Dow AgroSciences: Start early and keep after tough weeds this year

Weed control has become a season-long challenge. The spread of resistant and tough-to-control weeds means farmers need to hit weeds early and follow through with multiple modes of action, keeping weeds at bay this year and curbing the development of more resistant weeds.

Jim Kline, an Indiana farmer, is battling resistant marestail while dealing with stubborn waterhemp. His weed management program consists of a burndown application, a preemergence application and multiple postemergence applications featuring different herbicide modes of action.

"It's really important to have multiple modes of action," Kline says. "Weeds figure out a way to exist. Their job is to reproduce. It's vital to change modes of action, and the more tools we have, the better we can control them."

"The Enlist weed control system allows farmers to apply multiple modes of action to Enlist crops during the growing season," says David Hillger, Ph.D., Enlist field specialist. "Enlist Duo and Enlist One herbicides can be applied on Enlist corn or Enlist soybeans postemergence. They also are great tools for spring burndown for those looking to get experience with Enlist herbicides that are enabled by Colex-D technology."

Convenience and flexibility

Enlist Duo herbicide is a combination of new 2,4-D choline and glyphosate. Enlist One herbicide is a straight-goods 2,4-D choline that offers additional tank-mix flexibility. Both contain Colex-D technology that provides reduced physical drift, near-zero volatility, low odor and better handling. Farmers can apply either as a burndown, even if they are not planting seed with the Enlist trait. When combined with an effective preemergence residual program, this gets fields off to a clean start.

Kline got a chance to try out Enlist Duo herbicide when growing Enlist E3 soybeans for production in 2017. His experience using the technology and applying Enlist Duo postemergence was overwhelmingly positive.

"I like the program really well," he says. "It's economical, we had clean fields and the beans yielded well. They were the nicest-looking beans we had last year."

Enlist corn and soybeans feature strong genetics that deliver solid yield. They allow farmers to apply multiple herbicide modes of action postemergence. Enlist corn hybrids, available for planting this year from Dow AgroSciences seed brands, are tolerant to 2,4-D choline, glyphosate and FOP herbicides. In addition to 2,4-D choline and glyphosate, Enlist soybeans are tolerant to glufosinate.

Growing is believing

"The experience we had with Enlist soybean seed production was a good one," Kline says. "Enlist is very friendly to use. When sprayed according to the label, you don't have to worry about drift."

But most important: Kline says it controlled difficult weeds. "It got our tough weeds," he says" Our old program was not working very well on marestail and waterhemp. Enlist Duo annihilated them."

Kline also says tank cleanout was as easy as with other products he's been using. He reports he was happy with the yield and quality of the Enlist� soybeans. "There was no yield drag, which you sometimes see with new technologies," Kline says.

A tool to keep fields clean

"Enlist herbicides are a great option for burndown, but they really shine when applied postemergence on Enlist crops," Hillger says. "With the availability of Enlist corn for commercial planting this year, we expect lots of farmers to experience the value of these herbicides and the trait technology that enables their in-crop application."