As farmers continue to plant soybeans earlier, concerns remain around preemergence (PRE) herbicide injury to emerging seedlings.

Cold, wet soil conditions often delay soybean seed germination and prolong seedling emergence. These conditions not only increase the length of exposure to PRE herbicides, but they also reduce the soybean plant’s ability to metabolize the herbicide, both of which increase crop injury potential.

Funded by the Illinois Soybean Association checkoff program and spearheaded by the University of Illinois Crop Sciences department, this project will test several herbicides that consist of different classes of chemistry to better understand which are more prone to cause crop injury under early planting conditions.

With this data, farmers will have access to crop injury ratings for common PRE herbicides to better inform their weed management decisions when planting soybeans earlier than the norm.

The research team includes Dr. Aaron Hager, professor and weed science extension specialist, and Logan Miller, research specialist, both from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. To learn more about this project, visit www.ILSoyAdvisor.com/Research.