yield. If you get thick stands of pigeongrass, it grows like hair on a dog’s back. It’ll choke out crops.” Zablotney knew about weed resistance but hadn’t run into it before on his own land. After the resistance problem was identified, he started scouting for more resistant pigeongrass and noticed some survivors in other fields. He was using more than one herbicide product for grassy weed control in wheat but soon realized that he had been relying on the single mode of action in ACCase herbicides. (Also known as Group 1 herbicides. This chemical family consists of “Fop”, “Dim” and “Den” chemistries.)
“When I noticed I was having problems with the chemicals I was using to control the pigeongrass, I knew I needed to try something different,” he says.
“My chemical rep said Everest® has a different mode of action, so I switched to Everest and that took care of the problem. I had really good results.” He says that he also liked the fact that Everest was easy to handle and deliver. No big jugs, just a bottle of dry, flowable product to pour into the sprayer tank. One bottle has enough coverage for up to 67 acres. In 2004, along with the Everest, Zablotney threw in a pair of other products, WideMatch® and 2,4-D for backup to control broadleaf weeds in his wheat that Everest didn’t get.
“I’ve continued to follow the practice of tank mixing Everest,” he says. “Since I started using that I’ve gotten extremely good control of my grasses. And it seems I get a lot better control of the other weeds, too.”
Zablotney seeds 1,500 to 2,000 acres of wheat each year but avoids growing it back to back. He prefers to alternate with sunflowers and canola. He also grows barley, corn and soybeans. For the past two years, he’s used a one-pass system to seed and fertilize. He doesn’t do any tillage now and avoids harrowing.
“I’ve switched to using different chemical Groups. I don’t want to create any other resistance problems,” he says. “I’m being careful now to rotate crops and crop protection herbicide families.”
He’s ever alert now for emerging weed problems so they don’t get ahead of him. “I’m starting to get some disease pressure now where I’ve been alternating wheat and sunflowers for many years or wheat and canola. I probably have to go to two years of small grains on those fields.”
Kochia and wild oats are two more of his most common weeds. At one time, he says that 2,4-D, a reliable standby, was successful every year against kochia, but times have changed. Some of the kochia on some of his fields appears to be resistant now to products like 2,4-D. But Zablotney says he’s got the jump on it. He’s just happy that Everest is very effective on the pigeongrass.
Zablotney says his four-year transition into no-till seems to be reducing some of the weeds. “Weeds are always a problem whether you till or not, but I think the weed problem has been reduced with less tillage.”
Of course, some pigeongrass seed remains in the fields. “I can’t get rid of it, but I can control it,” he says. The first year Zablotney used Everest he noticed that his wheat was much cleaner. As luck would have it, in 2005 when Arysta LifeScience sent Everest growers a camera to take pictures of their wheat fields, Zablotney was happy to oblige.
“Arysta sent us a little camera to take pictures of our Everest wheat, and we sent the pictures of our wheat fields back to them,” he says. “Later, they told me that out of five hundred pictures, they had chosen mine as one of the most unique.
“You couldn’t find a weed in the field – absolutely nothing – it was just amazing. You couldn’t see weed pressure in the stubble, either. With some chemicals, you start getting weed pressure coming through in the stubble, but there wasn’t any of that. Everest has a little bit of extended activity so if there are any late flushes it will control those.” Zablotney has learned a lot from the pigeongrass School of Hard Knocks. Those lessons are shared by many growers who are making better decisions for their land and warding off resistance issues by including Everest in their herbicide rotations.
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One Farmer's Revamped Weed Control That Worked
When Richard Zablotney saw healthy pigeongrass in his hard red spring wheat two weeks after spraying he wasn’t happy. Zablotney isn’t new to farming and knew this wasn’t new pigeongrass in the field. They were the same weeds that had received a full chemical treatment at the right stage with a trusted grassy weed control product.
Zablotney has been raising wheat, Durum and other crops on the gently rolling, loamy soils around Minot, North Dakota, since the 1970s. He shoots for a 50-bushel/A wheat yield if the weather cooperates. The pigeongrass problem in a rented field was new, and there was no question in Zablotney’s mind that it would hurt yield.
“I called the chemical reps. They came out that fall and took seeds from the pigeongrass,” says Zablotney. “As I understand it, they planted the seeds and then sprayed the seedlings with the chemical I had used, but they wouldn’t die.” Herbicide-resistant pigeongrass, or green foxtail, was taking a heavy toll on Zablotney’s wheat yield when he discovered it in 2003.
"It was terrible,” he recalls. “Resistant pigeongrass reduced my yield dramatically. I’d say it took 45 bushels down to 25 – almost a 40 percent reduction in yield. If you get thick stands of pigeongrass, it grows like hair on a dog’s back. It’ll choke out crops.” Zablotney knew about weed resistance but hadn’t run into it before on his own land. After the resistance problem was identified, he started scouting for more resistant pigeongrass and noticed some survivors in other fields. He was using more than one herbicide product for grassy weed control in wheat but soon realized that he had been relying on the single mode of action in ACCase herbicides. (Also known as Group 1 herbicides. This chemical family consists of “Fop”, “Dim” and “Den” chemistries.)
“When I noticed I was having problems with the chemicals I was using to control the pigeongrass, I knew I needed to try something different,” he says.
“My chemical rep said Everest® has a different mode of action, so I switched to Everest and that took care of the problem. I had really good results.” He says that he also liked the fact that Everest was easy to handle and deliver. No big jugs, just a bottle of dry, flowable product to pour into the sprayer tank. One bottle has enough coverage for up to 67 acres. In 2004, along with the Everest, Zablotney threw in a pair of other products, WideMatch® and 2,4-D for backup to control broadleaf weeds in his wheat that Everest didn’t get.
“I’ve continued to follow the practice of tank mixing Everest,” he says. “Since I started using that I’ve gotten extremely good control of my grasses. And it seems I get a lot better control of the other weeds, too.”
Zablotney seeds 1,500 to 2,000 acres of wheat each year but avoids growing it back to back. He prefers to alternate with sunflowers and canola. He also grows barley, corn and soybeans. For the past two years, he’s used a one-pass system to seed and fertilize. He doesn’t do any tillage now and avoids harrowing.
“I’ve switched to using different chemical Groups. I don’t want to create any other resistance problems,” he says. “I’m being careful now to rotate crops and crop protection herbicide families.”
He’s ever alert now for emerging weed problems so they don’t get ahead of him. “I’m starting to get some disease pressure now where I’ve been alternating wheat and sunflowers for many years or wheat and canola. I probably have to go to two years of small grains on those fields.”
Kochia and wild oats are two more of his most common weeds. At one time, he says that 2,4-D, a reliable standby, was successful every year against kochia, but times have changed. Some of the kochia on some of his fields appears to be resistant now to products like 2,4-D. But Zablotney says he’s got the jump on it. He’s just happy that Everest is very effective on the pigeongrass.
Zablotney says his four-year transition into no-till seems to be reducing some of the weeds. “Weeds are always a problem whether you till or not, but I think the weed problem has been reduced with less tillage.”
Of course, some pigeongrass seed remains in the fields. “I can’t get rid of it, but I can control it,” he says. The first year Zablotney used Everest he noticed that his wheat was much cleaner. As luck would have it, in 2005 when Arysta LifeScience sent Everest growers a camera to take pictures of their wheat fields, Zablotney was happy to oblige.
“Arysta sent us a little camera to take pictures of our Everest wheat, and we sent the pictures of our wheat fields back to them,” he says. “Later, they told me that out of five hundred pictures, they had chosen mine as one of the most unique.
“You couldn’t find a weed in the field – absolutely nothing – it was just amazing. You couldn’t see weed pressure in the stubble, either. With some chemicals, you start getting weed pressure coming through in the stubble, but there wasn’t any of that. Everest has a little bit of extended activity so if there are any late flushes it will control those.” Zablotney has learned a lot from the pigeongrass School of Hard Knocks. Those lessons are shared by many growers who are making better decisions for their land and warding off resistance issues by including Everest in their herbicide rotations.
Back to Top Back to Table of ContentsWrite a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.