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“Sugarbeet Report” presented by NDSU Extension, features growing tips from NDSU sugar beet specialists and researchers.
This is the Sugarbeet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season. Soon planting and weed control in sugar beet will be upon us. Tom Peters, NDSU and University of Minnesota Extension sugar beet agronomist, will give us a 2025 recap and a peek into the 2026 season. Tom, waterhemp is your nemesis. How did sugar beet growers do with waterhemp in 2025?
Tom Perters:Bruce, it really depended upon where you farmed, what your zip code was. So in some places, we did have challenges with getting rainfall for activating our soil residual herbicides. And at least in sugarbeets, our soil residual herbicides are very, very important for waterhemp control. There are other places that had too much rain. And I think that's the information that a lot of our listeners are aware of. Fortunately, we had rain to activate our soil residual herbicides. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, we had too much rain. So the rain diluted our products, it leached it into the soil profile, and finally it made it very, very difficult to be making additional applications. They just weren't able to get into their fields in a timely manner.
Bruce Sundeen:Let's talk about general weed control. Seems like a lot of conversation around resistant weeds.
Tom Perters:Yeah. There is a lot of conversation, and for good reason. So I think most people, they think weed resistance, they think of glyphosate resistant weeds, Roundup. But that's really only the tip of the spear right now. And unfortunately, Bruce, I hate to say it, but I will. I think 2026 is going to be the beginning of the end for chemical weed control. After 2026, we're just not going to be able to rely on chemical herbicides as the sole approach to weed management. What are we going to do? Well, we're going to have to look at other options. There's a lot of different ways we can approach that. I call it an integrated approach. So cover crops are an example, tillage, planting density, making sure we have a good stand in our fields that in some ways suppress weeds, cultivation. And at the end of the year, we may have to go out and pull weeds by hand, but we're gonna have to take a different approach at weed management than what we've done historically just because our chemical options are starting to fall apart. They're very vulnerable right now.
Bruce Sundeen:Tom, with that, what are your tips for waterhemp control in 2026?
Tom Perters:Well, a lot of people talk about the crop rotation. Unfortunately, corn and soybeans, they are a crop rotation, but they're very similar crops. In many respects, we plant them the same, the row spacing is the same, they grow and develop the same way. I think we've really got to start searching hard for crops that are different. And in some places, small grains are important for that reason. That's number one. We got to really evaluate the crops that we're growing and try to make it more challenging, Bruce, for weeds. Number two, tillage. I'm an advocate for starting weed free. So planting in the soils that are absent of emerged weeds. I think that's especially important for sugar beet growers. Number three, soil residual herbicides. Everybody has to use them and we need to use them in every crop that we produce on the field. And then finally, setting our expectations for at least 95% weed control in fields. We need to go out there and make sure we get 95% control even if that means going out and hand weeding at the end of the growing season.
Bruce Sundeen:Thanks, Tom. Our guest has been Tom Peters, NDSU and University of Minnesota Extension Sugarbeet Agronomist. This is the Sugarbeet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season.