Herbicides
Reports of dicamba drift incidents are pouring in and producer concerns are mounting, particularly with the echoes of 2016 still fresh across farmland. Pared down, the damage is alarming and there are plenty of passes left in the spray season.
With alarm bells ringing in multiple states over confirmed PPO-resistant pigweed, is the weed control cavalry expected in soybean fields anytime soon? Bolstered by new technologies, help might be on the way within the next five years.
Waterhemp has piled on genetic muscle and built documented resistance to herbicides from six separate site of action groups in Illinois. Yet, even more alarming are the consequences of stacked resistance in waterhemp. Once resistance begins stacking, what’s the snowball effect of a weed juggernaut?
Greenhouse and field trials have Arkansas weed scientists looking for answers
In a farming age where the grip of Palmer amaranth intensifies and expands each season, dicamba controversy is exploding beyond fields of Monsanto’s Xtend soybeans.
A driver weed with no equals, Palmer amaranth has changed the chemical game and forced producers into the rows to chase down escapes.
Harry Stephens is literally burning weed seed to save money and boost yield on his ground. Narrow windrow burning has arrived on U.S. farmland.
Ducks are a hunter’s sweetest dream, but can be a farmer’s nightmare akin to flying time bombs expelling rapid-fire payloads of resistant weed seed. Wonder where the next pigweed outbreak will come from? Listen for quacks and honks, and look up. Waterfowl may be a significant source of resistant weed spread.
On many farming operations, mowing has given way to high-powered pre-emerges to kill vegetation, but bald ditches may spawn a regulatory leviathan. Silt gathering in the bottom of ditches and canals; eroded turn rows; washed out roads; and hammered PTO ditches are caught in a vicious spray cycle of unintended consequences with no simple fix.
ARS research agronomist Frank Forcella believed sandblasting organic grit would be an effective weed killer. His determination to break from convention has resulted in a four-row grit blaster capable of obliterating weeds.