cq perspectives mar 2007
TRANSCRIPT
8/4/2019 CQ Perspectives Mar 2007
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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF CROP QUEST AGRONOMIC SERVICES, INC.
C r o p Q u e s t P e r s p e c t i v e s 1
Volume 17 • Issue 2 • March 2007
Timing, Herbicide Interaction Critical
Rob Be
The combination of high grain prices and a
majority of growers going to no-till or strip-
till systems will increase the value of a good
burn-down program for corn, soybeans and
other grain crops in 2007.
In western Kansas, Crop Quest agronomist
Rob Benyshek says staying ahead of Rus-
sian thistle is an absolute must. Not only willthese weeds rob a crop
of its yield potential, but
mature thistle can make
combining a nightmare.
With a good burn-down treat-
ment cost- ing less than $10 per acre,
it doesn’t make any sense to lose 20
to 40 bushels per acre when you try to
run a combine over four-foot tall thistle,
the Crop Quest agronomist says.
“We have had plenty of moisture this
winter, and if that continues up until March,
growers can count on plenty of Russianthistle. The timing of burn-down herbicides is
especially important, because the pre-plant or
at-plant herbicides we use will only give us a
ve- to six-week window of opportu-
nity for getting the crop up to shade
out weeds. Starting out clean gives
herbicides a much better chance of
working properly.
“With all the rain this winter, we also
are expecting to have lots of problems
with wild mustards,” Benyshek says. “We
will begin scouting elds in early March and
recommend to our growers that they make aspecial point to cleanup any elds with mus-
tard problems before April,” he adds.
He notes that corn in particular has a dif-
cult time cracking the soil through heavy
stands of mustards. At best a grower will have
an uneven stand, and in some cases no stand
if proper burn-down herbicides aren’t used to
keep the soil clean at planting time.
The addition of cotton to the cropping mix
in western Kansas has accentuated the need
for keeping accurate records of eld/crop/
herbicide interactions. Some of the herbicid
used in corn have a long residual life in the
If cotton is planted behind corn, regardless
whether a burn-down material is used, a gro
can lose stand, and with such a short growin
season there is no second chance at planting
Crop Quest agronomists have access to c
puter records to track crop/herbicide plantininteractions over a long period of time.
In addition to avoiding carryover
problems from one crop to another,
these records help growers avoid
resistance problems.
In western Kansas, Benyshek says
glyphosate is by far the most
frequently used herbicide for
burn-down. Though resistance
has not been a problem in his
area, the Crop Quest agronomist says the ra
development of resistance by Palmer amara
pigweed in cotton in the Southeast is reasonbe concerned.
The primary crops he manages are corn,
wheat, grain sorghum, sunowers and, rece
cotton. The main weeds are Russian thistle,
kochia and pigweed. Though he encourages
growers to tank-mix dicamba or other herbi
with glyphosate, he worries that in some ca
especially wheat burn-down in the summer
nearly 100% glyphosate is used.
In eastern Kansas, Crop Quest agronomis
Scott Beguelin takes a different approach to
burn-down. “We like to use a good burn-do
herbicide to cleanup our elds after harvestally in the Thanksgiving to Christmas timef
when growers tend to have more time,” he
The “new” thrust for fall-applied soybean
bicides originates in the idea that if a herbic
applied to no-till ground in the fall, this ma
to reduce or eliminate the growth of winter
early-summer annual weed species.
Winter annual weed species such as purp
deadnettle, henbit, chickweed, horseweed
(marestail to most folks) and a number of m
tard species can add both color and headach
To Good Burn-Down Program
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no-till soybean elds during the spring. The prevalence of these win-
ter annual weed species has increased over the past couple of years
and is probably due to extremely mild winters and the increased
use of certain post-emergence herbicides that lack signicant soil
residual activity.
Dense populations of winter annuals can physically interfere with
soybean planting and, in some cases, even reduce soil drying to a
point which delays soybean planting. So the idea behind fall applica-
tions is this: If a herbicide with soil residual activity can be applied
in the fall before most of these species germinate, it may help reducethe amount of vegetation that needs to be dealt with in the spring
prior to soybean planting; maybe even eliminating the need for a
burn-down herbicide application.
Beguelin manages a lot of soybean acreage, and he says the fall
cleanup can always be supplemented by a spring burn-down applica-
tion, if it is needed prior to planting beans. Either way, he says, a
clean seedbed is essential to getting a good stand of soybeans. With
soybean prices remaining high, getting off to a good start to achieve
maximum yields is especially important for the 2007 crop.
If corn is going into the eld, atrazine is used in
the fall cleanup. He agrees with Benyshek that grow-
ers need to be aware of over-use of any herbicide and
recommends tank-mixing herbicides for burn-
down to reduce the risk.
Henbit, chickweed, mustards and, in recent
years, eld pansies are the most frequent weed
problems for growers in northeast Kansas,
Beguelin says. The trend toward more no-till acres has
changed the weed spectrum somewhat, but growers have a gooarsenal to use against these weeds, none of which is particular
cult to control, if the grower does it in a timely manner.
“That’s where we provide the most help to growers. We hav
large base of information to draw from, and we can better dete
what is a problem and how to manage it than a grower can in m
cases. And sometimes a grower just needs someone to remind
when to take care of his crop and how to do it,” Beguelin says
Whereas the trend is toward fewer farmers farming more acr
Beguelin says in his area, more-diversied operations are on th
increase. The fall/winter burn-down program tends to t opera
of all sizes.
Regardless of the timing of a burn-down herbicide applicati
critical factors are choice of herbicide, timing of application anreliable record-keeping system.
Scott Begu
UNIQUE AERIAL IMAGERYCROP QUEST INTRODUCES
Crop Quest recently teamed up with John Deere Agri Servic-
es (JDAS) to offer aerial imaging services. John Deere’s novel
approach toward aerial imagery acquisition leads us to believe
their service will meld nicely with our agronomic services. A
few of the benets of the new service are:
• Quick Turnaround Time
Crop Quest realizes that in the middle of the season, things
must happen in a timely manner. This new digital imagery
service provides us another tool for quick decision-making.
• Quality Imagery
In order to have condence in the nal prescription, we
need to be assured we have the correct tools available when
making a decision. This new imagery service will add an
increased level of detail to our imagery services, allowing us
to custom-t imagery to a project.
• Quantity and Flexibility in Ordering
This service will allow Crop Quest to offer imagery over
targeted elds. Whether you have one eld or 100 elds
needing imagery, contact your agronomist.
Crop Quest, through JDAS, is able to pro-
vide exible imagery acquisition with the use
of a unique network of aerial operatorsand mobile cameras. By increasing
the tools at our disposal, we can do a
better job of selecting an imagery
service that best ts your situation.
Uses of imagery include variable rate
application of growth regulators, acreage delineation of her
cide damage, irrigation issues and management zone creatio
Whatever your imagery needs are, your Crop Quest agrono
mist can help customize a program tailored to t your situa
By: Nathan WoydziakPrecision Ag Specialist
Timing, Herbicide Interaction Critical ... Continued from Page 1
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By: Ron O’HanlonPresident
Member, National Allianc
of Independent Crop
Consultants, CPCC-I
Certied
Fungicide use on corn, wheat and soy-
beans frequently boosts yields on grain
crops. In 2007, with an expected increase
of up to 12 million acres of corn nationwide
and soybean and wheat prices remaining
good, the use of fungicides may be more
critical as the crop increases in value.
The high price growers are getting for
their grain crops changes some of the
management practices we recommend to
our clients. In the past, a yield potential of
30 bushels per acre of wheat or 150 bushels
per acre of corn may not have been valuable
enough to warrant using fungicides. With thevalue of the crop so much higher, farmers may want to reevaluate
the use of fungicides on corn and wheat, maybe even soybeans.
Dr. Doug Jardine, a professor of plant pathology at Kansas State
University and an expert in the use of fungicides on grain crops,
says successes in previous years may not be great predictors of
what will happen in the 2007 crop. He states that the diseases
most directly affected by fungicide use are all highly dependent
on weather. A drought, like we had in some parts of the Midwest
in 2006, can virtually eliminate the risk of some fungal-borne
diseases.
Corn, wheat and soybeans are the primary crops on which fungi-
cides will be used in 2007. In wheat, the diseases most likely to get
fungicide treatments are stripe rust and leaf rust. Last year, extremedrought in Texas resulted in no rust spores, and so rust pressure in
Kansas was about as close to zero as it gets, he says.
Timing of fungicides is both critical and difcult to achieve. In
wheat, from rst ag leaf emergence until heading begins is the
window of application. The later a grower waits in that window,
the better he will be, because these products begin to lose efcacy
after three to four weeks. On the other hand, it is critical to keep
the ag leaf as clean as possible, because that ag leaf provides
about 70% to 80% of the carbohydrates needed to ll the head with
grain. Given the price of wheat, some growers may spray twice
– once at ag leaf emergence and again just prior to the beginning
of owering.
In most parts of the Midwest, there are ve primary productsthat are widely used on corn, wheat and soybeans. Headline® and
Quadris® are the primary strobilurin fungicides used. Tilt® is the
primary triazole fungicide used and Quilt® and Stratego® are popu-
lar combinations of triazole and strobilurin chemistry.
If the ag leaf is completely clean, it is better to use a strobilurin
or strobilurin mixture as a preventative. These products work better
when there is no disease on the ag leaf. If the disease slips up on
you and disease pustules form on the leaf, then use Tilt, Stratego,
Quilt or a combination of Headline or Quadris plus a triazole fun-
gicide, because these materials have kick-back effect that allows
them to control the dis-
ease after it has started
on the plant.
The use of strobi-
lurins alone and in
combination triazole
fungicides, used in
areas with high disease potential, consistently increased yields in
soybeans by three to ve bushels per acre, wheat by seven to nine
bushels per acre, and corn up to 15 bushels per acre in tests in
Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Crop Quest agronomists closely monitor wheat, corn and soy-
bean varieties, which have a tremendous impact on susceptibility
to various fungal-borne diseases. In particular, some of the offen-sive-type corn hybrids used to produce high yields don’t have goo
disease resistance. Scouting is especially critical in these hybrids.
On the other hand, the more defensive corn hybrids may have mo
limited yield potential, but may require only one fungicide ap-
plication, or in some cases, no fungicide. Dr. Jardine notes that if a
grower is planting varieties that are susceptible to fungal diseases
he needs to be scouting early, and may need to spray twice becaus
of the value of the crop.
Dennis Belcher, Ph.D., whose company BASF markets one of
the top-selling strobilurins under the trade name Headline, says
choosing the right fungicide can mean a big yield and prot in-
crease in some cases. He notes that Headline reduces the amount o
ethylene produced in a plant, thus preventing premature ripening.At a time when grain crops are at near record high prices, allowin
corn, soybean or wheat plants the opportunity to mature and reach
genetic potential is a money-making proposition.
Greg Hudec, who works with Bayer CropScience which market
a combination of a strobilurin and a triazole under the trade name
Stratego, says in some cases a grower needs the preventative actio
of a strobilurin and curative action of a triazole. He says in 16 fun
gicide strip trials last year conducted in Kansas, Texas and Nebras
ka, corn yield increases of 11 bushels per acre were recorded usin
the combination of the two popular families of fungicides.
Stressing the need for a grower to understand the fungal disease
and its relationship to environmental conditions, Hudec points
out that in these 16 tests, yield benet ranged from -4.36 to +28.7bushels of corn per acre.
Though most growers in the Midwest will use fungicides a
maximum of twice in a growing season, there is still some concer
about resistance. Wise use of these fungicides is critical. In other
parts of the United States and the world, resistance to strobilurins
has developed.
For many years growers were often encouraged to ‘not’ use
fungicides in corn, wheat and soybeans unless disease pressure
and yield potential were both high. However, the pricing structure
of these commodities in 2007 and beyond mandates that we take
another look at fungicides to protect these more valuable crops.
Grain Crop Prices Make FungicideApplication More Valuable
®Headline is a registered trademark of BASF.®Quadris, Tilt and Quilt are registered trademarks of Syngenta.®Stratego is a registered trademark of Bayer CropScience.
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Mission StatementCrop Quest is an employee-owned company dedicated to providing the highest quality agricultural services for each customer. The quest of our network of
professionals is to practice integrity and innovation to ensure our services are economically and environmentally sound.
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Crop Quest Board of Directors President: Ron O’Hanlon
Director: Jim Gleason
Director: Dwight Koops
Director: Cort Minor
Director: Chris McInteer
Director: Rob Benyshek
When was the last time any of us could comfortably make a
decent prot growing grain sorghum? It’s been a while, but grain
sorghum has become a player again.
Over the last few months, most of the Plains states have re-
ceived plenty of benecial moisture, and soil moisture proles
have not been in this good of shape for years. The prospects of
producing a respectable-to-good dryland crop this season look
very favorable.
Additionally, commodity prices have made an impressive move
up over the past few months, elevating prices at ranges we are
not accustomed to. This has truly changed the attitude out in the
country. Farmers can’t wait to put a crop in the ground with the
prospect of making a prot.Grain sorghum, or milo as most of us refer to it, is enjoying
the price upswing just like other commodities. When you push a
pencil on a milo budget, the bottom line should show black ink
now, and we have not seen this situation in years. Even the many
scenarios where limited-to-full irrigation is planned, milo budgets
are showing a prot. For those producers who don’t have large
enough wells to support a corn crop, this may be the year to plant
milo. During the tough times these last few years, producers had
a great desire to plant milo because input costs were much lower
than some of the other alternative crops. The problem has been
that we still couldn’t generate enough income even with lower
input costs. But higher commodity prices have resolved this issue.
Milo has a history of being a reliable crop under stress condi-tions. When we start the season with a good moisture prole, there
is a good chance we can produce a decent milo crop. We can’t
necessarily say the same thing about dryland corn.
In the past few years, there has been
a trend to plant some nontraditional and
minor crops where we used to plant milo.
Recently, sunowers and cotton have replaced quite a few mil
(and corn) acres. Now, however, the high input costs of cotton w
most likely push many producers to plant milo. Sunowers tend
to take so much soil moisture out of the prole that the subseque
crop suffers and we tend to lose signicant yield for a year or tw
after sunower production, especially under dryland and limited
water situations.
It is important for producers to make sound agronomic deci-
sions as they plan their milo production. Although input costs are
much less for milo compared to corn or cotton, we don’t wantto cut unnecessary corners on weed and insect control. A sound
fertilizer program is a necessity as well. There is proven data tha
show adequate levels of phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers not
only improve plant health, but signicantly affect yield.
Visit with your Crop Quest agronomist about grain sorghum
production. We can help you successfully grow this crop as well
as any of your other crops, as we try to maximize prots in a yea
where we don’t want to leave anything on the table. I encourage
you to evaluate all the cropping possibilities this year and plant
the crops that t your farming operation best, and still allow you
to achieve your goals.
Why plant milo this year?
Grain Sorghum Is
Back In The GameBy: Dwight KoopsRegional Vice President
Ulysses, Kan.
• Improved soil moisture • Higher commodity pri
• Reasonable input costs • Better stress tolerance
• Lower downside risk