5-18 IAN Crop Life Weeds
The Crop Protection Industry Supports an Integrated Weed Management Approach
Crop Life America recently held a national summit on the problem of weed resistance and herbicide management.The implementation of diversified weed management programs is the basis for recommendations by both public and private sector weed scientists. This may include recommendations to:
- Use multiple herbicides with different mechanisms of action that are active on the same weed species, particularly those that are most troublesome or prone to evolution of herbicide resistance;
- Combine herbicides with agronomic or cultural practices such as crop rotation, optimum variety selection/planting rates, nutrient placement, and appropriate tillage to provide a comprehensive approach to weed management;
- Apply full labeled herbicide rates at recommended weed sizes.
Crop life spokesperson Mary Emma Young sums up the problem pretty succinctly: “There’s never going to be a magic bullet to answer this problem, it’s going to be a multifaceted approach. Herbicide resistance is nothing new and weeds are always going to adapt because mother nature finds a way.”
Some other common-sense management practices that farmers can use to help manage this issue include: understanding the biology of the weeds present, planting into weed?free fields and then keeping fields as free from weeds as possible, routinely scouting fields, and managing weed seed at harvest and post-harvest to prevent a buildup of the weed seedbank.
