The extended sunny and dry weather has been great for our harvest season.  Those planting wheat on the other hand, may wish for a nice half inch of rain.  As of this writing there is little chance of that in the next 10 days.  If you traditionally have problems with early season weeds in your small grain, consider these factors:

Generally, our herbicides require about .5 inches of rain  within 7-10 days to be activated.  Without this, control will be less than desired.

Our window for planting is basically between the end of October and Thanksgiving, so that gives us about 21 days to get this crop in.  If you need to start planting now,  consider delaying your herbicide application until a decent rain chance is in the forecast, then make a late preemergence application with a product like Anthem Flex, Zidua or Axiom or Fierce, depending on your weed problems, soil type etc.

If you have not had annual ryegrass escapes in your past crops, late season control may be possible with products like Osprey or PowerFlex. (Note, if you have had ryegrass escapes in the past, you likely have ALS resistant ryegrass and these will not give good control.

Written by Billy with consultation from Dr. Charlie Cahoon, NCSU Extension Weed Specialist