Will Farmers Pay to Enlist Pimps?

[parsley]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/new-
superweed-evolution/all/1

[Wheatking]

With an opening paragraph like this you know its going to be an biased
article.
"Herbicide-resistant superweeds threaten to overgrow U.S. fields, so
agriculture companies have genetically engineered a new generation of
plants to withstand heavy doses of multiple, extra-toxic weed-killing
chemicals."

Where what should have been said is this
"Herbicide-resistant weeds threaten to overgrow U.S. fields, so
agriculture companies have genetically engineered a new generation of
plants to withstand a different set of herbicides."

Same information contained in both, but one contains a bias and
projects upon the reader the articles outcome and conclusion. The
other outlines the article without drawing a conclusion for the reader.

Here is a working link, sorry its not clickable
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/new-superweed-
evolution/#more-108124

[Wheatking]

With that being said. Is anyone really surprised by the
roundup resistance in the states. Corn on Corn on soybeans all
resistant to glyphosphate. Two or three applications a year
and in a row for a decade and now they wonder why?

We as farmers better start looking after issues like this in
our own backyard, or else these environmental zealots will
start to get government looking after it for us, this could
mean a litany of paperwork, gov't inspectors, being told what
to grow and spray, etc... And I am not saying no canola on
canola etc... all I am saying is that it is best we rotate
herbicides systems etc... and perform our best due diligence
while still trying to make a dollar.

[hobbyfrmr]

Canola, snow canola club foot, cash in and sell to
the big investment companies , retire..

[charliep]

Off the original topic but should farmers who follow best management practices such as tillage practices, nutrient management and proper crop/herbicide rotation be rewarded in some fashion (lower crop insurance costs, better coverage or some other idea)? My understanding (hedgehog and ianben may correct me) is that some countries in Europe require verifiable demonstration of defined best management programs to qualify for some of their support programs.

[TOM4CWB]

Dear Charlie;

The waters of Alison Redford are growing deeper by the second.

We developed our crop insurance records by performance... so it is factored in now.

Red Tape here we come. The new world order is coming to Alberta!

Cheers!

We get the government we deserve!

[hedgehog]

its worse than that, if your records of fert/spray are not up to scratch, soil management plan/ nutrient budget /grain store etc it is very hard to sell grain, and subsidy will be cut.
we dont have gm yet, so dont have these probs so far.
roundup will be useless or banned quite soon, just like ddt.

[dave4441]

Why would R-up be banned soon?

I seen Group 1 resistant wild oats in research plots 20 yrs ago in Manitoba. Plots that where hit with 5X rate of Poast and they looked like they were sprayed with nitrogen. At that time researchers felt it (the resistance) was going to walk across the prairies and resistance would be everywhere. 20 years later there are still tons of Group 1 products used. Crop rotations have sorted some of this concern out. Need to be viligant, don't get me wrong, but this article is pure fear mongering, and written for non farmers.

I think you are correct about controls being placed against production practices that are not long term sustainable practices. Not sure how it looks, but likely coming.

[freewheat]

I will never get resistant weeds on my
farm. It is not that difficult to rotate
herbicides so that the same group is not
over-used. It is simple, some make it
out to be rocket science. Now, down in
the states where they think they have a
rotation when they have two crops that
are RR, they have problems. But if you
grow more crops, and juggle the herbs,
it is second nature to keep resistance
from occuring. I have little sympathy
for those who get resistant weeds. It is
a sign that their farming practices are
suspect. IMHO.

As well, none of this half rate crap
that guys always talk about to save
money while they drive around a 600 000
dollar seeding rig. Spray them like you
mean it, not give them a whiff here and
there!

[sawfly]

it's not the light dose that breeds resistance.
it is the natural genetic mutant,
the one in 100 million oddball that
has what it takes to survive 2 or 3 times a regular dose.

[dave4441]

Low rates allow for a larger percentage of the
population to be resistant. Free wheat is correct.
Low rates (below label rate) increase the rate of
resistance..

[oneoff]

In my opinion; anyone who thinks the can kill 100% of any weed poulation with any chemical (or combination) is fooling themselves. As sawfly correctly observed; there is always the one in a million (or billion or whatever) resistant oddball.

And by definition that oddball will escape and in all likelihood never, ever be possible to eradicate. And it will get to even the farms where someone even has fooled themselves into believing they are immune to any or every chemically resistant threat.
All one can do is slow the spread of the inevitable.
At a seminar on this very topic, more than a decade ago ( or maybe closer to two decades); I well remember the analogy to firing a gun. If you have 10 bullets you can fire them in a burst; or spread them over a much longer period of time, by alternating with different groups of chemicals with different modes of action. But you're still only going to get about ten shots with that particular chemical group before there is a noticable lack of control.

And your neighbors chemical use and your seed supply contamination, and cropping patterns suscepable to certain weed growth problems will all impact if you even get your ten shots off without the resistance coming prematurely.

You can't kill every weed; and the resistant ones will develop further resistance in about the same time period ( or maybe less).
Accept that fact.

[TOM4CWB]

oneoff,

Except... we can kill weeds through mechanical means as well. The combination IS deadly. The combination is effective and efficient.

[wd9]

There is no such thing as a super weed.
There are only super slick media campaigns
with a super promotion purpose.

[grassfarmer]

"Why would R-up be banned soon? "

I would assume what hedgehog was eluding to when
he also mentioned DDT is once a proper assessment
of the side effects is undertaken.