Insecticides/Pesticides

One of the problems with a wet start to the season when planting gets compressed into short periods is the lack of time to apply preemergence herbicides and 28% before corn emerges. Most pre-emergence corn herbicides can be applied to emerged corn, and some of them have enough foliar activity to control small, emerged weeds without the need to add postemergence (post) herbicides....More

Wet soil conditions have caused delays in planting and in efforts to control existing weed vegetation. Much of the existing weed growth is comprised of winter annual species, such as common chickweed, henbit, purple deadnettle, etc., but emergence of several summer annual species also has begun....More

Dry soil conditions, such as such as those in Illinois in 2012, often slow the rate of herbicide degradation and increase the potential for damage to rotational crops from herbicide carryover, according to Aaron Hager, a University of Illinois weed science expert....More

Syngenta has responded to the failure of the European Commission to win support for an EU-wide ban on neonicotinoid pesticides. A majority of Member States refused to support the proposal to restrict their use on all bee attractive crops. The Commission must now decide whether to appeal the decision or amend its proposal....More

Total variable input costs for the 2013 corn and soybean crops are likely to stay about the same as last year, says Alan Miller, a Purdue Extension farm business management specialist. Variable input costs are the costs of production that vary directly with the crop grown, but don't include fixed costs, such as cash rent. While some individual input prices are expected to increase, some will decrease and others will stay about the same. Fluctuations will serve to cancel out one another and to help keep overall variable costs fairly stable compared to last season....More