In the Spring, growers may experience challenges when controlling winter annuals weeds or terminating cover crops with glyphosate-based burndown herbicide programs, specifically when glyphosate is sprayed in cool, cloudy weather conditions.

With the arrival of spring, here are a few spring cover crop management tips and reminders to consider.

What should the burndown strategy be for those crops with planting time upon us?

Because of the dramatic swings in air temperature that we've experienced already this spring, we've received a few questions about the effect of air temperatures on our spring burndown applications. Specifically, most people are asking, "When is it too cold to apply a burndown herbicide?" and "What are the conditions that lead to poor weed control following a burndown herbicide application?"

What are some good options to control ryegrass with a short turnaround to plant back to corn? When addressing this question we have to realize that some of this ryegrass is likely glyphosate-resistant (GR). Though we do not have it officially confirmed at this point, I am confident from the last couple years' field observations that Tennessee does have a few fields with glyphosate-resistant ryegrass.

For growers who may have planted cover crops last fall, it will be very important to apply an effective burndown to these species in the coming weeks.

Cover crops can be excellent systems to capture excess nutrients and reduce the risk of erosion over the winter months.