Lucien Lepage

Montmartre, Saskatchewan

One would probably wonder, how can I possibly incorporate herbicides and still call myself a zero tiller. Well, if you're incorporating herbicides prior to seeding or at seeding time, you should probably refer to your system as a mm-till, direct seeding or high disturbance system. How do we do it? Simple. Broadcast granular herbicides on the surface and leave it. No harrowing, no incorporation, just leave it.

But we didn't always do it this way. Six years ago when we went complete zero till we assumed that any incorporated herbicides would have to go. Labels on these chemicals called for fall and spring incorporation, 2 or 3 inches deep; 2 or 3 tillage passes, north, south, east, west; 100 reasons why it should work; 110 reasons why it didn't from the chemical Rep.

In our first attempt we used two different products. Fortress, in a wheat crop and Rival, in a pea crop. Because we were always led to believe that we had to incorporate this stuff we went out and leased four different types of harrows; Brandt Rotary, Victory Oscillating, Phoenix Rotary and Tine. We ran two 80 acre plots. Applying 7 lb. of Fortress on one and 5.5 lb. of Rival on the other. We ran a strip with each harrow bar in the field, leaving one strip unharrowed and one strip untreated. Results were good. The best results were in the strips that were not harrowed.

Being very satisfied with the results, we applied this treatment to about 1700 acres the next fall. We added a product called Edge, to the program, applying it at full rate of 20-22 lbs. Edge is supposed to control a wider range of weeds; buckwheat, cow cockle, green foxtail.' wild oats, and volunteer wheat. Again we harrowed some fields, left others unharrowed. Results were very good on fields that were not harrowed. This confirmed that even a harrowing operation was enough disturbance to encourage more weed growth.

Since then all granular herbicide is applied in late fall without any harrowing or incorporation. For those of you contemplating the purchase of this new heavy harrow bar, I don't think it's necessary. The money would be better spent on a low disturbance zero till seeder or straw and chaff spreaders. I mention a zero till seeder because the less disturbance you cause, the less potential of encouraging weed growth. Another consideration is the packer wheel. The narrower the packer wheel, the less weeds you encourage.

After using Edge for 2 years, we were not satisfied with the control we were getting on volunteer cereals. The recommended rates for Edge on pulse and oilseed crops was costing us about $17.00 per acre. The other treatment we were using for the same crops was 5.5 lbs of Rival granular, fall applied with a 60% rate of Poast in crop. At about the same or less cost per acre, we were getting far better control of volunteer grain and wild oats. The reason we were applying 5.5 lbs of Rival is that we were only trying to control weeds such as cow cockle, wild buckwheat, wild millet (green foxtail), pigweed and Russian thistles. Volunteer grain and wild oats we'd control with Poast. We could have increased the rate to 10-12 lbs on these crops but we didn't think the results would be any better than the full rate of Edge.

We used Fortress or Avadex in cereal crops for the first four years and still use them in land that has recently been leased. But, once we have established our rotation and have brought the wild oats population down, we will remove them from our weed control program. This is where you make the zero till system work for you.

This is where the whole system can work: proper fertilizer placement; feed only the crop, low soil disturbance; pack a narrow seed row only, crop rotation, field rotation.

Now that we've established the system we key on specific weeds in specific crops. Wild oats or grassy weeds in oilseeds and pulse crops; broadleaf weeds in cereal crops. Now we're looking at two year control. Do a good job controlling wild oats in oilseeds and pulse crops, seed a cereal crop the following year without using any wild oats herbicides.

I'd like to mention a few points on the rates we are using. Why reduced rates from label recommendations. I think I have, or I should say, I know I have a higher concentration of herbicides in a specific layer of soil. Chemical companies recommend 10 lbs per acre. Work your soil to death and incorporate the chemical 2 or 3 inches deep. Not only have you incorporated your chemical, you also incorporated your weeds.

In our zero till low disturbance system we broadcast 5.5 lbs per acre in late fall and leave it. The snow melts and the chemical stays in the top 1/2 inch or less. Concentration on the surface is a lot higher at half rate than full rate incorporated 2-3 inches deep.

Another observation we've made over the years is that any chemical (herbicide), in any farming system can only work as well as the Chemical Reps. like to think they do. The best weed control is a strong competitive crop. A crop that has full advantage of all nutrients.

One might wonder with all the herbicides we have available today, why we still have so many weed problems. Could it be our tillage systems and/or the invention of certain pieces of equipment; harrow packer bars, harrows? But then maybe that's the price we pay to have nice smooth looking fields, that we seldom drive in after seeding anyway.

1 Triallate; Trifluralin (Buckle)

2 Trifluralin

3 Ethalfuralin (Sonalan)

4 Triallate (Far-go)