Enlist® Field Forward: Matt Bangert
Olivia Rahe, Communications Lead
In 2016, Burrus grower Matt Bangert and his father Tony were offered the opportunity to participate in the Enlist Field Forward program on their Scott Co., IL operation. The Field Forward program is a closely monitored field trial of the Enlist® system in soybeans, administered by Dow AgroSciences.
With our Enlist E3™ product lineup, we are sharing the experience and feedback of growers with firsthand knowledge of the Enlist system.
Q: Tell me about your experience with Enlist this year.
A: We planted June 4 in a conventional tilled seed bed. Came back and sprayed it on June 28; we had knee-high lambsquarters out there, a lot of morning glory, some marestail that was over 12 inches tall, and a lot of waterhemp that was just coming on. We sprayed Enlist, and today there are basically no weeds out there. The lambsquarters that I was afraid would still be there is dead and gone. The waterhemp is gone, it was just total control.
Q: What would you tell other growers about your experience with Enlist?
A: If you’re having issues with Roundup resistant weeds, it gives a really good alternative to fight those weeds and not damage your plant. From what I’ve seen this year, it’s 100% weed control.
Q: How does the Enlist crop safety compare to the others you’ve worked with?
A: It’s as good or better. We had zero drift, zero crop damage to the neighboring fields. We have crops right beside this field, and there’s zero damage to those crops.
Q: What kind of advantages does “no drift” and “no off-target movement” provide to your operation?
A: It just gives us so much more freedom to spray. Some days you can’t spray because of the conditions outside. I feel, with what we’ve seen this year, it’s a lot different. It gives us a lot more freedom to spray when we want to spray and spray next to adjacent fields without worrying that it’s going to drift over.
Q: You mentioned that the weeds that you were targeting were lambsquarters, marestail, morning glory, and waterhemp?
A: Yes. That was the majority of the weeds out there. Like I said, the lambsquarters were big when we sprayed it, and there’s not a lambsquarters out there today.
Q: Are any of those weeds resistant?
A: We’ve seen a lot of resistance in waterhemp, and maybe getting 50% control on waterhemp with Roundup, maybe. And with Enlist, we’re getting 100% control on it.
Q: Did the control provided by Enlist Duo meet your expectations?
A: Yes. It’s a clean field; you couldn’t ask for anything more.
Q: How do you think Enlist is going to benefit the Ag industry?
A: With the weeds that are becoming resistant, this gives us a new path to cleaner fields and it solves our problem that we’ve been seeing, especially this last year with the explosion of these weeds that are resistant.
Q: How do you think Enlist will help in the future in regard to weed resistance?
A: Well, if everybody are good stewards and how they use it, and do what they recommend, I feel it’s a chemical that we’re going to use for a long time.
Q: When you look at your operation and a product like Enlist, or the Enlist system, what do you feel is the most important about this kind of technology to your operation?
A: So specifically to our operation…we grew seed corn, and soybeans, and conventional corn. And when you have seed corn, you’re prone to more weed pressure. So when you plant beans in your rotation, that’s the time you want to clean up your weeds. And they need to be cleaned. And with our Enlist field, it’s basically a 100% clean field; and that’s what we’re after.
Q: Why is a clean field so important?
A: Weed pressure affects yield. When you’re growing seed, seed beans, you can’t have weeds in there. But I’d say basically yield loss is probably the most important.
Q: What advice would you give other growers who are thinking about incorporating Enlist into their operations?
A: Spray what they recommend. Don’t cut corners. We’ve got a good chemical here; let’s not throw it away. Let’s be good stewards and use the recommended rates.
