BRANDON (Staff) – Researchers aren’t the only ones experimenting with soil-incorporated herbicides in zero-till farming. Farmers are doing it too.
Gregg Fotheringham, president of the Manitoba-North Dakota Zero Till Farmers Association who farms near Reston, Man., used a ‘worn-out’ set of harrows and a Phoenix rotary harrow to incorporate Rival and Edge on 600 acres of heavy oat stubble.
He seeded canola and sunflowers on the land.
Neither method seemed to “inhibit or deter the results,” he said.
Despite some volunteer plants and problems with germination in canola, Fotheringham said he was quite satisfied with the results of his experiment. He has applied ‘grannies’ to another 450 acres with no incorporation for this spring.
Lucien Lepage of Montmartre, Sask., has been applying granular herbicides at reduced rates on his no-till fields for several years. He applies the chemicals in late October or early November.
“It’s very rare we use any chemical at full rate,” he said.
Lepage has found even the slightest bit of incorporation destroys some stubble and disturbs the soil, encouraging weeds to grow.
