Planting Delays May Increase Dicamba Use

Planting Delays May Increase Dicamba Usea

The long-range forecast continues to look wet which may lead to corn planting delays. If that occurs, some more use of Dicamba products may come into play.  In many parts of Indiana, corn planting will not likely start for several weeks. Eric Miller, with Dupont Pioneer, said, that with many growers already planning to plant more soybeans, switching additional acres to soybeans will not be difficult. “Soybean acres are expected to be up in Indiana because of market conditions but weather conditions may shift even more corn acres to soybeans,” he said. “Certainly with those plans in place I don’t think there will be very much resistance to switching.”

HAT meteorologist Ryan Martin says the weekend looks sunny and dry, with highs around 60 on Saturday and into the low 70’s on Sunday. However, he said he is not sure how much of an extended dry down period we will see in Indiana, “The extended forecast shows a possible system moving in near April 11-12 that could leave behind 0.5” rains through the state. Another system on the 15^th-16^th could leave behind another 0.25-0.5” rain totals in Indiana.”

Miller said, if growers make the switch to soybeans, there are some new tools for 2017 that will help timely planting in a weather-shortened, planting window, “New in 2017 will be a zero day plant back for a burndown application using a low volatility dicamba product.”  He said, in the past, growers had to wait 7 to 10 days to plant after during a 2-4D product.  With Dicamba, growers can eliminate the waiting period, “We have some tools we can use if we see this planting window continue to condense.”

Listen to the complete agronomy report with Eric Miller on the crops page of our website.