Winter wheat growers are already planning for the fall planting season and it starts by looking at the things you can control. Agrochemical manufacturer, UPL says one of those things is pest management.
Technical Services Manager, Ryan Bryant-Schlobohm says big things like markets and high input costs are out of growers’ control.
What they can control, though, is how well they manage that crop. Sometimes, in order to make money, it does cost a little bit upfront in terms of fertility and pest management. When it comes to pest management, that’s something very much in our control. So, although prices and markets can be incredibly variable, we still manage that crop to the best of our ability. The weeds aren’t going to go anywhere just because prices may be up or down, and weeds are going to always be present. Growers should always pay attention to managing them to the best of their ability, and that’s, in the end, what’s going to maximize production,” said Bryant-Schlobohm.
Weeds are another challenge that growers can plan for ahead of the fall planting season.
“A lot of the driver weeds that I hear talked about, and see a lot in fields, revolve around our brome weeds and wild oats in pockets as well. For grassy weeds like that, products like Everest as well as BATALIUM® are good options for growers. Other weeds that we usually see, and it’s more on the broadleaf side, would be our mustards. An all-encompassing product like BATALIUM® would be helpful there,” Bryant-Schlobohm said.
Another factor to keep in mind is almost 90 percent of the key winter wheat growing areas were in some form of drought last year.
A lot of those drought conditions still persist. We’ve been very fortunate to receive some key rainfall in a lot of the primary growing regions. However, some of that rain for the winter wheat crop at least was a little bit too little, too late. So, although we were able to have some good production in some areas, still, the drought impacted a large majority of the acreage in the Southern Great Plains. Wheat is definitely one of the primary crops that we grow in Kansas and Oklahoma, and really, what the states are known for. We have the ability to have very outstanding production on our acreage down here. Drought is something a lot of these growers have battled over the years. We’ve seen it before, and through their experience, they know on their land what they can do best to maximize their production, even in challenging conditions,” said Bryant-Schlobohm.
He says a good winter wheat management plan will help growers maximize every bushel they can.
For more information on UPL’s products and how you can prepare for winter wheat success, click HERE.
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