Hamlin County, SD: Considering that early-season weeds rob yield and late-season weeds deposit thousands – even millions – of seeds into the weed seed bank to produce future threats, it’s no surprise that weed pressure is one of the top concerns for growers each season. The accumulation of so many seeds creates a challenge that is both expensive and difficult to manage in future seasons.

On Jeremy Noem’s farm, waterhemp, kochia and marestail are the biggest threats to his NK® Corn hybrids, but through proactive management, he’s been able to keep them under control. When his previous herbicide program started having escapes, he took action to regain the upper hand.

“Last year, we had spots where we had escapes,” Noem said. “This year, we applied Acuron® herbicide in one pass at 2.5 qt/A with glyphosate, and it worked well. We didn’t have weeds come up.”

Acuron is a premix of four active ingredients and three effective modes of action that can be applied from 28 days pre-plant up to 12-inch tall corn.

The cleaner fields helped Noem’s NK Corn hybrids N33W and N49W brands thrive, delivering an average 180-200 bu/A.

“The yields are better this year and that’s always the goal,” he said.

Introducing Acuron herbicide into his weed control program enabled, Jeremy Noem to bring his number of observed weed escapes this season down to zero.

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