From This Little Piggy to Big Bad Wolf

I started with our January 2009 issue and worked forward. In every single issue, glyphosate resistance was the main or secondary topic in at least one story. Several issues had two stories, including this one. Four cover stories (also including this month’s) were devoted to glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth, better known as pigweed – a hog gone wild.

 

We didn’t have a silver bullet in 2009, and we don’t now, either. What we do have is a systems approach, which almost always includes the use of residual herbicides. 

 

We also have a better understanding of the growth habits and characteristics of the Palmer amaranth plant itself. Georgia has often been referred to as Ground Zero for glyphosate resistance. And in the June issue of Cotton Grower, Georgia Extension weed scientist Dr. Stanley Culpepper said that although the state’s growers had to learn lessons the hard, painful  way, they learned nonetheless: “Our growers get it and they have become very aggressive because they understand the biology of the plant. Once you understand the biology of the plant, you will understand the concept of overlapping residuals.”

 

For the past several issues, and including this one, there are references to something we’re hearing more and more about: Hooded sprayers, particularly the new one from Willmar, designed in conjunction with Monsanto, based on grower input. And Monsanto is offering rebates on selected residuals, not just for better control, but also for saving the Roundup Ready technology.

 

Glyphosate is, says world-renowned weed scientist Dr. Stephen Powles, Director of the Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative, “the most revolutionary herbicide ever. We may never see anything like it again. We have to do everything to protect it.”

 

Again, we don’t have the silver bullet, but we’re adding ammunition to the bandolier. Growers who got away from DNAs are using them again. Growers who stopped deep tilling are doing it again. We’re plowing the middles more. Growers who used only Roundup are going back to tank mixes. We’re learning how to incorporate the PPOs and ALSs into the control mix. We’re taking new looks at the Cotorans, the Caparols, the diurons. We’re learning how to more effectively and safely use Ignite, not only with LibertyLink varieties, but also those with the WideStrike gene.

 

Gramoxone has been around awhile. It’s been a standard in burndown, but now it’s finding new uses with the hooded sprayers.  On page 10 of this month’s cover story, Mark  Burkett talks about a field of his that got so heavily infested with resistant pigweed that he bought two rope-wick bars (remember them?) and filled them with straight Gramoxone. It worked well enough, he says, to buy enough time to get the cultivators and layby rigs in the field.

 

Do you see a theme developing here? We’re going back to things that worked very well over decades before we bought into “Roundup only” weed control.

 

If you look back at what Bollgard did for budworm control, you have to at least dream that a silver bullet to control resistant pigweed is coming. But until that happens, lock and load with all the bullets we have.