By Brian Hefty
Weed issues might not be the number one concern on your farm, but I’ll bet you are a lot more worried about weed control than you were five years ago. Who isn’t?
Roundup Ready 2 Xtend beans are now approved in Europe, so every U.S. elevator will likely be accepting them this fall and in the future. Dicamba will probably get approved for burndown and over-the-top use in Xtend soybeans by this fall, so there should be no roadblocks left.
If I keep using a great pre-emerge herbicide program, can I stick with Roundup Ready 2’s? In some areas, yes, but in most areas, even that isn’t quite enough. If you get 99% control, that sounds pretty good, but if you have waterhemp or Palmer pigweed, weeds which can produce 1 million seeds per plant, you are bound to have a few escapes. If Roundup doesn’t work, do you really trust Flexstar, Cobra, or Cadet to clean up all the escapes? Wouldn’t you feel more confident in Clarity or Liberty to kill those weeds? I certainly would, which is why we are going 100% Xtend on our farm in 2017.
What’s wrong with Liberty? Nothing. The Liberty price is coming down, so LibertyLink soybeans are a viable option, too. The big thing we’re going to stress to all soybean farmers in 2017 is to give serious consideration to switching seed technologies to either Liberty or Xtend. If you stick with Roundup 2’s, you are taking a lot of risk in terms of weed control.
Here’s one last thing I want you to consider – non-crop weed control. Look at how loaded fencelines, ditches, and even pastures have been the last few years with weeds. If you plant Xtend soybeans, you can spray all your field borders with Clarity, in addition to the post-emerge use on the beans. I know this may not seem like a big deal, but it’s an absolute advantage that no one is talking about.
Read Darren’s article about the quality of the seed genetics in both Xtend and LibertyLink, but if you want my opinion, I feel perfectly comfortable telling you to switch 100% of your acres over in one year. Don’t forget that Liberty beans have been out for many years, and while you may not have planted Xtend, the launch was originally scheduled for four years ago. In other words, we are actually in year four on genetics, not year one; and all the latest, greatest genetics have been put into Xtend. My advice? It’s time to switch to Xtend or LibertyLink beans in 2017.