Italian ryegrass is among the top ten most troublesome weeds in the wheat growing regions of the Southern United States.  This is partly due to its widespread use as a cool-season forage and wide adaptability to southern growing conditions and soil types. It is damaging due to competitive yield loss in wheat, as well as lodging and grain quality complications at harvest. Wheat biomass and yield reductions exceeding 46% and 60%, respectively, have been reported from high ryegrass densities.  Additionally, herbicide resistance has been identified in numerous wheat producing regions and has further complicated the management of this competitive weed.   

In the past several years, numerous herbicides have been labeled in wheat to control Italian ryegrass.  This research focused on these new herbicides and additives and compared them to the older herbicides.  These herbicides were evaluated at multiple locations and herbicide resistant Italian ryegrass was present at one of these locations.  These results will be discussed in the presentation.