The fall harvest season is well underway throughout the county.  For many, this is also the time when you will be planting small grains for harvest next spring as a forage crop or in early summer for grain.  Regardless of the final use of the crop, it is important to help it get off to a good start.  The key to a good start is weed control.  There are a number of winter annual, biennial, and perennial weeds that can be successfully controlled with a fall herbicide program to aid in crop establishment and reduce weed pressure next spring.

Winter annuals are weeds that germinate in the fall, overwinter as small rosettes, then grow rapidly in the spring.  This group would include marestail, cressleaf groundsel, common chickweed, purple deadnettle and henbit.  Biennial weeds germinate in the fall and spend their first year growing vegetatively before flowering and setting seed in their second year.  These include wild carrot and poison hemlock.  Perennials such as dandelion, Canada thistle and pokeweed will enter a winter dormancy period but regenerate from their roots each spring.  A fall program can help with control as they are translocating nutrients to their roots and can pull herbicides with them.

We always recommend scouting your fields to understand what weeds are present and consult all product labels to know when they can be applied to control the weeds of concern.  In fields with heavy weed pressure prior to planting, a simple burndown with glyphosate and 2,4D may be sufficient to reduce competition from grasses and broadleafs.  If grasses will be your primary concern, products such as Anthem Flex, Osprey/Osprey XTRA, and Powerflex are available to control grasses and some broadleafs.  Anthem Flex should be applied as a delayed preemergence, meaning 80% of the wheat seeds should have germinated with at least ½ inch of shoot growth through spiking.  It can be applied early postemergence up to the 4^th tiller growth stage.  Powerflex can be applied to wheat between the 3 leaf to jointing stage.  Osprey is labeled for wheat and triticale, and can be applied after crop emergence to the jointing stage.

Control of broadleafs will be dependent on weed identification and the specific small grain.    Huskie controls the widest range of broadleaf weeds and is labeled for wheat, oats, barley, rye, and triticale.  Huskie FX is labeled for wheat, oats, and barley.  The added advantage is that both have been proven successful to control marestail that has shown resistance to group 2 herbicides.  They should be applied after the one leaf stage.  Other products that can be applied to a large range of small grain crops include Bromoxynil, Orion, Peak, Scorch, and Sharpen.

As we move through October, there are a couple programs that I would like to bring to your attention.  The Wayne County Farm Bureau will be hosting their annual fall farm tour.  This year’s tour will feature farms and agriculture related businesses in the southeast quadrant of Wayne County and will be held on October 11^th and 12^th.  The tour is free and participants will get to tour the facilities and each stop will have food trucks and other displays for your enjoyment.  On October 18^th we will be hosting a small ruminant field day at the OSU Small Ruminant Research Center on Fredericksburg Rd.  The event will run from 9 am to 2 pm and the cost is $10, which includes lunch.  Participants will hear presentations and participate in demonstrations covering: newborn management, addressing birthing difficulties, estrus synchronization, estimating standing forage yield and dry matter, and developing a flock nutrition program.  We ask that you register by October 16^th.  On October 21^st, we will host the 2025 OSU Extension Ag Lender Seminar.  The session will run from 9 am to 3 pm and is held at the Secrest Arboretum Welcome Center.

I will also remind you that Frank and I produce a quarterly ag newsletter.  The latest edition was sent out on October 1^st.  The newsletter features a list of our upcoming programs, has some timely educational articles, and includes the newest factsheets for OSU Extension on a variety of agriculture related topics.  If you would like to receive our newsletter, you can contact our office to be added to the list.  As always, I hope you have a safe and profitable harvest season.  If you have any questions, or would like to register for one of our upcoming programs, you can reach out to me at the OSU Extension Office in Wayne County at 330-264-8722 or email me at yost.77@osu.edu.

John Yost is an extension educator IV, Agriculture and Natural Resources, at OSU Extension-Wayne County.
This article was previously published in The Daily Record.