Any field that has a cover crop or cover crop mix that does not winter kill will work for this type of trial, with preference going to fields that include winter wheat or cereal rye alone or as a mix.

The cover crops are sprayed at two different termination dates that are 10-14 days apart. The farmer determines the two different termination dates. On the first termination date, the field is sprayed in strips leaving an unsprayed strip between each sprayed strip. On the second termination date, either just the unsprayed strips are sprayed or the whole field can be sprayed. The grain crop is then planted at the desired planting time. The second termination date can be at planting or several days after planting if it better fits the farmer’s management practices.

Each termination date trial is custom designed to work within the individual farmer’s designated field using their own equipment to spray the treatment strips and plant and harvest the grain crop in their field. Each farmer chooses the herbicides to be sprayed. Each field is laid out with a minimum of five strips sprayed on the first termination date and five strips sprayed on the second termination date. The width of the strips are designed to accommodate the individual size of the farmer’s own equipment.

In the example below, the green strips were the strips sprayed on the first termination date. Then the rest of the field was sprayed on the second termination date.

The following tables summarizes the Termination Date trial data. 

Table 1. Summary of yield results from 2016-2018 Termination Date strip trials.

Table 2. Background information for the 2016-2018 Termination Date trial locations.

2018 locations

1. Cooper County (PDF)
2. Franklin County (PDF)
3. Scott County (PDF)
4. Callaway County (PDF)
5. Callaway County (PDF)

2017 locations

1. Ralls County
2. Montgomery County
3. Perry County

2016 locations

1. Scott County
2. Scott County
3. Scott County
4. Andrews County
5. Dunklin County
6. Lafayette County
7. Lafayette County
8. Perry County