The importance of planning weed management in soybeans

During my career in agriculture, I was able to closely follow countless cases of producers who, since the late 1990s, have been struggling to manage weeds in soybean crops. It is not new that these invaders keep farmers up at night by harming productivity and consequently income at the end of the harvest. 

Faced with such a challenge, a key question always emerges: when is the best time to control weeds? 

The Brazilian farmer can count on excellent tools for the effective control of invasives, both in the moments before planting, after the cultivation has been established, and even during pre-harvest. In this context, FMC offers a flexible and robust portfolio, which collaborates with the farmer in facing this challenge. Our solutions can be part of the effective planning of operations that take place both in the pre-harvest of the previous harvest, as well as in the intervals without coverage with second crop or winter crops, helping soybean farmers to carry out effective pre-harvest management applications. -planting that allows the full development of soybeans in the next harvest, free from initial weed competition.

A fundamental guideline for the farmer is to have mastery of the annual agricultural calendar. The strategy must be designed to carry out actions throughout the year, so that the management task is not done in a hurry and only with cultivation in progress. Therefore, to obtain excellent results in soybean management, planning is necessary before cultivation, which includes operations on the ground before sowing. Therefore, to control invasive plants, the best time to start this control is the previous year's pre-harvest. 

Planning must begin by looking at the condition of pre-harvest desiccation of soybeans from the previous harvest, at this point with natural defoliation allowing the reach of invasives that may have escaped during previous management with applications dedicated both to the control of invasives and the anticipation of the harvest with grains with a lower percentage of moisture. For the period of succession cultivation, management operations must be planned that will precede the use of pre-emergent herbicides in soybean cultivation. By acting on the seed bank, they further reduce weed pressure within the cultivation period. of soybeans, at which point the complete management cycle is completed by using post-emergence applications of the crop, mainly carried out with selective herbicides due to transgenic tolerance, mainly glyphosate.

Such broad planning allows the farmer to use herbicides that act differently on weeds and consequently mitigate the selection of individuals tolerant to specific mechanisms of action. Such caution means that the soybean farmer preserves the effectiveness of such herbicides and therefore does not suffer from populations of resistant weeds.

In the current harvest, the farmer is facing a shortage of some products, especially glyphosate. Certainly, by adopting an annual planning calendar, the soybean farmer can be more prepared for a possible reduction in the use of a specific product.

Finally, to plan management, I recommend seeking guidance from a trained professional who can define the intervention in all or part of the moments mentioned above.

In summary, for the farmer to be successful in managing weeds, five important steps must be taken into account: 

A new harvest is a new opportunity to start implementing good management.

Paulo Queiroz, Portfolio Manager at FMC