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The NDSU Extension weekly podcast In the Pod: Soybean Updates delivers timely insights and expert advice on soybean production.
You're listening to In The Pod, Soybean Updates, a weekly trek into the latest soybean information from NDSU Extension. This season, weed control in soybean may be more manageable with Dicamba available, but what about the cool and dry weather? Joe Ikley, NDSU Extension weed specialist, has some helpful advice. Joe, at this time of year, what should soybean farmers be doing for weed control?
Joe Ikley:Well, as soybeans are starting to go into the ground across the landscape, we always recommend that we wanna have a pre emergence herbicide on that soybean acre. Many of our most effective herbicides for control of things like ocean waterhemp can be applied before the soybeans are emerged, but then we do lose some of our options once the beans are up out of the ground. That's why every year, we do like to have an emphasis on getting a pre emergence herbicide down to get that crop off to a good start.
Bruce Sundeen:It is so dry. Does that affect weed control?
Joe Ikley:We get this question every time we have a dry stretch of weather like this, especially around planting. Because it's one thing that everyone knows is that we do need rainfall to activate these pre emergent herbicides. If we're in a drier pattern, then there gets to be that risk we're not gonna catch that rain. So the questions we get this time of year are how available will those products be when it does rain? How much weed control can we expect if the rain comes later? If we only get a certain amount or a limited amount of rainfall, what can we expect out of those products? So that's kind of the questions we get at this time of year in a dry planting window.
Bruce Sundeen:Dicamba is back. How does that fit into weed management?
Joe Ikley:So that's the one benefit now of having these approved Dicamba formulations back for use in soybean is that we have seen and have researched that Dicamba does help our residual herbicide programs, especially in dry conditions. It's one of our most water soluble herbicides, or to rephrase it, it needs the least amount of rainfall compared to other herbicides that we might be using. So we certainly like having that option back on the table to add that in with our residual herbicide programs and improve our weed control when we have these dry conditions.
Bruce Sundeen:Are there restrictions or label issues?
Joe Ikley:And so that's the thing that we do need to focus on. So we have the three products back this year, Stryax from Bayer, Ingenia from BASF, and Entavium from Syngenta. So those are the three options that we can use in the soybean crop. And those are two year label at the moment, but with those comes a whole bunch of other things that we just need to be aware of and some trainings we need to take. So they are restricted use pesticides. Need to have your license to spray them, to mix them, to handle them. We also need to have mandatory Dicamba training, and each of the companies will offer that. So if you kinda go to the company's website or talk to your rep, they can point you in the right direction for this mandatory training. And then there are additional application records we need to keep with these products compared to some other products we might be using. Over 20 different items we need to make sure we check off on the list, and the companies do provide you a nice checklist for that as well. But there's also additional things with regards to drift mitigation, volatility mitigation, and runoff mitigation. Now the drift and runoff mitigation are kind of new label standards related to the Endangered Species Act, so we'll see language like that on all herbicide labels coming down the pike. Certainly become familiar with those labels, what you can do to reduce the amount of buffer you need in the case of drift, or make sure you have the appropriate amount of points that are required for the runoff mitigation menu.
Bruce Sundeen:Joe, what's a good way for farmers to learn more about this?
Joe Ikley:So about April 15, we did have a webinar hosted by myself and Madeline Smith, our pesticide program coordinator, and that is available on YouTube. So I know it's on NDSU extension's page. The North Dakota Soybean Council has it on their page as well. It's about a fifty minute webinar, and I do wanna point out it does not replace the mandatory training. That's a whole separate thing. But we go through the points, how this compares to the previous iterations of these labels. What's the endangered species act? Why kind of why now? What do these mitigation measures look like? Can we expect not just on these labels, but as I said, new herbicide labels as they come up in the future.
Bruce Sundeen:How can people find the video?
Joe Ikley:So I always say use your search engine of choice and and either look up, like, in the issue weed science, Dicamba label, or on the Soybean Council's webpage, I think they can route you there as well.
Bruce Sundeen:Thanks, Joe. Our guest has been Joe Ikley, NDSU Extension weed specialist. You're listening to In The Pod, Soybean Updates, a weekly trek into the latest soybean information from NDSU Extension, supported by the North Dakota Soybean Council.