‘2020 Will Be…Confusing’- Beck’s Provides Unbiased Perspective on Herbicide Systems
“2020 will be one of the most confusing years for growers as it relates to making decisions about what trait to utilize and what herbicide system to utilize in those different trait platforms,” says Jim Schwartz, director of Practical Farm Research and Agronomy for Beck’s Hybrids. “There’s going to be three main herbicide traits competing against each other in LibertyLink GT27, Xtend, and Enlist.”
For that reason, they decided to hold their first ever Herbicide Insight Days at their Effingham, IL location. As you well know, Beck’s is a seed company and not an herbicide company. So why have an herbicide field day? Schwartz said they sell all three of those systems and wanted to provide customers an unbiased perspective.
“All those systems have strengths. All of them have some weaknesses. That’s what we’re trying to do today is say, ‘There may be a spot where this system may be a little bit better, maybe a spot where this one is,’ and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do is just provide the information to help make those decisions. We don’t have a dog in this hunt. We wanted to provide a bunch of information to help them make that decision.”
Schwartz mentioned 2020, but the information covered at the event was still applicable to this growing season given the late start for many. With respect to residuals,
“We hope for those to hold and give us a 24 to 30-day blanket of protection, but with all the rain we’ve had and the degradation that’s occurred, absolutely there are a lot of lessons that can be applied this year in 2019. The other thing I would say is there’s a lot of deception out in the field. If you look at soybeans, we’re standing here in a field and these beans are 4 or 5 inches tall. Very soon, those beans are going to be R1. Well, if you look at labels, there are some decisions that have to be made by that time. So, we’re trying to make sure the growers understand, even in 2019, there’s a lot of decisions that have to be made.”
Nearly 200 Beck’s customers attended the field day over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday. If you missed it, you can get more information by visiting beckshybrids.com or reaching out to your Beck’s representative.