DON'T GIVE WEEDS THE UPPER HAND
I cringe every year when I see weed pressures like that above robbing growers of precious yield.To optimize the yield performance of corn it is Critical to keep Weeds out of it between the 3 - 8 leaf stage.
Roundup Ready Corn was developed to give growers crop safety and more options to control tough to kill weeds.Unfortunately the fact that Glyphosate can be sprayed on large corn without any deleterious crop injury has lulled too many growers into a false sense of security.
Yes large weeds can be controlled by late glyphosate applications and by the time harvest rolls around you can think you were a genious by how clean your crop is BUT the fact remains that yield was lost.Though the weeds in the above photo have been controlled they were left too long and they will have hurt this crops yield performance.DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU !
The highest yielding weed control system that can be employed is to spray two applications of glyphosate on glyphosate resistant corn.The first spray application should be made at the 3 true leaf stage and the second at the 7 true leaf stage.Why anyone would leave this kind of weed pressure to impact their crops performance is beyond my comprehension.
Growers who feel that this could put too much reliance on the use of Glyphosate can achieve the next highest yield performance with a pre-emerge spray application followed by an in crop application of glyphosate at the 5 - 6 leaf stage if needed.
Another option that can be successfully used by growers is to spray Glyphosate at the 3 true leaf stage and lay down a grass or broadleaf tank mix residual at the same time.
Whatever you do please try to avoid letting weeds getting an upper hand.
Glyphosate resistant corn is a wonderful technology but its got to be used properly in order to maximize yields.