It is shaping up to be an interesting year for weeds.

Last year, Missouri led the country in prevented plant acres with 1 million soybean acres and 500,000 corn acres. As the summer of 2015 drug on, in many areas, these acres succumbed to weeds.

More weeds coupled with lower commodity prices and farmers looking to cut production costs have Missouri looking at a unique 2016 weed season.

University of Missouri Extension weed scientist Kevin Bradley offered his thoughts on weed pressure and control measures in the MU Integrated Pest Management Newsletter.

CONTROL WEEDS: Weed pressure on prevented plant acres is expected to be high. MU weed scientist Kevin Bradley says that 2016 is not the year to reduce weed control measures.

1. Plan for extra weed pressure. Prevented plant acres and fields with weed failures last year will almost certainly be areas with high weed pressure this year. We set all kinds of records last year for the number of acres of corn and soybean that were never planted.

Many of these prevented plant acres grew up into weedy messes. In some of those fields, the weeds - mostly waterhemp or horseweed - produced viable seeds that were deposited back into the soil. Waterhemp produces about 300,000 to 500,000 seeds per plant and I would guess that the average density in those fields was about 2 to 3 plants per square foot. The bottom line is, the number of weed seed sitting in the soil waiting to germinate this spring may be unlike anything we've ever experienced before.

2. Don't skimp on weed management. Even when commodity prices are low, we cannot afford to skimp on weed management. When times are tight financially, one of the first things many farmers will try to figure out is how they can reduce input costs. I certainly don't have all the answers to this one, but I would submit that we cannot afford to cut costs when it comes to weed management.

I have talked to many farmers who are tempted to cut costs by cutting the rate of their pre-emergence residual herbicide, or by choosing a cheaper, less-effective herbicide than they had originally planned on using. The problem is, many studies have shown that this just doesn't work out in the long-term. For example, a recent economic modeling study sanctioned by the Weed Science Society of America showed that following good weed resistance best management practices like mixing effective herbicide sites of action can involve higher weed-control costs initially, but provides better weed control, higher yields and more revenue over the long-term. In fact, depending on the cropping system, farmer profits were increased by 14% to 17% in this study over a 20-year period.

Tomorrow: The one weed Bradley says to watch and why it is a problem for farmers.