Today there are a number of
herbicide options for almost every weed and every crop. Even for your specific
situation there is usually a number of herbicide options, so how can you decide
what product to use or if you should spray at all? Well there is a number of
questions to ask before pulling the trigger.
The first is simply do I need to
spray at all? Whether this means not spraying a grassy herbicide or broadleaf
herbicide, you may not have to spray one of them depending on the weed pressure
within your field. A grassy herbicide is typically very expensive and if your
field is relatively free of all wild oats and grassy weeds then is spraying a
grassy herbicide economical? Probably not. Sure you can keep the odd one in
there from adding to the wild oat seed bank the next year or you simply don’t
like seeing those dreaded things popped up above your crop, but saving upwards
of $18/ac might be worth viewing that less than perfect picture. A wild oat
population of 10 per m squared throughout your field is going to cause a loss
of only about 5-7%. Using easy numbers of 5% and a 50bu/ac wheat crop means a
loss of about 2.5 bushels. 2.5 bushels equates to about a loss $17.50 at $7/bu
commodity pricing of wheat which means that only at about 10 wild oats per
meter squared is a grassy herbicide justified. Obviously, you need to take into
account dockage and control in following years as well, but that’s a rough
picture of what determining economic thresholds should look like.
The next thing to look at is what
chemicals control the target weeds in the field. You do not need to buy the
best product out there when it isnt justified. Prestige from Dow is a great
product, but also very pricey. If you simply are targeting seedlings of red
root pigweed, wild mustard and flixweed in your field for example then an
application of a product such as Target from Syngenta is sufficient for control
of these weeds and saves you a number of dollars per acre. So being aware of
your problem weeds and going with a product that gets the job done is fine, you
do not have to go with the top product out there all the time. Lots of products
have 3 active ingredients these days and that typically means those products
are more expensive, if a product has only one or two active ingredients then it
is typically cheaper. If the product with only two actives will get the job
done on your problem weeds then you should be going with that product to save
some extra dollars. The money saved can be put toward an extra burn down active
the following year or a post harvest burn off.
Be aware of the stage of the weeds
in the field as well. Attain/Octtain from Dow smokes kochia, a typical problem
weed in a lot of areas, but a number of other products will work as well that
cost several dollars less per acre. If you have kochia in your field that is
loonie size then products such as Thumper from Bayer and Target should provide
adequate control. Attain will easily control bigger sized kochia, but if you
are going to be in the field before the kochia is past seedling size then why
not go with a product that saves you a
few bucks?
When a products patent runs out
that means it is free game to be produced by any other chemical company. These
companies that produce generic products once the patent has run out typically
sell their product for cheaper than the original version even though the active
ingredient is the same. These products will do virtually the same thing to the
weeds in most cases and be just as safe on your crop, yet they will be sold for
a few dollars an acre less. Be aware of the lack of “backing” if a you run into
product issues though.
Lastly, pay attention to company
rebates. Lots of the times these days companies such as Bayer, BASF etc will
have a rebate program that gives you certain percentages back if you go with
their herbicide and fungicide for example. If you know you are going to be
spraying a Bayer fungicide on your cereal crop and you have the option of
spraying one of their herbicides on your crop and can get a 3% rebate for
example from this product combination then you should make the choice to go
with the Bayer herbicide.
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