See national chem pricing trends in the FBN Research report
Once you decide to do a fall burndown application, it's a good idea to act quickly. The biggest window of opportunity for effective weed control starts the minute you’ve finished harvesting.
Get started with actionable tips to conduct a successful fall burndown program by learning how to:
There are several factors to consider when selecting herbicides for your fall burndown program, including:
Weed identification
Crop rotation
Soil type
Plantback restrictions
Identifying broadleaf or grassy weed species will help categorize their growth habits and life cycles. By tailoring your herbicide choice to target specific species, you’ll reduce weed competition in the upcoming planting season.
Dicamba and 2,4-D are common choices for targeting broadleaf weeds in herbicide formulations designed for soybeans, corn and cotton. This table identifies some of the weeds these herbicides target:
Dicamba | 2,4-D |
Consider using glyphosate or clethodim for grassy weed control. Because numerous weeds can be resistant to glyphosate, it is recommended that another mode of action is used with it. Here are common weeds targeted by glyphosate and clethodim:
Glyphosate | Clethodim |
Volunteer oats | |
Volunteer corn | |
Find more pest management solutions here.
When rotating crops from season to season, select products that won’t adversely affect the rotation crop and leave harmful residues in the soil. Some residual herbicides like atrazine* are useful if rotating to corn in the spring. With this in mind, consider an herbicide with short residual activity like glyphosate, glufosinate, or paraquat as other options for rotation crops.
Conducting regular soil tests can help you determine your soil’s texture, structure, and nutrient levels, enabling you to more effectively address deficiencies that limit growth and yield. Different soil types can influence herbicide adsorption, movement, and efficacy.
For example, some sandy soils may require an herbicide with a lower leaching potential that contains atrazine* or metolachlor. In contrast, clay soils may require different application rates to ensure even coverage.
Plantback restrictions refer to the time between applying an herbicide and planting a new crop in the same field. Following these restrictions ensures that herbicide residues do not negatively affect germination or growth; ignoring them can result in crop injury and reduced yield potential.
When choosing your herbicide, always read the label directions carefully to understand its correct use.
[READ: Benefits of and Best Practices for Fall Burndown]
Adjuvants improve herbicide performance by increasing efficacy and enhancing spreading, sticking, and penetrating abilities. When choosing an adjuvant, consider these four key factors:
Adjuvant purpose
Herbicide compatibility
Environmental factors
Weed species and size
Ask yourself the following questions when selecting an adjuvant to add to your tank.
Some adjuvants improve herbicide coverage on target weeds, while others enhance herbicide penetration into plant tissues. Prioritizing a specific goal for your adjuvant can help you select the right product to help achieve better coverage, increased absorption, and improved rainfastness.
Be sure to choose an adjuvant that is compatible with the herbicides you plan to use. Many products recommend specific adjuvants directly on their label, while others have very specific restrictions. Always read your label carefully to ensure compatibility with your crops.
Find hundreds of herbicide product labels here.
Environmental conditions, including temperature, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation, can influence adjuvant performance.
Some adjuvants work better at higher temperatures while others are more effective in cooler temperatures. For example, certain surfactants or oils may cause excessive foaming in cooler weather.
Temperature also influences the behavior of spray droplets, affecting their size, evaporation rate, and deposition on target weeds. Spray droplets may evaporate more quickly in warmer temperatures, potentially reducing the amount of herbicide reaching the target weed. Droplets may take longer to evaporate in cooler temperatures, increasing the potential for herbicide runoff or drift.
Humidity levels can also affect adjuvant performance. High humidity creates favorable growing conditions for weed growth, leading to increased weed vigor and resilience. These conditions also lead to excessive foaming during chemical application, causing uneven herbicide distribution and reduced efficacy. With stronger weed resilience and weakened herbicide efficacy, these higher humidity conditions can lead to problematic application scenarios. Higher humidity will extend dry time which is better for the plant.
Alternatively, applying herbicides during lower humidity minimizes the risk of excessive foaming.
Strong winds can cause herbicide drift, damaging neighboring crops and vegetation. To mitigate drift, select an adjuvant with drift-reducing agents (DRAs) or deposition aids which can produce larger droplets. The increased size and weight of the droplets reduce their susceptibility to wind drift. Glyphosate, 2,4-D, and atrazine* all contain DRAs.
Rainfastness refers to an herbicide’s ability to withstand rainfall after application. The right adjuvant can improve rainfastness by enhancing an herbicide’s ability to adhere to the plant surface. Adjuvants that contain surfactants or sticking agents help the herbicide stick to the leaves, preventing it from being washed away by rain or irrigation. Look for an adjuvant that enhances rainfastness to provide adequate control.
Weed type and size will also influence your adjuvant choice. For broadleaf weeds, a non-ionic surfactant like IN-Zorb™ 90 can help reduce water's surface tension, improving coverage and absorption.
A crop oil concentrate (COC) or methylated seed oil (MSO) will be effective for grassy weeds. Crop oil concentrates contain petroleum-based oils and help to improve herbicide penetration into the plant’s cuticle, which is the protective layer on the leaf surface. MSOs, which are derived from vegetable oils, improve absorption and efficacy by penetrating the waxy cuticle like COCs.
[READ: Adjuvants 101: Understanding the “Extras” in Your Tank]
A good foundation for a successful burndown program includes non-selective herbicides, such as glyphosate and glufosinate, and an auxin, such as dicamba or 2,4-D. You may consider other chemistries for your farm depending on your location, cropping plan and the weather in your recent forecast.
Here are a few potential burndown programs worth considering:
Start your corn burndown program with:
OR
Start your soybean burndown program with:
OR
OR
Start your oats burndown program with:
Start your wheat burndown program with:
Starting clean is critical to maximizing production. A successful fall burndown application sets the stage for spring planting by eliminating existing weeds and reducing competition for emerging crops.
As you think ahead, you’ll want to consider the pre-emergence herbicides you’ll need for spring planting. A pre-emergence herbicide application will provide:
Extended weed control
Residual control
Weed resistance management
Improved crop establishment
Flexibility in plant timing
Finding the right herbicides and adjuvants for your burndown program will set you up for success.
With detailed product labels, transparent pricing, straightforward online ordering, and direct-to-farm delivery in three days or less, FBN Direct can help you get the herbicides you need for effective weed control and crop protection.
For farmers in the U.S., here are some popular fall burndown products that can be paired as recommended or required based on each product label:
Product | Pair With | Notes |
Adjuvant is FBN® Suggested | ||
An adjuvant is label recommended. | ||
An adjuvant is label recommended. | ||
An adjuvant is label required. | ||
An adjuvant is label required. | ||
An adjuvant is label recommended. |
The four herbicide programs below were developed by a team of FBN agronomists.
1. Willowood Glypho 5 + Alligare Dicamba DMA + Flumioxazin 44% SC (Redeagle) + Farmers First™ Sizzle™ + Hydrovant®-fA
An herbicide program with broad-spectrum grass and broadleaf burndown, with residual control.
2. Willowood Glypho 5 + 2,4-D LV6 Ester + GCS Atrazine 4L + Willowood Sulfen 4SC + Farmers First™ Sizzle™ + Hydrovant®-fA
A broad-spectrum burndown program with extra residual control, popular for fall fallow.
3. Willowood Paraquat 3SL + Alligare Dicamba DMA + 2,4-D LV6 Ester + Sharpen powered by Kixor® Herbicide + Farmers First™ IN-Cert™ HighSurf MSO + Farmers First™ Even™ DR + Farmers First™ FieldGrip™ DRA
An aggressive burndown program to manage a broad spectrum of weeds, including glyphosate resistant weeds like marestail.
4. Willowood Glypho 5 + Alligare Dicamba DMA + Willowood Clethodim 2EC + Satellite® Hydrocap + Farmers First™ Sizzle™ + Hydrovant®-fA
An herbicide program with extra modes of action against grass and broadleaf weeds to minimize risk of glyphosate resistance, with residual control.
For Canadian farmers, here is a list of popular products to help with a fall burndown application:
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