Jon Stang and Dale Taroh know how to get a better deal all the way around.
Forty miles southwest of Dickinson, North Dakota, Jon Stang and his father farm a mind-boggling number of acres of wheat, canola and Durum. Their land is in min- and no-till. In the spring, they seed right into the stubble with a drill.
“When we went to min- and no-till about 10 years ago, we started using burndowns,” says Stang. “We’ve been doing burndowns on all the acres for at least five years. We spray almost every acre in the fall, in fact, this year we did spray every acre, but we had a thin crop this year. It was very dry, and we had a lot of weed pressure after we got the crop off, so we sprayed every acre with Touchdown®.”
Their winter wheat burndown usually takes place the first week in September. They plan to seed about the 15th. “When we put in our winter wheat crop, we put 0.3 ounces per acre of Pre-Pare™ down with the Touchdown and sprayed 0.3 ounces per acre of Everest® after the wheat is up,” Stang says.
At Ridgeland, in the northeast corner of North Dakota, Dale Taroh is just getting started with winter wheat. “We’ve had very little experience with it, just a couple of years. We use direct seeding – one pass with a narrow opener. We’re looking at about roughly 30 percent soil disturbance. We do a spring burndown primarily for the winter annuals – cheatgrass, pennycress and tansy mustard. Pennycress is otherwise known as stinkweed or sandweed.”
Taroh doesn’t underestimate the importance of a burndown to stop the weeds from interfering with good crop establishment. “Some years those burndowns are vital,” he says. “Before we got into min-till, weed control was becoming a problem. Spring tillage wasn’t doing the job. Once we went to chemical applications in a pre-plant burndown, we got acceptable control.”
Both Taroh and Stang battle cheatgrass. Stang says he’s tried lots of control methods. “It seems that we get better cheatgrass control in the spring when we apply a little Pre-Pare with our glyphosate in the fall. Of course, in the spring we usually come back in-crop and spray another shot of Everest. We found it helps the cheatgrass control, but also our pigeongrass (green foxtail) control is far better with the shot of Everest than with any other grass product we’ve used.”
Stang’s been using Everest for four years. He doesn’t use it on every acre and makes sure he rotates it with other chemical Groups. He says he’s had a chance to compare Discover® to Everest. “After we take our crop off, the fields green up with pigeongrass and foxtail. But where we used Everest, our fields are much cleaner. The residual effect seems to keep down the foxtail pressure a lot better.”
Taroh has been doing burndowns with glyphosate for about 12 years and has tank-mixed a variety of products – Affinity®, Express® and Everest – with glyphosate to get at the hard-to-control weeds. He says part of the plan is to wring the most he can out of the cost of the glyphosate.
“Certain species are harder to kill with glyphosate than others,” Taroh says. “When glyphosate was at $10 or $12 a gallon, we could go with a higher rate and achieve satisfactory results. So adding another chemical like Pre-Pare to your glyphosate is an economical addition.”
There’s little argument that a glyphosate burndown with the addition of a residual herbicide like Pre-Pare conserves moisture, which positively affects yield. “I would say there is definitely a moisture benefit because you’re controlling a lot of the pigeongrass for a longer period of time,” says Stang. “So there is a yield difference. What percent, I don’t know, but there certainly is more moisture because there’s less weed pressure.”
Last spring, Stang tried Pre-Pare followed by an Everest application in his spring wheat. He put some Pre-Pare down with his glyphosate, then did an Everest in-crop application. “It worked really well especially on cheatgrass. I’d say it worked exceptionally well on grass control. We’ve had great luck with Pre-Pare and glyphosate. You can spray when the cheatgrass is really small, and Pre-Pare is very gentle on the wheat.”
Pre-Pare is registered for use in the U.S. It is not registered for use in Canada.
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Jon Stang and Dale Taroh know how to get a better deal all the way around.
Forty miles southwest of Dickinson, North Dakota, Jon Stang and his father farm a mind-boggling number of acres of wheat, canola and Durum. Their land is in min- and no-till. In the spring, they seed right into the stubble with a drill.
“When we went to min- and no-till about 10 years ago, we started using burndowns,” says Stang. “We’ve been doing burndowns on all the acres for at least five years. We spray almost every acre in the fall, in fact, this year we did spray every acre, but we had a thin crop this year. It was very dry, and we had a lot of weed pressure after we got the crop off, so we sprayed every acre with Touchdown®.”
Their winter wheat burndown usually takes place the first week in September. They plan to seed about the 15th. “When we put in our winter wheat crop, we put 0.3 ounces per acre of Pre-Pare™ down with the Touchdown and sprayed 0.3 ounces per acre of Everest® after the wheat is up,” Stang says.
At Ridgeland, in the northeast corner of North Dakota, Dale Taroh is just getting started with winter wheat. “We’ve had very little experience with it, just a couple of years. We use direct seeding – one pass with a narrow opener. We’re looking at about roughly 30 percent soil disturbance. We do a spring burndown primarily for the winter annuals – cheatgrass, pennycress and tansy mustard. Pennycress is otherwise known as stinkweed or sandweed.”
Taroh doesn’t underestimate the importance of a burndown to stop the weeds from interfering with good crop establishment. “Some years those burndowns are vital,” he says. “Before we got into min-till, weed control was becoming a problem. Spring tillage wasn’t doing the job. Once we went to chemical applications in a pre-plant burndown, we got acceptable control.”
Both Taroh and Stang battle cheatgrass. Stang says he’s tried lots of control methods. “It seems that we get better cheatgrass control in the spring when we apply a little Pre-Pare with our glyphosate in the fall. Of course, in the spring we usually come back in-crop and spray another shot of Everest. We found it helps the cheatgrass control, but also our pigeongrass (green foxtail) control is far better with the shot of Everest than with any other grass product we’ve used.”
Stang’s been using Everest for four years. He doesn’t use it on every acre and makes sure he rotates it with other chemical Groups. He says he’s had a chance to compare Discover® to Everest. “After we take our crop off, the fields green up with pigeongrass and foxtail. But where we used Everest, our fields are much cleaner. The residual effect seems to keep down the foxtail pressure a lot better.”
Taroh has been doing burndowns with glyphosate for about 12 years and has tank-mixed a variety of products – Affinity®, Express® and Everest – with glyphosate to get at the hard-to-control weeds. He says part of the plan is to wring the most he can out of the cost of the glyphosate.
“Certain species are harder to kill with glyphosate than others,” Taroh says. “When glyphosate was at $10 or $12 a gallon, we could go with a higher rate and achieve satisfactory results. So adding another chemical like Pre-Pare to your glyphosate is an economical addition.”
There’s little argument that a glyphosate burndown with the addition of a residual herbicide like Pre-Pare conserves moisture, which positively affects yield. “I would say there is definitely a moisture benefit because you’re controlling a lot of the pigeongrass for a longer period of time,” says Stang. “So there is a yield difference. What percent, I don’t know, but there certainly is more moisture because there’s less weed pressure.”
Last spring, Stang tried Pre-Pare followed by an Everest application in his spring wheat. He put some Pre-Pare down with his glyphosate, then did an Everest in-crop application. “It worked really well especially on cheatgrass. I’d say it worked exceptionally well on grass control. We’ve had great luck with Pre-Pare and glyphosate. You can spray when the cheatgrass is really small, and Pre-Pare is very gentle on the wheat.”
Pre-Pare is registered for use in the U.S. It is not registered for use in Canada.
Write a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.