Amanda: Okay, Joe, we’ve gotten a lot of rainfall over the last few weeks, which is good for the wheat, but what does it do for the weeds?
Joe: It feeds the weeds just as well as the wheat crop. With the rain and warm temperatures we’ve had for the last four, six weeks here maybe, basically since most guys have planted their wheat, those weeds have taken off and then really grown very, very quickly.
What I would recommend is, as those weeds are growing, actively growing with the warm temperatures and moisture, that they get out there and try and control those weeds here sometime this fall, for the best activity from the herbicide, but also to give the crop the best opportunity to provide the highest yields come harvest time.
Amanda: What kind of weeds are we talking about here?
Joe: In Oklahoma, of course, our biggest weed problem is our winter annual grass weeds. Things like Italian ryegrass, cheat, rescuegrass, downy brome, all of those grass weeds that are somewhat difficult to control in wheat. We’ve got a lot of good herbicide options available. A lot of them are fairly specific to the grass weed, so proper identification is very, very important there so you can choose the appropriate herbicide.
This fall, again, with the warm temperatures, a lot of the broadleaf weeds, some of the mustards and henbit, those weeds have really exploded as well, and those are fairly easy to control. We’ve got a lot of good herbicides options there as well, that can be either tank-mixed with our grass control product or we could control those in the spring with some other herbicides that we might want to use on a little bit larger wheat.
Amanda: What farming practices should farmers implement to control this problem?
Joe: Right now, once the wheat’s out of the ground, really herbicides are the best option, the most effective option. If a guy has a particular problem that he just can’t quite get a handle on, or if it seems to persist year to year, then crop rotation is going to be an invaluable tool, probably the most valuable thing we can do to increase our wheat production and quality here in Oklahoma.
Winter canola makes an excellent rotational crop, where we can use a totally new group of herbicides to get a handle on these weed problems. Any of our summer crops would also be very effective as well and allow us to use new herbicides at a different time of year and more effectively control some of these tough-to-control weeds.
Amanda: Okay, good information. Joe Armstrong, our Extension wheat specialist.