Late Cotton Burndown Strategies

Apr 17, 2015

By Larry Steckel

With cotton planting just around the corner, some folks are interested in tankmixing a residual herbicide in with their burndown. The typical herbicides used for this purpose would be Sharpen (42 day plant back to cotton), Valor (30 days plant back to cotton) and Leadoff (30 days plant back to cotton) but these are no longer options as the plant back interval is too long.

One option this close to cotton planting would be diuron. I typically do not recommend diuron pre emergence in cotton due to injury concerns. However, applied 7 to 14 days before cotton planting it should be safe and would provide excellent and relatively inexpensive residual control of horseweed and pigweed.

The diuron rate would be 8 to 16 oz/A. Use the higher rate if you expect cotton planting for a particular field to be well into May. Unless cotton planting is delayed well into May the diuron should provide residual control until planting and therefore should reduce the likelihood that paraquat (Gramoxone) is needed pre emergence.

If you go with diuron as the residual in your burndown it will allow you to plant at anytime. However, be aware that diuron is in the same herbicide family as Cotoran and Caparol. Cotton injury could be severe if Cotoran and/or Caparol is/are used pre emergence following diuron applied in the burndown. This probability of injury would be higher if the diuron was not washed in with a rain prior to planting. Moreover injury would be more likely to occur if high rates of Cotoran and/or Caparol are used. The diuron label states to back off the Cotoran and Caparol rate if diuron was used early pre plant. This is good advice and should be followed. So if you were planning to use a 1.5 to 2 qts/A rate of Cotoran and/or Caparol consider backing the rate off to 24 to 32 oz/A if diuron was used pre plant.

The other option would be to forgo a residual in with the burndown. Then use Gramoxone at planting to remove any newly emerged weeds. This option provides the most flexibility if cotton planting gets late and one decides to go with another crop. However, if planting is delayed into late May there could be a real grown up mess to have to control before the crop emerges. As with all these type decisions hindsight will be 20-20.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.