Production Blog

UNION CITY, Mich. (DTN) -- It's hard not to be blinded by all the shiny new irrigation units scattered around the country. It seems many farmers decided to wash away the memories of the 2012 drought (and the 2011 drought) by putting in permanent infrastructure.

Those units are already pumping in parts of Michigan. This week I found barley fields getting a good drink just east of Union City, Mich. I'd traveled to this part of Michigan to visit Kane Bercaw, one of our View From the Cab farmers. Kane told me Friday morning that they started watering wheat Thursday, June 6. He had was hoping for a shower Friday, but wasn't willing to let the wheat suffer on a chance prediction.

I traveled the backroads through southern Michigan, northern Indiana and northern and central Illinois. It's no surprise that the corn is amazingly uniform in growth stage. Anhydrous tanks were starting to move in Indiana as growers rushed to sidedress nitrogen before the skies clouded again.

However, what I noticed most is weeds. It doesn't seem to matter whether field conditions are wet or dry, weeds are flourishing. Mats of chickweed still carpet some fields. There's more marestail than mares in Illinois and Indiana.

University of Illinois weed scientist Aaron Hager issued an alert this week on how to control marestail after crop emergence. You can read it here: http://bulletin.ipm.illinois.edu

Hager said growers have been reporting poor marestail control when burndown applications contained only glyphosate or glyphosate and 2,4-D. "The increasing frequency of glyphosate-resistant marestail populations, the rush to plant whenever field conditions were conducive and the less-than-ideal environmental conditions when many burndown applications were made, have contributed to a challenging situation for which a good solution might not be available," he wrote.

Hager noted that several herbicides can control emerged marestail plants that are less than 6 inches tall, but few herbicides will control plants that are 12 inches or taller.

That leaves a hoe, and I saw a hand weeding crew walking fields south of Three Rivers, Mich. Know any high schoolers that need a job?

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@telventdtn.com

(AG)

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