Over the winter there were a lot of growers asking me about conventional corn weed control options. Some growers are looking to capture potential non-GMO corn premiums, dairy producers are intrigued by the possible GMO free milk markets, others are looking to save money on seed costs and some feel that they need to become more proactive with their herbicide resistance management strategies on the farm.

Regardless of a growers' reason to plant conventional corn, preemergence weed control programs are almost a necessity for a conventional weed control program. It is extremely difficult to rely on a total postemergence conventional weed control program. There is a high risk of yield loss if the postemergence application is delayed. Application delays due to weather conditions can lead to tall weeds that are difficult or too big to control.

The goal is to select a solid, one pass preemergence corn herbicide program. It is especially important to use a very good soil residual grass herbicide because it is difficult (and costly) to control certain emerged annual grasses with conventional postemergence herbicides. In conventional corn, a postemergence annual grass rescue treatment will cost around $24 per acre. These are reasons why so many of the preemergence herbicide programs contain acetamide (s-metolachlor, metolachlor, acetochlor, dimethenamid-P) products or premixes containing one of these active ingredients.

The article below provides a number of suggested conventional preemergence corn herbicide program to consider.


Conventional Corn Weed Control (pdf; 104KB)