Taking Back Your Prevented Plant Fields in 2020

Farmers everywhere experienced a wild-card year in 2019. According to Farm Service Agency data, nearly 20 million U.S. crop acres fell victim to prevented plant, more than doubling previous records from 2015. Of those 20 million acres, 4.5 million were soybean acres.

Weed scientists throughout the Midwest are faced with the questions: How do you help farmers manage land as an investment, given that over 50% of land is rented? With commodity prices where they are, how can you justify spending money to kill weeds when farmers are not getting any immediate economic benefit and the issue is so widespread?

In 2019, the state of Indiana saw the highest number of prevented plant acres on record. Around 10% of Indiana’s corn and soybean acres fell victim to prevented plant, thanks to an abnormally long and rainy spring that kept farmers out of their fields for prep work or planting.

Bill Johnson, weed scientist at Purdue University, says the damage to land and crops was spread throughout the state. Typically, fields that are low and wet are the last to dry out. And this time, they simply never had a chance to dry enough to have a planter run across them in 2019.

Indiana typically grows about 11 million acres of corn and soybeans, which means there was a little under 1 million unplanted acres in 2019, a pretty significant number. When asked about the sheer number of prevented plant acres in 2019, Johnson says, “We’ve never seen anything this widespread in my lifetime. Any place where farmers had prevented planted acres and nothing was done, they have to assume their weed control costs are going to be a little bit higher until they can beat back the weed seed population.”

Some farmers aggressively kept weeds under control. Some fields were untouched, leaving weeds to go to seed that will lead to headaches for several years. By following a few best practices, farmers can reduce the headaches for 2020.

Johnson says the best approach to managing this year’s tough weeds is to use full rates of residual herbicides as the starting point. “Couple residual pre-plant herbicides with a post-emergence herbicide and accept the fact that if waterhemp was one of the weeds that went to seed, this is going to cost $50 an acre or more in order to avoid long-term problems with weeds,” he recommends. “Don’t cut any corners this year. Farmers will have a headache to deal with anyway.”

Scouting regularly is another practice to follow this year. Johnson says the “big three” weeds to watch out for in 2020 are waterhemp, marestail and giant ragweed. He says Palmer amaranth may be an issue in some areas as well.

Johnson encourages farmers to choose an herbicide trait package that includes either tolerance to Liberty, dicamba or 2,4-D in addition to a broad-spectrum herbicide, such as Roundup, for best control.

No one can predict what will happen for farmers in 2020, but following these best management practices for weed control will help, no matter the conditions.

For more information on controlling resistant-prone weeds, visit www.IWillTakeAction.com/weeds.