9-16 FB Burndown
It’s been a challenging 2011 growing season. Growers have dealt with a variety of weather conditions ranging from extreme drought to flooding to heat and more. I talked with BASF Herbicide Technical Market Manager Dr. Dan Westberg and he said As a result of weather conditions, weed control has been difficult. But that doesn’t mean growers have no chance of starting 2012 with a clean slate.
Westberg says the key is getting ahead of weed control. And it starts with an effective fall burndown program: “This helps growers stay ahead of tough to control winter annual weeds, dense populations of winter annuals can physically interfere with or delay planting so having an effective burn down in the fall allows growers to spread out their workload. It provides the opportunity to combine a fall burndown with a fertilizer application. If you have an effective fall burn down then you are not losing the fertilizer you apply in the fall to those winter annual weeds and it really allows greater flexibility come spring. Westberg notes herbicide resistance is spreading - particularly with marestail. He says effective fall burndown as part of an overall management program can help growers manage resistant weeds.
