Amit Jhala speaks to a crowd of Weed Management and Cover Crops Field Day participants June 27 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln South Central Agricultural Laboratory near Clay Center, Nebraska.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln weed management and cover crops research were featured and demonstrated at the 2018 Weed Management and Cover Crops Field Day June 27 at the university’s South Central Agricultural Laboratory near Clay Center.
Amit Jhala, agronomy and horticulture associate professor and extension weed management specialist, and Roger Elmore, agronomy and horticulture professor and extension cropping systems specialist, organized and led the tour. A total of 176 attended the field day, including growers, crop consultants, administrators, extension educators, graduate students, industry representatives and other clientele.
The Nebraska Weed Science team members demonstrated several projects for weed control in corn, soybean and popcorn that included efficacy, crop safety and comparison of new herbicides such as Panther PRO, DiFlexx DUO, Zidua PRO, etc.
Weed control and crop safety in multiple, herbicide-resistant crop technologies was also demonstrated. This included Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybean (dicamba-resistant) and MGI soybean (mesotrione, glufosinate, and isoxaflutole-resistant).
Several herbicide programs were compared for weed control in corn and soybean in the university’s unbiased comparison trials. Timing of weed removal affected by pre-emergence residual herbicide in soybean was discussed by Parminder Chahal, a postdoctoral weed scientist. Jenny Rees, extension educator, showed how counting the number of nodes can give an estimate about when dicamba off-target injury occurred in non-Xtend soybean. Jim Specht, professor emeritus, discussed importance of early soybean planting. Ethann Barnes, a doctoral student, demonstrated response of yellow and white popcorn hybrids to glyphosate, Enlist DUO (2,4-D choline + glyphosate) and XtendiMax (dicamba) and graduate student, Adam Striegel, demonstrated how to control volunteer corn in Enlist corn.
Cover crops projects were demonstrated by Elmore, a leader of cover crops projects funded by the Nebraska Corn and Soybean Boards; Chris Proctor, assistant extension educator; and postdoctoral research associates Katja Koehler-Cole and Sabrina Ruis. They demonstrated cover crop effects on soil health, including changes in soil microbial communities and soil physical properties with a focus on cover crop root biomass. Extension Assistant Professor Justin McMechan discussed beneficial insects and wheat stem maggot in cover crops.
“We thank Michael Schlick, Irvin Schleufer, Caleb Wilford, Sharon Hachtel, Brianna Schuck and summer students and staff of the South Central Ag Lab for their help,” Jhala said. “We also thank Nebraska Extension Educators Jenny Rees, Ron Seymour and Todd Whitney for promoting the field day.”
See media reports of the field day.
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