03/27/07 Fighting Weeds

Fighting Weeds. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Weed resistance management is a big issue for the nation's corn growers. After all - as Jon Fischer of Bayer CropScience notes - small weeds can add up to big problems for producers. FISCHER: Small weeds that come up at the same time as the crop are particularly important because they can out compete the young corn plants and take away from their yield potential later in the season and even if the weeds are eventually eliminated, they've already done their damage early on in the season. According to Fischer - there are a number of glyphosate-resistant and tolerant weeds that are impacting growers throughout the country. FISCHER: Corn growers have seen for a few years now resistant mares tail and that's spread over a great part of the country now but even more economically important weeds such as pigweed, water hemp and now just recently giant ragweed populations have been discovered with resistance to glyphosate; those can have some very significant financial impacts on corn growers because of the competitive nature of weeds. But Fischer says there are ways for corn growers to manage their weed resistance concerns. In fact - he says there are really two options that will allow growers to eliminate weeds before they have the chance to impact crop yield. FISCHER: The first is to use pre-emergent herbicide that holds the weeds back until the crop has a chance to establish itself. Another option that works is to apply a post application herbicide but to get it on early when the weeds are 2 to 6 inches tall before they've had a chance to impact the yield of the crop. Fischer says Liberty® herbicide is a good option for post emergence weed control. If growers treat in a timely fashion - Fischer says the impact on yield performance is limited. And economically - he says that means the investment more than pays for itself. FISCHER: Growers really like the use of a non-selective type herbicide as a broad control of over a 120 different type of weeds. The ease and convenience of the program can be applied and used on a growers operation. (It) allows them to manage more acres with less labor and today with the Liberty® system it's a better value than it's ever been before in terms of the economics and also has a unique mode of action which can be effectively used for managing weed resistance. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.