Farmers Digital Solutions 1-866-668-5565 • www.todaypublicationsfd.net February 2024 Spring Special Edition 24 I used to have a weed nightmare every year when it was about time to get out and spray our crops. I was responsible for the weed control on our family farm. Products had evolved so we could have clean soybean fields without walking them with a bean crew. This is some hand work that I hope does not become mainstream again. I had the nightmare because I was afraid I would not be able to get the spraying done on time while the weeds were small and easy to kill. This brings us to today. Timely applications have always worked better but it is more important than ever before. Glyphosate gave us a lot of grace because we could spray a weed and kill it. We were spoiled by the effectiveness of the product and it was overused. There are not many lifelines left to get good weed control. Mostly our only option is to be a better manager of our options. Use a variety of modes of action and get the spraying done on time. In the 1980s, if a weed was larger than about 4 inches it would get very hard to kill. The photo is of my sprayer with a windshield which gave excellent coverage while capturing all of the driftable fines. Today we have better nozzles and pulsing systems to control the droplet size better. Today a half dead weed produces seed that may be our next resistance problem. A half dead weed will likely survive other chemical applications and produce seed. We cannot afford to leave a single weed behind.
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