Fall Residuals For Ryegrass Control
DR. BOB SCOTT
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS
This is probably a terrible time to talk to growers about making fall applications for ryegrass given the current financial state of agriculture in the mid-south. However, it has been my experience that if we get control of winter annual weeds in the fall, especially ryegrass, we tend to need to spend much less money and time with seedbed prep in the spring. So, money spent now could save you money on next year’s crop.
Dr. Jason Bond at Mississippi State has led the weed science community in this area due to their difficulties with resistant ryegrass control. I have to say I was impressed driving through that side of the river delta last winter on my way to a meeting in New Orleans. Lots of clean fields and beds that had obviously been sprayed after the final tillage pass in the fall. In some fields you could see the line where the spray stopped. I am sure this effort and expense let to savings come planting time the following spring.
We are seeing more fall efforts to control ryegrass in Arkansas now as well, but again I fear given the financial crisis that Ag faces this may be one area that is left out and could cost us next spring. I would suggest at a minimum considering making these applications in fields known to have ryegrass problems. There are a wide variety of herbicides to choose from. Most commonly for Cotton, corn and soybean ground metolachlor plus metribuzin seems to work well. For rice ground Command 3 ME has been shown to be effective. There are a lot of other options out there. This year we are looking at around 25 different fall applied programs for ryegrass in our studies. Contact your county agent or check your states recommendations for more options.
At the time I am writing this, we have already had an early “flush” of ryegrass, I hope it burns up in these unseasonably warm temperatures we are now having. If not, paraquat or tillage will need to be used to start clean with a residual application. Rainfall is needed to activate these preemergence applications so timing can be tricky.
I do not want to overlook cover crops as an option. Many of you are finding success with those. If you are set up for a good cover crop program, this can result fields free of ryegrass as well.
Good luck to everyone and here is to hope for higher commodity prices next year. ∆
DR. BOB SCOTT
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS