An extension weed scientist says many Arkansas farmers are back at the starting line for managing weeds following excessive rains and flooding.
“Fields are just starting to dry out now. I would imagine now through next week it’s going to be busy, busy, busy.”
Tom Barber with the University of Arkansas says pre-emergence herbicides have moved deeper into the soil or washed away, making them ineffective.
“We’re telling everyone they need to go back with a pre-emergence program basically where we have multiple resistant Palmer amaranth and barnyard grass in rice.”
Barber says it will be a challenge for farmers to get more per-emergence herbicides applied and activated before Palmer amaranth germinates in the next week. And the later it gets in planting season, the greater the weed pressure.
“If we get out there and get things planted, don’t forget the residuals,” he says. “Farmers hopefully won’t, because they know what it means if they don’t put it out. We’re about to be getting in a hurry, I think, in the next few weeks.”
He says some fields that haven’t flooded still could in the next few days as heavy water flows hit different tributaries across Arkansas.
