What’s new in weed management part 1: Herbicide technologies A conversation with Drs. Debalin Surangi and Thomas Peters
Well, back. Seth, we have two very esteemed colleagues with us in the studio here this morning. Doctor. Peters, University of Minnesota and North Dakota State University Extension weed specialist primarily in the sugar beet area and Doctor. Debalin Surangi.
David:Debalin is University of Minnesota Extension weed specialist here primarily in the areas of corn and soybean And we have quite a lineup of topics to talk about, don't we?
Seth:It's going to be fun. I'm really excited.
David:Well, let's just kick it off a little bit and we've this first hour we want to talk about areas primarily involving her bicides and weed science and weed control. And you can subdivide this into a number of different things. New active ingredients say for example use of pre emergence herbicide techniques to apply them whether they are all on at the same time or layered and then talk a little bit about weed resistance because there's some new things I know that Debalin wants to talk about here that have happened in Minnesota. So maybe kick it off a little bit. Debalin, you want to talk a little bit about new herbicides and specifically one thing that we've talked about over the years is we have the same lineup of mode of action year after year.
David:But things are changing, aren't they? In the potential for that and maybe you can outline a little bit about what we can look forward to perhaps this year or the years following.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Yeah, thank you for having me Dave and Seth. So starting with the new mode of action or side of action we call sometimes. So yes, I mean there has not been a new site of action for quite a bit of time. And last site of action that came to agronomic crops, it was HPPD inhibitor, all the bleachers. And now in the horizon, I think there are some chemistries that are coming from the companies.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:I don't know when they will be commercialized, but I'm hearing that they're very close to get them commercialized. So one of the product that people are talking right now is Diflufenacin. It's like side of action group twelve. It's called PDS inhibitor. So it is the symptoms look more like a bleacher, but it's carotenoid inhibitor.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So it cause it blocks the carotenoid production. And this herbicide we tested couple of the years. It is very excellent when you apply pre either in corn or soybean for waterhemp control. So this has a very good control for the pigweeds, whether it is waterhemp or redroot pigweed. But but I'll warn the people, this herbicide is very narrow spectrum.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So if you have some other weed species in the mix, you may consider tank mix this chemical diphosphonican with something else like maybe metribuzine or atrazine or some other chemistries to get a broad spectrum weed control. And then my colleagues from FMC, they're thinking about bringing another herbicide. It's called Remixosafen. So again, I don't know when it will come to the market, maybe two years or so, but that's what I'm hearing. But it is group twelve and group thirty two.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So group twelve would be the same like Diflofenacin, but group thirty two is another group that they're tank mixing with Remixosafen. And then there is an existing side of action, but a new molecule. It's called epirefenacil. The trade name would be Rapidesyl from Valant. So it will be more like a burn down herbicide.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:You can consider this as like a counterpart like Sharpen, you know, like you can spray PPOs for burn down. But the good thing about Rapidessella or the epirefenacil is it is contact as well as systemic sorry, it is systemic, I'm sorry, systemic unlike the other PPO herbicides. So it is very quick acting. So if you spray, you'll see the burn down pretty quickly. And we are still trying to get an idea how this works on the PPO resistant weeds like waterhemp or kochia.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:But so far, when we spread in the field either for grass killing or for broadleaf killing, it acts pretty quickly. Within few days, you'll see that.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Debalin, let's go back to the first one, diflufenacin. Do you think it'll be a standalone product or will it be sold in a premix?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:I think it will be I mean, initially I was hearing it, the product name would be Conventro, but looking at the spectrum of weed control, I think it will come in a premix because then you can get a broad spectrum weed control.
Dr. Thomas Peters:And then let's emphasize for weed control in corn and soybeans, right? Correct?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Yes. Weed control in corn and soybeans. So basically this will be pre emergence herbicide. I don't know what you mean by that, Tom, but I think you were trying to emphasize on the pre emergence application in corn and soybean. So yes, we are so if you look at the recent resistance data from especially for waterhemp in Minnesota, we had some of the populations resistant to six way resistance.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So that means pretty much liberty is the only option. And recently, just this year, heart of the press, we confirmed the liberty resistant waterhemp in Minnesota for the first time. So it is a matter of time when we see that we are running out of the herbicide choices, especially for the post emergence application. So pre emergence application is very much important. You load up front and you expose less number of weeds and smaller weeds to the post emergence to preserve whatever the options we are left with.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:I think, Tom, that's what you want to Yeah,
Dr. Thomas Peters:I do. And I also want to get in no help for sugar beet growers. And matter of fact, there's an eighteen month rotational restriction to sugar beet. So we'll have to be careful how we use it in the crop sequence.
Seth:Can I ask a question here on this? Since we're kind of bumping up the beginning of the year and it doesn't sound it sounds like there's a lot up in the air, is there a particular grower group or a particular problem that you see that this addressing that somebody may should be looking out for this? Or do you think farmers should mostly be thinking about this as a 2027 type product?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:These products, I mean, Diflufenacin, I'm hearing for last one year that it will be commercialized soon, but I don't know when. But Rapidecil, I think it is it will be available this year, but which is a PPO burn down type herbicide. And remixed sulciphane, it will take some time. So I believe there is no new side of action for 2026, at least.
Seth:Okay. It's my feeling. And these are all under the FMC, or you said valent for one of
Dr. Debalin Suragi:the Oh, Diflofenacin, it's coming from Bayer. And then remixosafen, it's coming from FMC, Rapidesil. It's not a new side of action but it's a new active ingredient which is coming from Valant.
Seth:Okay, okay. So the Bayer folks will have some information on the initial product.
David:Maybe we should clarify, Debalin. Are we talking about the same traits of soybeans that farmers might have out there on the landscape already? There's no needed new trait of a soybean or corn to handle some of these herbicides. Is that correct?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Yes.
David:Okay. They're in that type of thing.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:And when you're talking about new trait, that's probably not for 2026 again, but in the future there'll be a trait coming which is five way resistant soybean or tolerant soybean, however you call it. And I think I'm hearing they're they're going to name it as Viconic soybean. So it will be resistant to glyphosate, glufosinate, then lip glyphosate, glufosinate, then two forty dicamba and Calisto. So there'll be option for both pre and post on these on these soybean, but we don't have any firsthand experience with this Viconic soybean yet. So I'm in the contact with my Bayer representative if we can test this new trait, but not yet.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So I think, again, it is not for 2026, maybe in the future.
Dr. Thomas Peters:I think it would be really fun at some point, Dave and Seth, to talk about the pros and cons of these very complex trait mixtures. Yes. Because I think it's confusing, quite frankly, and how to deploy those is going to be a strategic conversation, I think, on the farm.
Seth:Well, and even from my very naive viewpoint, I mean, it sounds like these, even a five way kind of matches up with the five way resistance we're already seeing in some of these populations. So it's it already looks like trouble to me. And I I don't I don't I'm sure that that's part of the question that Tom has, but only one piece of it.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Maybe that's a good segue, Seth, into talking about our strategies for 2026. And I want to start out on sugar beet this time and indicate that our sugar beet growers routinely mention water hemp as their most important production challenge. And every sugar beet grower listening today should be using a pre emergence herbicide. They should be using a pre emergence herbicide. Now, they're mainly from one family.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Unfortunately, all of our soil applied residual herbicides in sugar beets are Group 15 herbicides. But I want to emphasize that if waterhemp is important to you, you better be using a pre emergence herbicide. We need to start clean.
Seth:Are you referring to just the sugar beet to crop, or are you talking about the full cycle of rotation?
Dr. Thomas Peters:Well, let's talk about that. So I'm going to start this off by saying in sugar beets. Now let's talk about the crops in sequence, Debalin. What do you think about corn and soybeans and maybe even wheat?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Yeah, when you talk about sugar beet in sequence, first you lose some of the chemistry because of their rotational restrictions. And Tom, if you can remember, one of my grad student did a work when he rotated soybean and sugar beet in the rotation. And what we find is in soybean, if you can get like 90% weed control next year, your problem number of the weeds in that same field is almost half. So that means the seed production, if you reduce just one year, next year you have to deal with half lesser number of weeds, you know. Like if you were dealing with 100 weeds, next year it will be 50.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:If you can get very good waterhemp control in the previous rotation. And as you mentioned, Tom, like in sugar beet you don't have many options for herbicide. So I think the rotational crops will give you that flexibility. You can use some herbicides that will give you very good control, reduce the seed bank so that you have to deal with less number of weeds in sugar beet.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Yeah, and those that are listening that went to our winter grower seminars, I really emphasize this point, Debalin, that the use of residual herbicides, if you're a sugar beet grower, is a strategy. And you should map all of this out in advance to make sure that you have the proper rotational restriction, but second, to make sure or demonstrate to yourself that you're using multiple families of herbicides. So mix it up. I Get some confusion out there.
David:A point of clarification just for audience members that may not be familiar with how often are sugar beets grown in a rotation or what are the restrictions? It's not an every other year crop here.
Dr. Thomas Peters:No, it's one in four, Dave. So there is an opportunity to use some of the longer soybean residual herbicides. You just need to plan. You need to have a plan.
David:And that rotations effect obviously for disease and other types of things. I want to talk a little bit about pre emergence herbicides, not maybe just the new ones but even the existing ones on the market. There's lot of been a lot of emphasis that if you have your choices, if you have an opportunity to have a multiple modes of actions in these PREs that there is it's advantageous. You want to speak to that a little bit in terms of your reaction or comments on that?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Yeah. So, Deb, that's a very good question. And I can tell you something, like multiple mode of action and multiple effective mode of action. So we are more emphasizing on the effective mode of action because we are losing a lot of herbicide choices because of the resistance. So not all the chemistries will work on if you take the example of waterhemp, it will not going to work.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So we have to take the multiple effective mode of action. And then what we have seen is if you're applying one mode of action versus three effective mode of action in the tank mix, always the three mode of action is giving you better control. So I think the hammering these weeds with multiple prongs or multiple hammers with the multiple mode of action is, I think, a very good idea. But I think, Tom, I think you wanted to talk something about this tank mix, this premixes, right? So maybe go ahead.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Yeah, I have two comments about this. So Debalin, I like premixes. I think they're convenient for growers and they give our growers the opportunity, as you said, to take multiple effective herbicides to the field. But here's the thing: you need to make sure your premix is formulated so that there is an effective dose of both or all three of the active ingredients, if that's what you're purchasing. You know, a premix is a premix.
Dr. Thomas Peters:It's bought for general production, and it doesn't really fit every farm situation. So in some cases, we may need to spike in more product of one of
Dr. Debalin Suragi:those ingredients in order to ensure that we have an effective dose. And I agree with you, Tom. I think we should pay attention to the label, like which product is in that premix, what is the percentage of the mix, because sometimes you feel that, okay, I may need to bump up the group fifteen, so maybe with the premix you can add another group fifteen just to bump up the group fifteen. So I agree with you. But I still think that premixes are making the work easier for the farmers, for the applicators because you don't need to deal with the individual mixes, all the tank compatibility and all those issues.
Dr. Thomas Peters:And then the second point I want to make sorry Seth the second point I want to make about premixes is make sure the group, the families of herbicides that comprise the premix are sensitive or effective on the weeds that you have on your farm. So just because there's two or three different products doesn't mean that they'll provide effective weed control. And that gets back to what you were visiting about Debalin on weed resistance, to make sure you understand what weeds resistance and families that you have on your farm.
Seth:So then, you know, again, the naive standpoint of in my seat here, so there's a I have a couple questions on rates. These farmers could potentially have a post that would include one of those potential products that they sprayed initially, right? Would we end up being in trouble with labels by going over total rates of some of these products by adding too many multiples on both sides of the growth cycle?
Dr. Thomas Peters:I think you need to look it up. You have to go into the label and look it up. And I'm thinking of a product right now, dual magnum, and there is a specific total amount you can use and that's a combination of pre use or post emergence use. So you do need to be careful about that, Seth.
David:You know, there's a, in the past we've talked about layered herbicides and so forth. There's some other thoughts about this. I know some coming from our neighbor to the east in Roderico and Wisconsin. But it doesn't mean that layered herbicides, if you want to extend it because obviously the waterhemp is gonna emerge later in the season, isn't a valid choice. But we have to be considerate of having enough product there at the beginning.
David:Any thoughts about that? We're not necessarily contradicting ourselves here, are we?
Dr. Thomas Peters:Yeah, I want to give, I want to present the sugar beet weed control program. All right. So we use a pre emergence, I already said that. And then our next application is at the two leaf stage. And we're using a soil residual herbicide, so we want pre activity on waterhemp, but post to sugar beets.
Dr. Thomas Peters:And then we're making a third application. We're doing that at approximately the six to eight leaf stage. So I bought into this idea of a layered approach. And what we did is we took our soil residual herbicide and essentially we metered it out over two applications. So we used a reduced rate versus one bulk rate of that product.
Dr. Thomas Peters:And I think our colleagues, Debalin, have conducted research and are saying that maybe that wasn't the right strategy to use. So we're rethinking that and I'm going to be reevaluating that in sugar beet. And quite frankly, I've already changed my recommendations. So I'm going to increase the rate of the layered program while I do research in 2026.
Seth:So can you be real explicit on why that was a mistake and what potential biological issues are with some of these lower rates?
Dr. Thomas Peters:Go ahead, Debalin. Let's tell the story.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Okay, so, I mean, what Tom was telling is, like, when you are exposing the weeds to the sub lethal dose of certain herbicides, means you are stressing them out, maybe you are not killing all of them. So that it was proven that that stress can induce some resistance in the future. So that's one side. But I want to tell something else. Like you're talking about group fifteens.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:You don't need to really split the dose. I mean, I know in sugar beet you might have less choices, but I'm talking about corn and soybean growers. Like for the group fifteens, you can rotate the chemistry. So maybe in the pre you can put dual, full dose and then come back with your layering residual with Warrant or Acetylchlor versus Metallochlor. That's how you can bypass this maximum rate of one chemistry.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So you can use two separate chemistry with the full dose in PREs as well as the layering residual. But remember one thing, you are using the same side of action, which is group 15. So maybe it is a good idea in the pre with your group 15 add another thing, maybe a group 14 or maybe group five, like it could be group 27, like it could be atrazine or Calisto in corn or it could be Metribuzine or it could be Flumioxazine in soybean. And then in the post you are already applying some foliar herbicides. It could be your 24 D or Liberty and then you can tank mix your group 15.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So that means you are using multiple sites of action to reduce the selection pressure.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Seth, I want to give you a very specific example of what Debalin just said in sugar beets. So we used to do a pint followed by a pint of dual. We're going to change that. So the first application is going to be 20 ounces. And then as Debalin said, we're going to mix it up and we're going to use a different chloroacetamide.
Dr. Thomas Peters:We're going to use Warrant and we're going to use that one at 3.5 pints. So the same family of products, but we're using a higher rate of dual than we previously used and we're going to follow that up with a different chloroacetamide.
Seth:So just to summarize, a farmer could potentially have a perfect weed control program within an individual year that's also setting them up for problems in the future. So it's theoretically possible to have perfect weed control but yet not be a perfect system if they're thinking about this from a long term perspective.
David:You know, other thing Tom, of course, remind people is that the economics here, return on investment, typically in a sugar bee growing situation, look at the revenue. Oftentimes growers have the ability because of the revenue and so forth of an acre to be able to invest, spend more money per se on weed control. It's really needed but in that particular year. But also back in the corn and soybean side of things, they may be more restricted economically how much they want to invest in weed control. But I think we've always, and you've always talked about Tom, is working on this water hemp weed control in what I call the off years.
David:When you don't plant sugar beets or don't have a sensitive crop. And so it does come back. Think somewhat, I think Debalin, years ago when you started here with many little hammers, talked about crop rotation. Other things that you can do in other crops and situation with that you can't do otherwise. But by and large, you know, like a corn or soybean growers, they may only get one shot given the weather.
David:If it looks like, you know, rain and so forth in the forecast on there. And then I guess for both of you, we get many growers that'll come up to you and I know they'll say, you know, put my pre on, what do you do if it doesn't rain?
Dr. Thomas Peters:Yeah. Well, I want to go back to the first part because I think this is a good segue to where we started on weed resistance. So, and I'm going to re emphasize that weed management is a strategy. So map it out and demonstrate to yourself that you're creating diversity in the families of products that you're using. But here's the truth, for waterhemp control across a corn, soybean, sugar beet rotation, you're gonna be going to the same family frequently.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Potentially three years in a row, that's the chloroacetamide herbicides. And I think, Debalin, we've really gotta be on the lookout for resistance and seeing the early signs of that. And I think we should inform our listeners about our experiences there.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Yeah. I think you're right. I mean, we are putting a lot of pressure on the group 15s, but I want to remind the folks that there are some other options like you can add group 14 as your pre emergence in soybean, and then group five then group five and twenty seven as pre emergence in corn. So we have some choices. And then if in the future those multiple traits come in or this Diflufenacin thing comes in it will diversify a little bit more of action.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:But yes, I agree with you again that Group 15 we are using too much and I'm hearing some failures in the Midwest especially from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin. I'm hearing the Group 15 failure. And one of my farmers contacted me earlier this year that he's also looking at Group 15 failures. So we have to be really mindful what we are doing, which herbicide we are using too much.
Dr. Thomas Peters:So let's talk about early signs of resistance. What would you see first of all? What would you see first off?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So the early sign of resistance for pre emergence versus post emergence is slightly different. Because for post emergence, first thing you have to make sure you are applying at the correct label recommendation. It could be the rate, it could be the size of the weeds. The size of the weeds, we are recommending that somewhere like three inches height, like no more than three inches. So let's assume you spray a chemical with a three inches tall waterhemp and you go back to that field in fourteen to twenty one days and you see some of the individuals, those are surviving, that's the early sign of resistance.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:And often we have seen those resistant plants, early on, they survive on patches. Like they're not widespread throughout the field. Maybe there is a small patch where multiple plants are surviving, and then eventually over the time they will take over the whole field. So look for those patches if the weeds are there is a suspiciously they are surviving in a small patch. That's early sign of resistance.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Or if you are maybe in the mid stage that they're already spread all over the field, maybe they are surviving all over the field. So that's the post emergence. Now for the pre emergence, I think it's pretty much tricky because Dave talked about the activation of the pre. Some years you don't get enough rainfall, the pre emergence herbicide is not activated, and you go back and check your weeds and they're still emerging. So you are not sure whether it is due to the activation or due to the resistance.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So maybe for the preemergence, look for the weed emergence following the herbicide application for more than one year. So that will give you some idea that, okay, last year the weeds were emerging, but this year I got pretty good control. Maybe it is due to the activation, not the resistance. But if you see continuously they're emerging every year for two, three years, then maybe it is an early sign for resistance.
Dr. Thomas Peters:But here's the take home message, Debalin, and I want to be really clear about this: If something doesn't look right, it probably isn't. And we need to know as soon as possible. So talk to your retailer, talk to your county agent if you have one, talk to your regional educator, call Debalin and I. We want to know that because I think our best defense against the onset of resistance is to get there early. And I think that's the learning we had with waterhemp.
Dr. Thomas Peters:We let it get established before we did something about it. Let's not make that mistake next time.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:And Tom, as I mentioned that liberty resistance or glufosinate resistance is kind of looming because we already confirmed one population, And it is my personal belief it is more than one population in Minnesota. So there must be some other population which are resistant to glufosinate. So Tom, last year you wrote an article that don't break liberty. Can you talk more about that thing? Because I think it is a time to remind our farmers and the applicators that we have these limited options and Liberty is one of them.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:We should not break it.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Yeah, I'm this is an important topic. I have a lot of respect for what Liberty product, the herbicide, is doing, and I want to make sure it remains a viable product for our growers. So what that means is using the right rate, use the full label rate. Combine Liberty with ammonium sulfate. Now I know people don't want to handle jugs.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Somebody's doing an eye roll right now. Peters is talking about bags. Ammonium sulfate makes Liberty more effective. Use ammonium sulfate. Monitor the application conditions.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Liberty likes sun and heat and humidity. So use Liberty in those conditions.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:And then finally, make sure you're managing weed size. Don't let the weeds get too big because that's how selection pressure works is when we're not getting complete control and those weeds make seed that might be slightly different from other pigweed seed. And Tom, how about that crop stage? Because I'm hearing last year especially I got a couple of the phone calls. People asked me my soybean is in R3 stage, can I spray Liberty?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:And right away I said no, whatever the weed height is. Because that person said my weed size is small, I think it is below four inches, but can I still spray it? I right away said no, because label is the law, but please
Dr. Thomas Peters:go Yeah, we have to be respectful of the label. And you know, there's a lot of anecdotal information. Yeah, but soybeans are safe. What are you guys worried about? Well, that's the label.
Dr. Thomas Peters:The label was done with herbicide residues information in mind. Remember our soybeans go into the export market so we have to be mindful of those considerations and they also contribute to weed resistance as you said.
Seth:One thing quick about this from a practical aspect, the Liberty labels have changed and there's some product changes and some formulations. So can you highlight some of that broadly this year? What's going on?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:Yes, so historically we used to have Liberty two eighty SL, which was an excellent product for our farmers. But the company changed their product to Liberty Ultra. So Liberty Ultra is more like the active isomer in it. So the dose initially what we are hearing, the dose would be lower. So for example, that 32 fluid ounces of Liberty two eighty would be equivalent to 24 fluid ounces of Liberty Ultra.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So now they bumped up this rate for Liberty Ultra. So now maximum single application rate would be 34 fluid ounces. So you can go up to 34 fluid ounces, which would be equivalent to, I believe, if I'm not mistaking, it will be 51 fluid ounces of Liberty two eighty SL. So this will be the max rate for single application.
Seth:So higher rate but more concentrated products. So if a person screwed up twice, they'd actually do it correctly. So that's perfect.
Dr. Thomas Peters:And Seth, farmers are familiar with this. We had this with dual and dual magnum before.
Seth:Yeah, glyphosate, same thing.
Dr. Thomas Peters:You know, so they're familiar with these changes in formulations.
David:You know, one other product I want to talk about briefly as we're getting towards the end of our time and that is that's an old product but been brought back again this year is dicamba. Now there'd be probably limited acres. Obviously you have to have that traded soybean, that traded crop out here for making application. What are some thoughts and strategies for timing? Now some of these labels have changed and so forth allow for you know, very early or soil applied and then post emergence.
David:Minnesota still has cutoffs for a number of calendar temperature, etcetera. Where does Dicamba, does it still have a fit here in what I call this Enlist world here?
Dr. Debalin Suragi:So Dave, that's a very good question because if I think about waterhemp perspective, at least in Minnesota I have seen that the waterhemp is becoming more tolerant or I would say less sensitive to 24 more quickly than dicamba. And I don't know. I don't have the answer why, but whenever we test some population of waterhemp, we see it is more tolerant to 24 than dicamba. Now having said that, dicamba is a product that has been used in corn for a long time and it will continue to be used. But for soybean, the new label restrictions definitely put a lot of complications.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:One is that all the data recording like when you are spraying and you have to keep the receipt of your purchased product of dicamera, VRA, DRA those are there and then buffer requirement. And also there is restrictions on the label that if the temperature is between 85 to 95, if the forecast is, you cannot spray more than 50% of your field in one county. So that is the federal level restrictions. Then additional date restrictions is for the state. So looking at all those things, my takeaway is maybe dicamba has a value for application as a pre emergence because dicamba has very limited residual activity but that residual activity is very good under the scenarios when you don't have enough moisture in the soil because some herbicide requires a lot of moisture to get activated, but dicama works really good under dry conditions.
Dr. Debalin Suragi:But it is narrow spectrum narrow spectrum and it has limited residual activity. So you have to tank mix dicamba with something else. It could be group 14 or group 15 to enhance the activity on the weed control side.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Yeah, and I just want to reinforce, I've been working on dicamba in sugar beets. So I've gone back and forth with myself. Is it an early post emergence product or is it a soil residual pre herbicide? And Debalin, I completely agree with you. We're going to use dicamba pre emergence and we're going to combine it with something else.
Dr. Thomas Peters:So have that one two punch. Get that immediate activation with dicamba, and then follow it up with a longer residual product.
David:You know, because you, Tom, have faced some of this in Western Minnesota, Northwestern Minnesota before, we've had this most recent label change. Do these label changes and so forth still opportunity but do they keep some of our issues and problems with drift etc. Crop damage if they help to minimalize some of this?
Dr. Thomas Peters:Well, that's a loaded question, I think time's going to tell on it. I don't think we know for sure. Yeah, they've added a number of restrictions as Debalin has alluded to, but time's going to tell if those changes come to fruition. And the other thing we need to add is it's another conditional label. It's a two year label that they've been offered.
Dr. Thomas Peters:So we'll find out.
David:Well I think Debalin, you're right. It's going to have restrictions. It's not going to control every small or large seeded weed out there, even on a soil applied dicamba. And I'm old enough, Tom, older than you, to remember way, way back when people were spraying Banville.
Dr. Thomas Peters:That's right.
David:Yeah, even in corn on soil. But it was narrow. It wasn't broad spectrum. And it worked, but that was a long time ago.
Dr. Thomas Peters:That's right.
David:Very good. I think any other comments anybody else have here at this portion of that? We wanna thank both of you for having the opportunity to stop by this morning here in this latter part of March to talk a little bit about weed control coming forward some of the options, some of the challenges and so forth. Things to think in mind and keep in mind as obviously here as we go forward into 2026. So again, our guests today have been Doctor.
David:Tom Peters, University of Minnesota and North Dakota State Extension Sugar Beet Weed Specialists along with Doctor. Debalin Surangi, University of Minnesota Extension Weed Specialists in the areas of corn and soybean. My name is Dave Nicolai. I've been your host along my cohost Doctor. Seth Nave, University of Michigan soybean specialist.
David:Thanks for listening and we'll look forward to talking to you next time. Thank you.
Dr. Thomas Peters:Thank you.
