By Drs. Daniel Stephenson, Donnie Miller, Sebe Brown, and David Moseley
LSU AgCenter
Use of a herbicide as a desiccant in soybean has become popular to potentially improve harvest efficiency in Louisiana. Herbicides such as paraquat, Aim, Sharpen, and sodium chlorate are labeled for use in soybean as a desiccant, but paraquat is the most widely used. The paraquat label states at least 65% of pods should be mature (Figure 1) or moisture content should be 30% or less for indeterminate soybean varieties; and at least 50% of the leaves should have dropped and remaining leaves should be yellow for determinate varieties. Table 1 gives the harvest aid application timing label requirements for the labeled products in soybean.