It Is a Busy Time of the Year for Farmers

How do you get everything done in a short amount of time? That is what farmers face in a spring like this. There were many days when we should have been in the field but the weather did not cooperate. Many farmers really got going planting corn last weekend and this week. When you know you should be getting many things done all at the same time you have to prioritize. When the calendar says May, your No. 1 priority is to get the corn in the ground.

The second priority when you are done with corn is get the beans planted. Sure, you have pre-emergence herbicides to get on your corn, maybe some of the fertilizer did not get applied before you planted the corn. You have options to get those things done so you plant beans. The next priority is get the pre-emergence herbicide on the beans.

Many of the pre-emergence herbicides that we use to control tough weeds like waterhemp and giant ragweed need to be applied before the beans begin to emerge. With warm weather that means you have about three days to get the pre-emergence herbicide on your beans. If you miss that window you are in trouble. With some of the weeds being resistant to glyphosate and other groups of herbicides, there are no options other than to pull them the old fashioned way!