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How to Keep Weed Seed Out of Your Corn and Soybean Harvest

August 31, 2020
This agronomic image shows corn harvest

Keeping your corn and soybean fields free of unwanted weed seed is an important task, as seeds in your harvested crops can lead to dockage at the elevator.

If you do see weeds in your fields at harvest, consider some of these tips outlined by the United States Department of Agriculture:

  • Avoid harvesting crops located in areas that are densely populated with weeds – the risk of spreading weed seed is likely not worth the bushels you might get from that area of the field.
  • Adjust your combine’s cutting height settings to minimize the amount of weed seed that is harvested. Consult your combine provider to help determine the right height for your field conditions.
  • Regularly clean your farm equipment between harvesting different fields to avoid cross-contamination. This helps prevent weed seeds, including those belonging to herbicide-resistant species, from spreading throughout your fields.
  • Destroy all weed seed that is left in the field after harvest to prevent it from entering the soil seed bank.

When taking your crops to the elevator, consider these additional precautions:

  • Examine corn and soybeans for weed seed upon arrival.
  • Separate weed seed from corn and soybeans through mechanical cleaning or other means.

We agree with weed scientists who advise a zero-tolerance policy for weed escapes. Ridding fields of weeds not only increases your yield potential, but it also lowers the chance of future seeds being added to the seed bank.

Taking these preventive actions to minimize contamination from weed seed will help ensure the hard work you’ve put into this season pays off and can help prevent weeds from growing on your farm in the future.

Plan For Next Year

To start and stay clean in 2021, we recommend Acuron® corn herbicide. Acuron contains 4 active ingredients (AIs), including the unique component bicyclopyrone, and 3 effective sites of action. Bicyclopyrone works with the other AIs in Acuron to provide powerful weed control, longest-lasting residual and proven crop safety to enable Acuron to better protect corn from tough, yield-robbing weeds. Fewer weeds mean more sunlight, nutrients and water will be available for the growing corn crop, which leads to more bushels and more revenue potential. When used in a preemergence application at full label rates, Acuron helps you find 5-15 more bushels an acre than any other corn herbicide.*

Calculate how much more potential revenue you could earn with an extra 5-15 bu/A.

For dicamba-tolerant soybeans, we recommend Tavium® Plus VaporGrip® Technology herbicide, the market’s first premix residual dicamba herbicide. Through the contact control of dicamba, Tavium manages the emerged weeds you see, and through the residual control of S-metolachlor, it manages the weeds you don’t see yet. This powerful combination provides up to 3 weeks longer residual control than dicamba alone.

The Syngenta soybean herbicide portfolio also includes Boundary® 6.5 EC, BroadAxe® XC, and Prefix® herbicides, for effective weed control across a range of geographies,soil types and trait systems. Sequence® herbicide also delivers knockdown and residual control of weeds such as pigweed, crabgrass and annual grass in soybeans.

Visit ResistanceFighter.com, or talk to your local Syngenta retailer or sales representative about knocking out tough and resistant weeds in your area next year.

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All photos are either the property of Syngenta or are used with permission.

Syngenta hereby disclaims any liability for Third Party websites referenced herein.

©2020 Syngenta. The trademarks or service marks displayed or otherwise used herein are the property of a Syngenta Group Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

*Acuron yield advantage range based on 2016 Syngenta and University trials comparing Acuron to Corvus®, Resicore®, SureStart® II and Verdict® applied preemergence and at full label rates. For more information on Acuron versus an individual product, ask your Syngenta representative.

 

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