Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Many have even resorted back to the "old-fashioned" way of dealing with the situation and that is by hiring people with hoes to go and chop them down.

According to a recent article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the problem is actually getting worse because the weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to the chemicals that are used to control them.

When asked about the problems that are being encountered in our area, Randy Caldwell, vice-president and branch manager of Progressive Farm Credit in Kennett, noted that that most of the farmers in our area that he has dealt with have hired people to chop the weeds down manually. He added the main culprits concerning weeds are Pigweed and Marestail.

"Pigweed is the big problem and a lot of it stems from the herbicides not working anymore. They've become resistant to it. The flooding and early rains really hindered that also because a lot of people didn't get to put down pre-plant herbicides and [the] herbicides didn't work as well as they should have because of all the rain.

"You've got to catch the pigweeds [when] they are two to three inches tall and you might be able to kill them. When they get much bigger than that you can't do anything. Some have been able to stunt them. It's not all weather related. The weather is intricate."

When mentioned that this must be an ongoing problem, he said, "This has been a building problem, particularly with the pigweeds. But, then again, they have been able to control them if they get them in the early stages but the early rains and [other] things kept that from happening and so the chemicals didn't work so they have gone back to chopping cotton or beans and pulling some of the weeds by hand."

Charles Parker, a cotton farmer, from Senath, Mo., noted that right now his crops are in pretty good shape but mentioned that one problem he had this year was getting planted.

"We got started late because of all the rains and floods. We were about 10 days late starting to plant," he said, adding, "It's [the cotton crop] made a lot of progress in the last couple of weeks. He added that with the rains the area has had recently plus the irrigation he provides his crop, he feels "pretty good about the crop."

Parker noted, however, the weeds do present a problem and the ones that he faces the most problems with are the common ones of Pigweed and Marestail.

"With the varieties we're planting now, Round-up won't control them anymore. Used to, Roundup controlled them. For the last two years, Roundup hasn't controlled them," he said.

When questioned about the measures he is taking to combat the problem, Parker said, "What we do is we put out, prior to planting, three different herbicides that help. We put out Valor, and Clarity and a chemical called Firstshot. We put that out prior to planting, usually about 30 days before planting. You need some time there because you could damage your cotton.

"We put out a grass herbicide which also helps on some of the weeds.We use Trifluralin, and when we get down to that, of course, we spray on top with Roundup and some other herbicides. This time we used a herbicide called Warrant and then there's another you put on top with your Roundup called Dual. These all help [but] what it boils down to we can't let these resistant weeds go to seed. We're in pretty good shape right now but there will still be some more. We don't like to let any of them go to seed, so anytime we see a weed out there, we're going to try and get it."

Parker said that he has had as many as 13 workers chopping cotton for him at one time, trying to get a handle on the weeds.

Rick Ward, assistant manager with Ag Distributors in Kennett, said, "There are a lot of choppers out there chopping these [Pigweed and Marestail]. That's about the only way they can get rid of these. They are showing an ALS mode of action resistance. The chemicals are limited to what you could use to take care of this problem. Let's say you spray the first of the month, these chemicals usually last close to a month. If you can, you go out there and try to put something else before that one runs out to last some more."

Ward then mentioned some of the chemicals that are used in the treatment of these weeds. The list includes Caparol, Cotoran, Diuron, Treflan, Prowl, Dual Magnum, Warrant, MSMA, Staple LX, Roundup, Touchdown, and Valor. Many of these chemicals when sprayed will keep the weeds from coming up but will only suppress them for awhile.

"It is not a permanent answer but it helps," Ward said.

When asked what he thought the future held for the crops, he said, "There are a few seed companies that have a Liberty Link gene [cotton], and I think most of the farmers are going to start leaning toward that Liberty Link cotton."

Ward then told what the difference was between the cotton now being planted and the Liberty Link cotton.

"Roundup cotton and Liberty Link? Well, Roundup is where you spray Roundup over the top and Roundup's not killing these weeds. The Liberty Link cotton has got a gene in it and you spray the chemical Ignite over it and Ignite will kill them right now.

As well as the above chemicals, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, farmers across the Midwest and in the South are increasingly, using herbicide cocktails to combat weeds in the cotton, corn and soybean fields and this worries environmental scientists who say these combinations employ older, more toxic herbicides that glyphosate (the generic name for Monsanto's Roundup) was supposed to replace.

Paul T. Combs, co-owner of Baker Implement, also noted the resistance the crops are showing to chemicals.

"Now, [the farmers are] having to go back to plowing fields mechanically with the cultivators or hiring labor to chop the fields. We're going back to the old fashioned way of weed control which is a little more expensive but that's what's required until we come out with a new generation of chemicals."

Another farmer, Steve Worrell, a rice and soybean farmer, from Rives, Mo., also is having trouble this year with Pigweed and has experienced resistance to chemicals as well as chopping.

"We have just had a gradual, over the last couple of years, a resistance to Roundup on our Pigweeds," Worrell said. "Where we rotate with rice, we don't have the problem because we've killed the weeds when we grow the rice and we can rotate back to soybeans and we have a pretty clean crop. But, the problem we have, and I farm quite a bit of ground that I can't plant in rice and it's just soybeans only and they just keep getting worse every year. We've used every chemical in the arsenal this year and we've still got a lot of grown up fields. That's just a problem and we haven't come up with an answer for it yet. We did a lot of chopping last year."

Worrell noted that they haven't hired any choppers this year because after chopping twice last year, the weeds still came back and went to seed anyway.

"That's not really going to be the answer for us," Worrell said. "All of our beans are broadcast beans. They are not in rows anyway. You may do pretty good when you have cotton in rows, but with these broadcast soybeans, you miss a lot of weeds and they go to seed. It's just not going to work. It's going to have to be another approach."

In order to combat the problem that Worrell and his brother faces with their crop, they have made the decision of rotating some of their crops back to grain sorghum. The reason for this being is that there is a usage of some chemicals that will kill the weeds.

"[We'll] try to go back into a rotation like that to try to control them until something better comes along," he said.

One may wonder how the weeds became so resistant to the chemicals being sprayed. Mike Milam, an agronomy specialist with the University of Missouri Delta Extension Office said, "It's a very complicated story but the reason the resistance [is down] is the main thing it's being sprayed constantly with Roundup [since the late 1990's. That's why they are building up resistance. The thing that needs to be done is they have some programs with pre-emerge chemicals they can use. They can use the post emergence sprays. There is some new genetically materials that are out, genetically modified materials that are out this year. They are able to use a spray for Ignite over the top of the cotton."

Weed Scientist Jason Wyrick of the Delta Center noted how Roundup, or glyphosate, started being used alone noting that we have "abandoned the foundations that we grew up with." He did note that there is always new technology coming down the pipeline but this would not be a save all. He added that residual herbicides are also being used.

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