Sunday, May 11, 2008

OGALLALA, Neb. – “It’s kind of an exciting time for winter wheat producers; we have a number of new products for controlling weeds,” said a University of Nebraska–Lincoln specialist.

Some bring new modes of action to the wheat market, said Drew Lyon, dryland cropping systems specialist at UNL’s Panhandle Research and Extension Center.

A new one from BASF is Clearmax, a copack of Imazamox, the active ingredient in Beyond^®, plus MCPA, Lyon said. This herbicide would be used much like Beyond^®, but producers need to choose a wheat variety that is tolerant to Imazamox. The MCPA helps with mustards and there seems to be a little less antagonism with fertilizer. A number of crops do have sensitivity to Imazamox, so producers must be careful about what crops they plant after the wheat. Sunflower is not as sensitive and can be planted in about nine months.

Rotation restrictions for these herbicides is not as much of an issue because producers who have the weed problems these chemicals treat usually plant only winter wheat. 

Huskie^® is not an ALS inhibitor, but it is an HPPD inhibitor, pyrosolfotole, plus a crop safener Lyon said. It also brings in bromoxynil, so we have two modes of action other than ALS. It incorporates the first HPPD inhibitor in wheat.

“Callisto^® is used in corn, but now we have that ability in wheat,” Lyon said. “It’s a brand new mode of action that works very well with ALS-resistant kochia and Russian thistle, particularly with 2-4-D or MCPA added.”

It does have some rotation restrictions, but they’re not very long.  Generally the producer can plant just about anything in a year or 18 months.

Some of these products are influenced by rainfall or soil pH, so producers should look at where they’re located and how that might affect recrop options, Lyon said.  The longer the residual, the longer the recrop wait. 

Some people like the long residual to maintain control after application. 

WideMatch^® is a good one for people who have Canada thistle problems. It has a wide window of application.

Dupont has taken some older products and mixed and matched them to make a whole range of products that have varying rates of recropping intervals.

PowerFlex^® selectively controls downy brome. It’s similar to Olympus^® and Maverick^®, but it has a shorter residual, so the rotation is a lot more flexible.

For more information, producers can go to wheatbook.unl.edu.