Ideally, we want to get every crop off to the best start possible.
One of the ways that this can be done in canola is through a pre-emergent herbicide, says Marissa Robitaille Balog, of the Canola Council of Canada.
“Canola isn’t super competitive when it’s small,” Robitaille explains in this Canola School episode. “It’s pretty susceptible to those external stressors. So by removing weeds and other pressures like that, you’re allowing resources like nutrients and moisture to be accessible for that canola to get off to a good start.”
There are multiple considerations when it comes to a pre-emerge herbicide, but one of those things is going to be field history. Robitaille Balog says that field history is a great place to start for an early warning of what to be watching out for. (Story continues below video)
“Are you seeing a lot of weeds that weren’t controlled very well last year, using a certain herbicide group? So that is a red flag that you should be looking out for this year. Or do you know that there’s a history of a herbicide-resistant weed already showing up in that field that you need to be aware of?” she asks.
A lot of yield can be lost due to weed competitiveness if those nutrients and resources are taken away early on. And, as many farmers have come to realize — it’s a lot easier to tackle some of these tricky weeds when they are just emerging, rather than when roots are well-established in the soil.
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