Best Practices for Postharvest Weed Control
Wade Firestone, head of marketing-US Crop Solutions at HELM, discusses the importance of postharvest weed control to prepare wheat and cotton fields for next season.
Podcast Transcript
00:00:00 – 00:22:12
Hilary Winn:
Hi, I’m Hilary Winn, custom content manager for Meister Media Worldwide, the publisher of CropLife magazine. I’d like to welcome Wade Firestone, head of marketing-US Crop Solutions at HELM. Wade is going to answer some questions about best practices for postharvest weed control. But first, a little bit about Wade. Before joining the HELM team, he spent ten years at BASF in various roles.
00:22:15 – 00:43:22
He and his family currently reside in the Tampa, Florida area. But while growing up, Wade lived in 13 different states, which has given him a unique perspective on U.S. agriculture.
Wade, welcome.
Wade Firestone:
Thanks for having me here. Looking forward to the conversation.
Hilary Winn:
Me too. Wade, how do current weather conditions affect weed control for wheat postharvest?
Wade Firestone:
Well, I think that varies a little bit depending on what geography you’re in.
00:43:22 – 01:02:14
So, I was looking back through kind of where we are from a harvest standpoint with wheat. And if you look at hard red winter wheat in particular, you know, there’s a lot of geographies that are, you know, on pace with previous years, particularly if you look at Texas and Oklahoma. They’ve had a little bit of a hotter, drier period down there that’s really helped push that crop to maturity.
01:02:16 – 01:17:25
And if I’m not mistaken, I believe both those states are well over about 75% harvested. As you move a little bit further north, you start seeing a little bit more of how the weather has delayed some of that harvest. You see Kansas around 53%. You see Nebraska just at around 5% as of about a week ago.
01:17:27 – 01:39:28
So, weather patterns have had an impact on the way that we’ve harvested this crop and why that impacts weed control and some of the pressures that we might have later on in the season is that the longer we delay that harvest, the more we give opportunities for these weeds to emerge within that crop. As we go out and we harvest that wheat, we end up, you know, taking or cutting down those weeds, you know, fairly close to the ground.
01:39:28 – 01:56:14
So, we take a one-foot-tall weed, we turn it into a one-inch-tall weed. What we generally see after that is we see a lot of regrowth, out of various parts of that plant, making them harder to control as we go out there with our chemical programs, as we’re either getting ready for double crop or as those fields are laying fallow.
01:56:16 –02:16:28
So that kind of sums up, you know, that red winter wheat market, if you look at soft red winter wheat, particularly in Indiana and Ohio, they’re well ahead of where their five-year average is, but we have seen some delays there, by rain as well. So again, as we start looking at where we are, particularly with the wheat harvest, how that has impacts on managing weeds, particularly going into double crops.
02:17:01 – 02:34:24
We just need to make sure that we’re being cognizant of what conditions we’ve had out there. Then how long or how or how much time we’ve given those weeds to regrow before we go out with our herbicide applications.
Hilary Winn:
What about for cotton harvest?
Wade Firestone:
So, I think it’s a little early to tell quite yet there for cotton in particular. I think you’ll start seeing southern Texas will begin harvesting here.
02:35:01 – 02:54:07
You know, probably in the upcoming month or so. And then we’ll also see that harvest start moving northwards into the Delta and into West Texas in particular. One of the key drivers there is, of course, hurricane season. So, we’ve got our first major hurricane that’s developed right now. And we continue to see, you know, potential for those storms to increase as we go into the fall.
02:54:09 – 03:11:02
You know, the reason that’s so important with cotton is anytime you have moisture in those fields, whereas that crop is still in that field, we start to degrade some of the fiber quality. So, getting that crop out in a timely manner as we get closer to harvest with cotton is going to be even more imperative. So, depends on where you are geographically.
03:11:05 – 03:24:22
But as that weather patterns continue to develop over the upcoming months, we’ll have to start making determinations on, you know, when are we going to defoliant the crop? When are we going to desiccate, and then what products we’re going to use in those timely manners? It takes a while to harvest cotton in a lot of cases.
03:24:22 – 03:45:06
So, making sure that we have the timing down is very, very important. So, we got to keep a pretty close eye on what’s going on from a weather standpoint before we can make that decision out there for cotton, but that is right around the corner. Whereas wheat is happening right now.
Hilary Winn:
Talking about those chemical applications, what are some best practices for making a herbicide application between harvest and planting?
03:45:09 – 04:05:16
Wade Firestone:
So, when I think particularly about harvesting wheat and then going back into, you know, more of a double crop system, you know, what we generally see, as I mentioned earlier, is that after we harvest the wheat, we end up cutting down a lot of those weeds. So not only does that harden the weeds off, but it also makes it harder to, you know, have control over because now we’ve killed off essentially the biomass there.
04:05:18 – 04:20:14
So, what we generally like seeing is I like allowing a certain amount of time in between when we harvest the wheat or when we harvest the field, and then when we actually go out there and spray that wheat. So, I like seeing a little bit of regrowth on those weeds so that we have enough biomass there to where we can get contact with our herbicides.
04:20:16 – 04:40:21
And then I think at that point we have to look into what programs are we going to use. So generally speaking, I like when we have combinations of both contact herbicides like Reviton with glusophinate and then also systemic herbicide, whether it be glyphosate, 2,4-D and or dicamba. What that allows us to do is have good control of the weeds that, of the biomass that’s had the ability to regrow.
04:40:28 – 05:02:15
It also gives us some systemic control of the taproot that’s been developed over the course of, you know, it growing during the wheat still being in that field. And then us being able to remove the crop. So, allows us to do two things at one time, allows us to kill the weed and the biomass that’s above ground also allows us to effectively control the taproot so that we don’t see regrowth after our herbicide application.
05:02:17 – 05:31:08
Hilary Winn:
Why should growers consider a fall burn down this year?
Wade Firestone:
So, I think, you know, I don’t know if I would say that we should consider one year over another year. I think overall, what we need to consider is why fall burndowns are an important part of a of a control program when we’re targeting different weed species. You know, I think not only does it help, give us cleaner fields in the spring so we don’t have as much biomass out there when we’re going out there planting, also helps warm our fields up earlier, since we don’t have that amount of biomass controlling the air covering the ground.
05:31:10 – 05:51:20
But one of the most important things, though, is it really helps us not chase weeds in the spring. If you think back to where we were here in 2024, we had a relatively warm spring. And then it got really rainy and got really wet and got pretty cold. So, at the same time that we had weeds that were actively growing earlier, we might not have gone out to control them because we’re a little bit far out from planting a crop.
05:51:22 – 06:08:06
And then all of a sudden, we get into a situation where we can’t get back into the field because it’s too wet. So, by looking at a fall burndown program that allows us to control weeds at a much earlier stage of their growth, allows us to control them much more effectively than if we were chasing them in spring.
06:08:08 – 06:32:10
And then with that as well, to make sure we have that clean field as we go into the spring so that we’re not out there, you know, at the whims of Mother Nature, if you will from a weed management standpoint.
Hilary Winn:
Is there anything else our audience should know?
Wade Firestone:
You know, I think overall, I think the biggest thing that I talk to growers about is I talk about how do we make sure that we have a plan in place, whether we’re looking at fall burndown, whether we’re looking at postharvest control or whether we’re looking at cotton desiccation or defoliation.
06:32:13 – 06:50:08
We need to have a couple of different viable options out there when we’re considering how we’re going to go into the fall and what’s going on or is going to go into the spring the following year. We almost need a scenario that is everything goes perfect. What are we going to do? And if we’re going to run into challenges, whether it be weather or temperature, you know, what does that plan look like?
06:50:08 – 07:07:00
That way we have multiple options out there and we know what direction we’re going to go. And I think that’s one of the most important things, that when we have conversations with growers that we like to talk about is what’s option A and what’s option B. Because generally speaking, we can all guarantee that it’s probably not going to be the same as it was last year.
07:07:01 – 07:25:20
So, we have to make sure that we’re adapting our plans accordingly.
Hilary Winn:
Where can more information about HELM fall burndown products be found?
Wade Firestone:
So, for additional information about the fall burndown chemistries that HELM provides, you can either reach out to one of our local sales representatives in your area, or you can visit helmcrop.com to see a full listing of our entire portfolio offerings.
07:25:27 – 07:32:18
Hilary Winn:
Wade, thanks again for taking the time to discuss best practices for postharvest weed control.
Wade Firestone:
Thank you, Hilary. I appreciate the time.