While many producers are hoping for a soil moisture recharge ahead of planting season, the drought next year may impact weed seed populations to start the year. That will make weed control critically important to start the year.

“If we had more weed escapes, we may have higher pressure because more weeds entered the seed bank,” said Mark Licht, Iowa State University agronomist. “That makes it a question of how we look at control and I think our herbicide programs can be effective. The issue comes in if we are dry (to start the season), how do we activate some of those herbicides? Do we move away from herbicides that need that moisture activation?”

While drought may be on the mind of many producers to open the year, Licht said planning for drought may not be the best option.

“You have to manage for average or typical weather conditions,” he said. “We have a lot of winter left, and in early spring we can recharge a lot of soil moisture.”

It may be a little late to make hybrid changes for some farmers, but if possible, don’t focus on fully drought-tolerant varieties if that doesn’t fit a normal year.

Kevin Bradley, plant pathologist and weed specialist with the University of Missouri, said despite high input costs in 2023, don’t decrease use of herbicides.

“There’s a temptation to cut pre-emergence residual, whether in corn or soybeans, and that would probably be my last item I would cut because early-season weed competition is the most detrimental to yield loss,” Bradley said.

Field management may play a factor as well. Tillage can be used to bury weed seeds, but each pass can lose up to a half inch of moisture, Licht said. If drought persists, that moisture could be critical.

“The other thing I think we can start to modify on the corn side is seeding rates,” he said. “Maybe we pull back on seeding rates if we are in drier conditions. Then we have fewer seeds going after soil moisture to use it more efficiently.”

He said farmers likely don’t want to go below 20,000 seeds per acre, as that may limit canopy and weed control, but going as low as 27,000 or 32,000 seeds may make sense in the right situation.

Regardless of the approach taken for the crop this season, weed management is a year-long issue that requires constant attention, Bradley said. If proper control is taken each year, it will make management much easier going into the next season.

“If you do it right and do it all season long, you keep seed from going back into the seed bank,” Bradley said. If you have to cut anything, don’t make it be from the pre-emergence early on.