With commodity prices down from last year, you’re going to have to look at the return on investment (ROI) with every input you use.  Fortunately in wheat, weed control and seed treatments should still offer good returns.

WEED CONTROL is almost overlooked in our constant quest to find the next big thing, but it’s not uncommon to give up 5 or 10 bushels of yield to Canada thistle, cheatgrass, or other tough weeds.  Your best timing for stopping them on your farm is now.

Canada thistle (and nearly all weeds with a perennial life cycle): Roundup at a strong rate (likely 2 quarts/acre) is the best.  This should be done a couple weeks before the first hard, killing frost.

Cheatgrass (and other winter annual grasses): Maverick/Outrider is best but has the longest rotational restrictions.  Olympus has a little less residual, and PowerFlex has the most flexibility when it comes to planting other crops in the near future.  Perhaps an even more potent way to go is to use an inexpensive pre-emerge application of Pre-Pare for $4 to $6 per acre for suppression of cheat followed by one of the other products I just mentioned here to clean up any escapes.  Keep in mind that all of the products listed here are ALS herbicides.  If you wait until spring to try to control cheat or other winter annuals, you won’t be happy with the results.

Winter annual broadleaves: All the pre-emerge, residual grass killers have broadleaf activity, but if you need more residual and burndown kick, use Sharpen.  It may be expensive, but the control is fantastic if you keep your rate in the 2 oz. to 3 oz. per acre range.

SEED TREATMENTS are a must if you want better stands, less winter kill, and higher yields.  We strongly encourage you to consider using at least one product in each of the following categories:

  1. Fungicides – Use one of the newer products for the best systemic protection within the plant.  Most of the combination products are using 2 or more fungicides for broad-spectrum protection.  Over a 5 year period, you on average should see an excellent ROI with fungicidal seed treatments, although they won’t pay you big every single year.  Stamina F3 may be the most popular fungicide package, but there are many others as good or better depending on your disease spectrum.
  2. Insecticides – Whether you have wireworm problems or not, insecticides have typically shown a good ROI, as they are fairly inexpensive.  Where you have major insect problems, you should bump the insecticide rate to improve control and your ROI, but otherwise a low rate should be fine.  Every seed treatment insecticide is from the neonicotinoid family, and each has relatively similar performance.
  3. Natural products – This group is often called the “biologicals”, but that name can be misunderstood to be something dangerous.  Generally we’re looking at bacteria and fungi here. We have had hundreds of farmers using QuickRoots for a number of years (our farm included) and have seen a very good ROI.  We are constantly evaluating new products every year, but so far QuickRoots is the best we’ve found.

SUMMARY – Look at the ROI with every input investment you make this year.  When talking to the top-yielding wheat farmers across the country, two of the things they typically get the best returns on are pre-emerge herbicides and seed treatments.