It’s spring planting time and in this week’s program you’ll hear some ideas and suggestions for row crop farmers. I interviewed Syngenta Crop Protection Technical Support Representative, Michael Leetch this morning.

He’s based in Iowa and says there are areas that still have up to five percent of their corn left standing. Couple that with a very wet start to the spring and there are challenges out there. He thinks the big issue is “timeliness.” Soil preparation is behind due to the winter and early spring challenges and that includes using a pre-plant, soil active herbicide which he’s a big proponent of. He’s afraid there will be some very loose soil out there that never fully froze due to early snow cover. However, we’ve had some good weather all of the sudden that’s helping dry things out.

We also discussed topics like insect pressure and nematodes in corn fields. I asked about post-emergence weed control and he brought up the issue of glyphosate resistance. He says there’s no way post-emergence weed control is going to be enough so that’s why pre-emerge is so important and when you factor resistance in it might be time to look at a conventional herbicide that has an alternative mode of activity.

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems for their support.

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