His hopes were high, but Brock Baker never expected to get a 10-bushel yield advantage and nearly complete weed control with the 280 acres of Roundup Ready soybeans he planted last year.

Weeds had always been a thorn in the Peabody, Kan., no-tiller’s side since he began no-till in 1991.

“Weeds were just a constant problem,” says Baker, who is also an undertaker in Peabody and Valley Center, Kan. “I felt like they controlled me.”

Roundup Ready beans seemed like they would be an ideal solution. Baker used 2,4-D as a burndown in early May and drilled Roundup Ready soybeans in late May in 10-inch rows.

“I went back with 32 ounces of Roundup at the end of June when the soybeans were 10 inches tall,” Baker explains. “The Roundup took out the ground cherry, crabgrass, pigweed, giant ragweed, velvetleaf, Johnsongrass, shattercane, smartweed, cocklebur and marestail.

“The only thing it was weak on was the morningglory. I also went back with a hand sprayer, which took care of a few remaining Johnsongrass clumps.”

Although the Roundup didn’t totally knock out the morningglory, Baker says it didn’t reduce his yield much.

“The morningglory just laid on the ground; it was nearly dead,” he says. “With this system, I finally felt like I was in control of the weeds.”

Clean Fields, Cost-Effective.

Like Baker, Rich and Marcy Little of Eaton, Ohio, also had “historic weed problems” with no-till until they grew 27 acres of Roundup Ready soybeans in 1996.

“We had a…