IS WEED CONTROL GETTING TOUGHER?
Mike Wingrove and Mike Evans talk about their weed control program with Damian Mason. Is it tougher than it used to be? Are weeds more resistant? How do you change your program to stay one step ahead of the weeds?
00:00 If you farm, you fight weeds. We all have been doing this for our entire lives and I'm gonna talk now to Mike Wingrove and Mike Evans with Integrated Ag Solutions about weed suppression, 00:09 weed control over the years, the evolution of weeds, weed, uh, insect, uh, herbicide tolerance. We're gonna talk about everything, 00:15 weeds that comes to you and your farming operations. So here's the deal. I proposed this topic and Wind Grove says, well, 00:21 what specifically are we gonna talk about? And I said, we're gonna talk specifically about weeds and we're gonna talk about how we've changed the old days. Weed control was really hard, Evans, 00:29 then it got really easy with everything becoming round up tolerant and it's like, man. And then the weeds became as Roundup tolerant as the soybeans. 00:36 Then it got hard again. And you said, cuz we got lazy. Start me there in the old days, 1980 something 90, all of a sudden, wow. 00:45 Weeds are not a problem anymore because of the Roundup Miracle. But then what? Yeah, I grew up on a farm. I, I broke cultivated, 00:54 so that was back in the mid nineties. Uh, my dad bought the old bean buggy. So we were sitting on a seat in front of a tractor with a gun shooting roundup 01:02 at, at weeds. So, and then we swerved into the sprayer. So yeah, it's evolved in my time alone. And, you know, 01:10 then we got into the Roundup era where it was just blowing go. I call it, you know, we put on cord of Roundup and, 01:15 and the way you went and then the resistance set in. So now we've had to change our adapt or adapt our management practices to fight the weed resistance. So, so 01:24 Wind grove, you're a touch younger. When we talk about the old days, we're talking about like dual. 01:28 We're talking about companies that don't even exist anymore. We're talking about, uh, Bassett Grand would've been sprayed out here on this, 01:35 you know, post on this, uh, field of soybeans. But you came up when it was all just Roundup tolerant soybeans and then we started having Roundup tolerant weeds, Palmer amaranth, water hemp, 01:46 couple others take me there. Yeah, with the resistance. I mean we had to, we had to change our chemistry or the companies they had, 01:53 the farmers had to change, change their programs. You know, obviously the quarter roundup wasn't working no more with the resistance. 02:00 They had to, they threw in different, um, different formulations. You know, you got your dicamba, you got your enlist, your Liberty Roundup. Now, um, 02:09 with all that being said, you still have to be careful. Make sure your, your seeds seed's what you're gonna spray, otherwise you're gonna kill it. 02:16 Right. Um, Matt and Lane down South learned that, you know, he sprayed the wrong chemical on the wrong field. They, 02:22 it'll it'll kill your field. Yeah. It'll kill the whole field and sometimes kills the neighbors. So those are other issues. Let's talk about then about like out here, 02:29 this field of soybeans, it looks pretty well nuked. I see the, I see some weeds that are pretty well burned off, 02:33 but I also see some volunteer corn. Um, what's the treatment on a field like this? You know, on a bean field, um, you 02:42 Tilt, you tilt right into cornstalks, uh, until you got soybeans. They're a little thin. Of course, we're recording this in June of 2023. 02:48 I should point out dear viewer, if you're watching this, we are dry. Yeah, we are 02:53 Dry. Yeah. This field's probably got an inch rain since we planted it. So, um, and heavy residue, it's irrigated, 02:58 so there's a lot of residue on these end rows. But, um, you know, we went since Mike joined us, changed our program up. Um, 03:07 and I think we kind of learned this together as we, as we evolved. We were, Kelly's been liberty beans for four or five years here and we still before, 03:16 um, right when I arrived we still didn't have the weed control. We were happy with, you know, still had escapes and stuff. And then I think, 03:23 what'd we start sampling water a couple years ago? Yeah, two years ago we started sampling the water. Um, Mike and I had together kind of figured out, you know, maybe, 03:32 maybe we better start there where This is the second time the subject of water's come up. We were right down there by those gray bins talking about your drip system and 03:41 how you were doing the right practices. But the water was basically negating the practice because it was, shall I say, reducing the efficacy of the product you were putting in. 03:53 Is that right? Is that what you're talking about Mike? Yeah, I would say antagonizing the product, not not letting it work like it's supposed to. Um, 04:01 just that chemi chemistry wasn't reacting together. And we would think Of that like with biologicals, Matt Miles down in uh, 04:08 Arkansas uses city or shall I say municipal water. So it's got chlorine in it, then he puts it with a biological, 04:15 the municipal water supply has chlorine to kill biologicals, you know, like bacterias. And all of a sudden you get no benefit out of it. 04:21 You're not on municipal water supply. So what's the problem in Grove? What's the problem with your water? 04:26 Um, out of the, well, it's hard water. A lot of iron, um, For herbicide way, would 04:31 That matter? Yeah, it's got a lot of high sulfates, like bicarb. So it ties up the chemistry. 04:35 So some of the chemistry gets tied up. It's not that it kills anything off like the biologicals, but it ties up stuff. So then your chemistry comes out and does a half-ass job. Well 04:44 That, well, yeah, I mean you gotta figure out, it's, it's all about positive negative charges. So if you got a positive charge with a negative charge, 04:51 you're gonna get some binding and some efficacy issues. So, you know, like we talked all the time. Us, you know, when I came here they were spraying, 04:58 what, what did we talk? 12 gallon an acre. 12 gallon. Yeah. What Weed do you fight? What if I said what weed, 05:03 what weed problem wind grove do you fight? What weed problem? Uh, across all the stuff that you work with farmers or here at Kelly Garrett's 05:10 place, what weed problem do you fight? That is the one that's a challenge. Now. 90% of the farmers we work with, it's waterhemp. I mean, 05:17 and you let one waterhemp escape, you got 250,000 seeds per plant. Um, I think some of the weeded resistance is, you know, guys, 05:25 guys go out there spray, they don't get it killed. They don't, they don't go out there and clean it up cuz the extra cost to do 05:33 another pass. And like I said, one, one waterhemp plant will produce 250,000 Seed. Yeah. That thing is, it's very uh, insidious. It's very, 05:40 what's the right word I'm looking for? Where if you let one go, then it becomes like a colony. 05:44 Oh yeah, definitely. Are we going to, um, are we gonna conquer this or or is it maybe like, uh, that's the, 05:52 the little stunt of the chemical companies to make it so that there's always this boogeyman that you have to buy their products for 05:57 It. I I don't think it's that. I think it's just it's not conspiracy Again, it's not a conspiracy. No, 06:03 It's education. You know, there's a 10 year span there where we're just kind of, you know, 06:07 throw roundup in and go spray 10 gallons an acre water and be done and go golf or whatever. And that was nice. But now we're in a dump New problem. Yeah, 06:15 It's a little harder now. Go ahead and when you're over, you got, you got a point here. I can tell. 06:18 I think, I mean obviously keep, keep changing our chemistry up to solve the issues we're going after. Make sure we're applying the right amount of water. Um, or I, not right amount, 06:29 but volume, efficiently amount. So we talked about Getting lazy. I got a question for you. He says we got lazy. Well isn't it a little bit like antibiotic, um, 06:39 resistance among humans or, or animals? We overuse it. We overuse cause it was easy and all of a sudden we've created a monster. Are we, is that what we did? And are we rectifying that now? 06:50 I would say, and some of that comes with rates, you know, they, all these chemistries have a labeled rate and guys obviously wanna spend the 06:58 least amount of money as they can. But is that effectively killing your weeds? Um, like liberty, you know, you could run a court. We, 07:05 we like to run the full full amount, um, every acre. That way we can get it killed the first time. What the, when you think about weeds and the, the client loss, 07:16 you talk about like winter time. If you've got weeds out there, like what difference does it make? I don't have a crop. 07:20 I've heard about phantom loss by winter. Uh, annuals and things like that. Is that stuff you even worry about or is that yesterday's problem? 07:28 I worry about it, you know, it's always weeds are are a nutrient hog too. So I mean there's, So if this field gets harvested and then we have a, 07:37 a fall that stays warm and moist and then all of a sudden we have a bunch of winter Ann annuals coming here. Do you spray it again? I, 07:44 I, yes. I mean we will if we will with the plant food application, we can add our chemistry into there or we'll bring the sprayer out and clean it 07:53 up. Cuz like you said, you let leave those weeds go till spring. They're gonna, they're gonna multiply, they're gonna suck up the nutrients. Like Mike said, 08:00 they're gonna suck up your moisture and obviously this spring moisture's been very limited. Come 08:06 By. Next question then. A Kelly Garrett, Garrett land cattle farming operation. Tell me about a herbicide treatment. 08:12 That's pretty standard because people are saying, okay, you know, he's got good crops. What's he do? What do you do? What happens preseason, 08:19 anything? Uh, We'll put a pre down. Okay. Burn down. So we'll put down. And that's on corn and soy? Yep. 08:24 Okay. Yep. So we'll put down, you know, residual contact killer. Um, and basically that's what we're doing. Okay. And then, 08:32 And then you get to, uh, first, uh, first herbicide treatment post emergent is is this field just got just happened. So these beans are about what our are they're V one v4. Oh 08:42 There are one. They just turned R one. I was just looking at 'em, so, okay. Um, were you sprayed this what Friday? 08:47 Yep, this was sprayed Friday, last Friday. So, uh, it's been sprayed five days. Okay. And this what you hit, what'd you hit it with? We hit it with, uh, 08:55 straight liberty and then we had a residual in there as well, so. Okay. And then I'm holding up one of these leaves. It looks speckled. 09:01 That doesn't seem like that's what it's supposed to look like. Is that because of the herbicide? 09:05 Well, it could probably be some of it. It was hot that day, but Liberty likes it hot. 09:09 So we'll take a little crop damage to smoke some weeds. Does this cause you any yield loss? I'm not worried about something looking like that. Um, 09:20 to come out here and specifically say, oh, you're gonna lose three bushel on that. I mean it's hard, hard to go out and put a number on yield loss. Well, 09:28 Some people think you need to whack your soybean around a little bit anyhow to get the, get the performance. All right. What's the next treatment? 09:33 Is there any more weed treatment that happens on this field before now when the combines running? 09:36 Um, with the Liberty program, if we got some escapes, we'll put, uh, we'll put another shot of Liberty on. Okay, 09:41 we got another application we can make. Are you, you're Limited to how many you can use. Uh, we got, you're limited 83 total ounces. So, 09:49 So that's it. So there's gonna be a pre, there's gonna be a post and there might be a second post. That's it. Yeah, I mean for what we do in our program, you know, 09:57 we've probably ran two posts a couple times. Yeah, I mean the residual we put on, we spend extra money on residual cuz we just believe in it. 10:05 Yes. And it's been working. Yes. And so the next question, last question is, so you talked about the, the weed that becomes a million weeds, that's the water hemp, right? Yes. 10:13 And is there any water hemp on any of the Garrett Atlantic cattle farm that you're fighting right now? 10:19 Um, everything that we've been scouting, I haven't seen a terrible outbreak yet. And like, like Mike said, if we have to come back with our second, 10:27 second post pass is maybe a part of a field. I mean, we haven't had to respray a whole field to The person that has a little bit of a weed problem, 10:35 but they think still they get good yields. What's your recommendation to them live with some weeds or are you saying no, it's probably robbing more than you think? 10:41 Yeah, I mean our, our philosophy here is kill 'em and kill 'em quick. I mean I just, you know, it's just, 10:48 just the way we live and we've had good luck with it. I guess it just worked for us. You leave, if you leave a little weed, lay around and kind of there's chance it's gonna come back eventually. Right. 10:58 And a lot of that comes back to scouting. I mean, you want to stay on top of it and not just spray it and be done. Um, that comes with fertility chemistry, that's farming. The more you scout, 11:08 the more you're gonna find, the better you can do all Part of the program. All right. Last thought on weeds. Give it to me. Mike Evans. Yeah. You even said, all right, 11:15 I don't know what we're gonna talk about. I just, cuz this is so commonplace for you. The problem for you is what's rudimentary and standard practice for you maybe 11:21 isn't for some people that are battling a weed Problem? Well, I think it goes back to education. I mean, I don't know, it doesn't really matter what program you're trying to run. It's about, 11:28 it's about reading your labels, treating your water, running appropriate gallons per acre of volume and then giving good adjuvants. And isn't that, isn't that one of the big ones? 11:39 In the old days we didn't think about surfactants and adjuvants and all that stuff and it was just Kevin Matthews that put out a thing about one of the 11:45 companies, our business partners, spray tech. And his point was, this stuff does a great job. 11:49 It's the best adjuvant we've ever had because it does this great. I mean there that's kind of new. Yeah, 11:53 we didn't think about this so much in the old Days. Yeah, no we didn't. You know, it creates A stickiness. It gets a more effectiveness. Isn't that what we're talking about? 11:59 Well, yeah, I mean I think, you know, the old days was how many bags of ag mess do we put in a bag and just kind of blow and go. So treating your water, to your point, 12:07 adjuvants are very important and we put a few other things in there like fulvic acid to help that get in the plant and get it where it needs to go. 12:15 What do you think? I think, um, especially in beans, guys like to wait a little longer, you know, and try to save that second pass. Um, the weeds get a little taller. 12:25 The taller they get, the tougher they are to kill. Um, our philosophy is when you see a weed get it killed. Yeah. So the idea is, oh, it's not causing me any yield loss. Oh, it's not a big deal. 12:34 Well all of a sudden it becomes a sort of snowball effect. Yeah. There's a few fields around the countryside that 12:40 I've seen. I saw some, but none of 'em were yours. They were the neighbors, right. Ours 12:44 Are all brown right now. Yeah, it, His name's Mike Wingrow. His, they Mike Evans. They're the two mics. They are with Integrated Ag Solutions. 12:50 It's their company and they also work here with Garrett Land Cattle. So next time, I'm Dave Mason, 12:54 helping you control the weeds on your farming operation through extreme ag. Share this with somebody you think could do a little better job with their 13:00 weeds, but do it in a very subtle way so you don't think they're bashed 'em for where their fields look. That's extreme. ag.farm, thanks for being here.