Weed and herbicide issues have been not been the usual hot topic that they usually are this time of year. Just getting the crop in the ground has taken considerable patience on the part of growers. But the patience has paid off and fields across the area are, for the most part, up and growing. Getting the crop out of the ground in good condition is just the beginning of eventually getting a harvestable product. Early season observations will help keep the crop in good shape while management decisions can still be effectively made. Remember, to keep up with weed and pest population development, fields need to be scouted at a minimum every two weeks.

I still get asked frequently 'what is that yellow weed'? Well, the yellow weed has a number of common names, such as cressleafed groundsel, common groundsel, squawweed, ragwort and butterweed. Lets' make things a bit easier and only call by the common name butterweed in our area. Taxonomically it's called Senecio glabellus. The genus Senecio is loaded up with members poisonous to livestock. So while driving by unplanted fields at 65mph on the freeway it looks like a sea of 'yellow rocket' mustard plants that we were well used to seeing, this is completely different plant.

Wet springs and changes in tillage practices seem to have led to an increase in the butterweed population over the past many years. It is not unusual that you would have a change in weed, pathogen or insect populations with changing production practices. The question only is what will change and how can I keep up with it?

Likely you devote the largest portion of your pest management dollars to weed management. When you finish getting your crop in, it's time to take a good look at your weed populations. Was your herbicide program effective? Are you selecting the right herbicides for your individual fields? When you are out surveying other fields in your area, that maybe look pretty good, you have no way of knowing what their herbicide programs or how they differ from your own. So, how can you get some hands on information to make good weed management decisions?

I highly recommend you attend one of the best 'hands on' field days in Central Illinois. It's the Annual University of Illinois Weed Science Field Day, held Wednesday, July 8. The field day was rescheduled from its usual end of June date because of the lateness of the season. The field tour will begin at 8:00 a.m. at the University of Illinois Crop Sciences Research and Education Center, located immediately south of the main campus. This is your opportunity to actually see how products perform in the field. You can take a close look at the research and demonstration plots. The Weed Science team always does a tremendous job of marking the plots and experiments so you don't have to guess what you are looking at, and you get to tramp around and see them for yourself. Not a graph, not a chart, but the real deal.

The CSREC is located just south of St. Mary's Road in Urbana. The tour will provide you the opportunity to look at research plots as well as listen to some short field presentations. You can compare your corn and soybean herbicide programs to other commercial programs. Additionally you can get an "early" look at some new herbicides, evaluate some new programs and interact informally with weed science faculty, staff, and graduate students. Call 217-333-4424 for questions.