An extension specialist says drought conditions could create weed control challenges throughout the growing season.

Aaron Hager with the University of Illinois tells Brownfield pre-emergence herbicides have been less effective this year because there hasn’t been enough rain. He says that could create additional challenges later in the growing season.

“It could put a lot of pressure on the post-emergence herbicides, simply because of the much denser weed spectrum. It may actually push up that application timing because we still do not want to see weeds getting up to 6 or 8 inches tall in a soybean field.”

He says back-to-back dry years are having an impact on crops.

 “One thing that we have seen fairly extensively this year is herbicide carryover effects. Especially on the soybean because of how dry certain parts of Illinois were last year, we simply did not have enough moisture to get many of these products to dissipate over the wintertime.

Hager says if it remains dry, farmers will have to adjust for the 2024 planting season.