Wheat growers Shawn Lyberg at St. Thomas, North Dakota, Ernest Meding at Trochu, Alberta, and Chris Page at Souris, Manitoba, have a few things in common. They all experienced a cool, if not cold, spring in 2009.
Newground: Does looking back at last fall help you plan your weed control for this spring?
LYBERG – You bet. We look at our fields to see what weeds may have been missed in last year’s application. We want to identify the best mode of action to take the survivors out next season because they’re obviously going to be a problem.
PAGE – We try to do a fall burnoff and then a spring burnoff to give the crops a good jump in the spring so they can compete with the weeds. We also put all our fertilizer on in the spring now. We don’t do any fall fertilizing so we don’t feed the weeds.
LYBERG – It’s different every year. When we pick up new land, we get a different set of problems. Obviously we’re in expansion mode here. Since I started at McMartin Farms, we’ve just about doubled our acres in five years. We like a broad-spectrum chemical that’s going to take out a lot of grasses and a broadleaf chemical that’s going to take out the vast majority of broadleafs.
Newground: Is your weed spectrum changing?
MEDING – We’re not having as much problem with Canada thistle, but I think some wild oats are getting Group 1 resistance.
PAGE – We’re getting into minimum till, so the weed spectrum is changing slowly, very slowly. A few different weeds are starting to pop up. We’ve got some catchfly and white cockle. The nightflowering came off a neighbor’s pasture and it’s hard to kill.
LYBERG – Some of our weed spectrum is changing as a result of Roundup Ready® technology. The late-season weeds like wormwood are more of a problem. Just when we get finished spraying they’ll germinate. Weeds that germinate in late summer could become more of a problem. Yeah, you put the sprayers away and think you’re done spraying and then some of the weeds will show up.
MEDING – Continuous use of Group 1 has affected the weed spectrum for sure.
PAGE – In the last five years, since we went to minimum and no-till, we’ve noticed the weed spectrum has changed. Newground: How is your tillage system affecting your weed control?
MEDING – We do direct seeding. Last year I put down Pre-Pare™ with glyphosate and I also used Edge®. The Pre-Pare was an Arysta test plot.
LYBERG – We do more conventional tillage with a little bit of no-till. Some of the farms up at Minot are in a no-till situation. We’d like all the land to be in minimum or no till. Regardless, weed control takes planning. The chemical’s ease of use is very important. Less volume to handle is a big thing for us. That’s why we like Everest® - not a lot of volume, just a half-ounce an acre.
PAGE – We do some zero and minimum till. We’ve been on a wheatcanola rotation, so every other year we work some of the stubble. We’re as close as we can get to zero till, but we probably won’t get to 100 percent because we’ve got a lot of real heavy land that doesn’t drain well. If we don’t open it up, we won’t be able to get on it.
Newground: How important is a burndown to your crop yield and return on investment?
MEDING – It’s important to get rid of all the weeds and any weed growth that was there before. Using a chemical with residual action will control any broadleafs well into the early growing season. It gives me another shot at nailing some of the weeds.
PAGE – As the crops are coming up, I think it’s very important to get the land as clean as possible. That way there’s no reason to worry about weeds competing for the fertilizer and moisture. I think we burned off everything in a pre-seed burnoff – pretty near every chunk of dirt that we have. MEDING – Volunteers have been a problem. I’ve never grown Roundup Ready in my life, but we had some Roundup Ready volunteers that we couldn’t kill off. I’ve never even combined with anybody that had Roundup Ready anything.
Newground: Are you making any changes to your crop plans as a result of prices?
MEDING – No, I’ll continue our rotation. LYBERG – We plant whatever the markets tell us to plant. We’ll switch it up to plant more of a certain crop, up until April that is.
PAGE – We generally stick with what we’re doing. We don’t tend to let prices drive what we decide to plant. We want to be aware of the stewardship of the land. That said, we don’t ignore prices, either. We do venture out a little bit. We’ll throw in mustard or something the odd time, but not very often. We were growing quite a bit of winter wheat, but we’re starting to get yields with our spring wheat that are as good as our winter wheat, and obviously spring wheat is worth more, so we’ll go that route.
Newground: What weeds will you be up against next spring?
MEDING – Same weeds. I’m not sure we’ll see anything new.
LYBERG – I would say kochia and wild oats.
PAGE – We’ve got just about everything. On half the farm, I’ve got a lot of dandelion and wild buckwheat, and a lot of millet on 1,000 to 1500 acres. We always have some wild oats, but we’ve started to get those beat. Yeah, millet is a big problem.
Newground: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
Good luck with the 2010 growing season, hopefully it won’t be as cold as last year.
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Wheat growers Shawn Lyberg at St. Thomas, North Dakota, Ernest Meding at Trochu, Alberta, and Chris Page at Souris, Manitoba, have a few things in common. They all experienced a cool, if not cold, spring in 2009.
Newground: Does looking back at last fall help you plan your weed control for this spring?
LYBERG – You bet. We look at our fields to see what weeds may have been missed in last year’s application. We want to identify the best mode of action to take the survivors out next season because they’re obviously going to be a problem.
PAGE – We try to do a fall burnoff and then a spring burnoff to give the crops a good jump in the spring so they can compete with the weeds. We also put all our fertilizer on in the spring now. We don’t do any fall fertilizing so we don’t feed the weeds.
LYBERG – It’s different every year. When we pick up new land, we get a different set of problems. Obviously we’re in expansion mode here. Since I started at McMartin Farms, we’ve just about doubled our acres in five years. We like a broad-spectrum chemical that’s going to take out a lot of grasses and a broadleaf chemical that’s going to take out the vast majority of broadleafs.
Newground: Is your weed spectrum changing?
MEDING – We’re not having as much problem with Canada thistle, but I think some wild oats are getting Group 1 resistance.
PAGE – We’re getting into minimum till, so the weed spectrum is changing slowly, very slowly. A few different weeds are starting to pop up. We’ve got some catchfly and white cockle. The nightflowering came off a neighbor’s pasture and it’s hard to kill.
LYBERG – Some of our weed spectrum is changing as a result of Roundup Ready® technology. The late-season weeds like wormwood are more of a problem. Just when we get finished spraying they’ll germinate. Weeds that germinate in late summer could become more of a problem. Yeah, you put the sprayers away and think you’re done spraying and then some of the weeds will show up.
MEDING – Continuous use of Group 1 has affected the weed spectrum for sure.
PAGE – In the last five years, since we went to minimum and no-till, we’ve noticed the weed spectrum has changed. Newground: How is your tillage system affecting your weed control?
MEDING – We do direct seeding. Last year I put down Pre-Pare™ with glyphosate and I also used Edge®. The Pre-Pare was an Arysta test plot.
LYBERG – We do more conventional tillage with a little bit of no-till. Some of the farms up at Minot are in a no-till situation. We’d like all the land to be in minimum or no till. Regardless, weed control takes planning. The chemical’s ease of use is very important. Less volume to handle is a big thing for us. That’s why we like Everest® - not a lot of volume, just a half-ounce an acre.
PAGE – We do some zero and minimum till. We’ve been on a wheatcanola rotation, so every other year we work some of the stubble. We’re as close as we can get to zero till, but we probably won’t get to 100 percent because we’ve got a lot of real heavy land that doesn’t drain well. If we don’t open it up, we won’t be able to get on it.
Newground: How important is a burndown to your crop yield and return on investment?
MEDING – It’s important to get rid of all the weeds and any weed growth that was there before. Using a chemical with residual action will control any broadleafs well into the early growing season. It gives me another shot at nailing some of the weeds.
PAGE – As the crops are coming up, I think it’s very important to get the land as clean as possible. That way there’s no reason to worry about weeds competing for the fertilizer and moisture. I think we burned off everything in a pre-seed burnoff – pretty near every chunk of dirt that we have. MEDING – Volunteers have been a problem. I’ve never grown Roundup Ready in my life, but we had some Roundup Ready volunteers that we couldn’t kill off. I’ve never even combined with anybody that had Roundup Ready anything.
Newground: Are you making any changes to your crop plans as a result of prices?
MEDING – No, I’ll continue our rotation. LYBERG – We plant whatever the markets tell us to plant. We’ll switch it up to plant more of a certain crop, up until April that is.
PAGE – We generally stick with what we’re doing. We don’t tend to let prices drive what we decide to plant. We want to be aware of the stewardship of the land. That said, we don’t ignore prices, either. We do venture out a little bit. We’ll throw in mustard or something the odd time, but not very often. We were growing quite a bit of winter wheat, but we’re starting to get yields with our spring wheat that are as good as our winter wheat, and obviously spring wheat is worth more, so we’ll go that route.
Newground: What weeds will you be up against next spring?
MEDING – Same weeds. I’m not sure we’ll see anything new.
LYBERG – I would say kochia and wild oats.
PAGE – We’ve got just about everything. On half the farm, I’ve got a lot of dandelion and wild buckwheat, and a lot of millet on 1,000 to 1500 acres. We always have some wild oats, but we’ve started to get those beat. Yeah, millet is a big problem.
Newground: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
Good luck with the 2010 growing season, hopefully it won’t be as cold as last year.
Write a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.