A Mad, Mad Weed
Farmer Finds One-Step Method Curbs Weeds Best
OLMSTED, ILL.
LibertyLink soybeans will always find a place in Bryan Curry’s
fields. The Olmsted, Ill., producer who has been farming for 20 years
raises about 1,700 to 1,800 acres of soybeans a year, and for the past
two years all of his crop is LibertyLink.
“It helps us keep clean fields,” he explains. “We don’t have the
resistance out there. It’s usually a one- to two-pass system, instead of
six or seven trips across the field. It saves on time, chemical and
everything else.”
A third generation farmer, Curry remembers the 200-acre cattle and
grain farm of his grandfather, John Curry. His father, Terry Curry, also
raised cattle and grain. John retired about 1980, and Terry took over,
increasing the acreage to 1,400 acres. John was still helping on the
farm about 1990 when Bryan got involved at the age of 13. When John died
about 18 years ago, the farm fell into Terry’s and Bryan’s hands. Today
they’re still working together.
“I sold the cattle about four years ago and went to all grain,” Bryan
explained. He and Terry also were able to increase the acreage to 2,400
acres. All of the fields are rolling hills, dryland, with clay dirt.
While wheat has been a part of the mix in the past, the last few
years they dropped that crop. “We’re just not much of a wheat farmer,”
Bryan said. “”We’re not willing to put all the money into it to make 110
bushels.”
Bryan Curry, third generation Illinois farmer, raises 1,700 to 1,800 acres of soybeans a year
all of which are LibertyLink.
Photo Courtesy of Bayer CropScience
Bryan Curry (left) and his father Terry Curry still work the farm together and have increased the acreage to 2,400 acres.
Photo Courtesy of Bayer CropScience
They’ve even cut their corn acreage back due to prices, dropping from 800 or 900 acres back to 500 acres the past year.
“Corn yields were really good this year, but the prices were low,” he
said. “In the past our average yield was 170 to 180 bushels, but this
year we were a little over 200 bushels overall.
He attributes the increased corn yield to the weather, and to his
overall farming practices. With the cut in his other crops, soybeans is
now his main crop.
“We try to rotate some, but since we don’t have that many corn acres,
some of our soybeans are just continuous,” he said. “That’s why we have
lots of problems with weeds. We aren’t able to rotate them out of our
soybeans.”
This year he had record soybean yields, a lot of 70 to 80 bushels to
the acre, even some test areas where yields were in the mid-90s. Much of
that increase he attributes to the quality of the seed. Adequate
rainfall this year also helped boost the yield. He likes raising
soybeans because the inputs aren’t as high and soybeans provide better
returns.
He soil samples every two years and bases his fertility program on
the results of that. As far as fertility, he tries to keep those inputs
at the optimum range that research has proven is best.
“We try to keep our organic matter up with our no-till, and keep our
soil nutrient levels where they need to be,” he said. He shoots for
160,000 seeds per acre in soybeans.
“We’ve tried higher amounts and they just grow real tall and fall
over,” he said. “They just don’t yield as well as they do in the
150,000, 160,000 range. For some people that’s too much, but we no-till.
When you no-till, the ground is rougher and you are not going to get
all the beans up with no-till. Average seeding is 150,000 for our area.
With no-till it’s hard to cut back and take the risk of having a real
light stand.”
Because of no-till he needs few employees. Besides his father, a
stepson, Jerron Goins, and a brother, Terry Jr., help out occasionally.
Mershmann Seeds are his choice for soybean seed. His best yields come from the late Group III beans.
“We’ve tried a lot of different companies over the years, and
Merschmann is much better than anyone else’s offers,” Bryan said. “We
attribute a lot of our yields to Merschmann Seed.”
Prior to switching to LibertyLink, he used Roundup, then it came to
the point where he had to get into the new technology in a new decade.
The old program just didn’t work anymore.
“They have different programs out there to control the weeds that
require more than one mode of action,” Bryan said. “You have to be a
chemist to mix all the chemicals to get control, and most of the time it
just made the weeds mad! A lot of people just don’t want to admit they
have a weed problem. They just deal with it and end up having a mess.
‘Recipes,’ they call them; unfortunately, the recipe is mixing the
additive that has the ability to control the weeds.”
He recalls driving by a field with weeds in it one year, and the next year driving by again and there’s more weeds.
“The next year you drive by and the weeds have taken over,” Bryan
said. “And they say, ‘oh, yes, it just got away from me.’ They are
mostly in denial, and they are loyal to the seed companies. If their
company doesn’t offer LibertyLink, they don’t plant it.”
He finds himself thinking, how much are they willing to let ‘loyalty’ cost them?
“It’s costing you money and yield, and uncontrollable weeds,” he charges.
Curry has the solution: “Every seed company should offer the LibertyLink trait.” ∆
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER: Senior Staff Writer, MidAmerica Farmer Grower