With a  desire to pump up small grain yields, no-tillers are searching for better ways to combat a growing number of costly pests. As a result, attendees at last winter’s 15th National No-Tillage Conference were keenly interested in learning to do a more effective job of controlling yield-grabbing pests.

Herbicide Developments

Axial offers broad-spectrum control of a number of annual grasses with wheat and barley, says Mike Leetch, a Syngenta technical support agronomist at Adel, Iowa. The herbicide also offers a wide application window that will allow no-tillers to effectively time applications to meet weed growth and weather needs.

Rainfast in 30 minutes, Axial offers extensive rotation crop flexibility and can be tankmixed with labeled broadleaf herbicides without compromising grass control.

Bayer CropScience field reps report excellent control of wild oat, green and yellow foxtail, barnyard grass in wheat and barley with Puma 1EC herbicide. “This is applied ideally when wild oat and foxtails are at the one- to two-leaf tillered stage,” says Mike Weber, Bayer CropScience senior technical service representative at Indianola, Iowa. “The application window for wheat is from emergence up to 60 days. For barley, it is from emergence up to the five-leaf stage.”

Weber adds that another herbicide, Rimfire, controls susceptible and ACC-resistant wild oat, many mustard species and volunteer canola. “An in-season residual, it offers flexible tankmix options, and its broadleaf weed control synergy can save growers considerable weed control dollars,” he says.

Fungicides

Syngenta’s Quilt continues to offer no-till wheat and barley growers broad-spectrum…