Kelly Barnett
Research Assistant
Univ. of Tennessee
We have actually made tremendous progress in the last couple of years when glyphosate-resistant pigweed was first identified in Tennessee. Producers have had to get a handle on this and use a whole-system approach. They now know that they have to start out clean and use good pre-emergent herbicide programs and follow that with some timely herbicide applications. This strategy appears to be working well.
Chris Main
Tennessee Extension Cotton Specialist
Jackson, Tenn.
What we’re seeing is a lot of momentum in this effort from several sectors of the industry. When you see more education about weed resistance, it’s very encouraging. Farmers are becoming more proactive in every phase of this effort, and that’s a win-win scenario. If we had had more rainfall, our residual applications would’ve been activated, and the results could’ve been even better this year.
Dan Reynolds
Professor
Mississippi State University
Starkville, Miss.
I think we are making progress in this fight. One of the biggest things that we’ve seen in the last couple of years is the increase in awareness. Initially, we didn’t know what hit us. I give a lot of credit to our Extension specialists for helping educate farmers about this problem. We are definitely doing a better job of integrating the pre-emergent herbicides into our strategy. Naturally, there are a few problems out there, but we are in better shape now than we were two years ago. Every farmer out there has experienced it, seen it or heard about it. We’ve done a good job of getting the word out about this.
Kater Hake
VP/Ag Research
Cotton Incorporated
Cary, N.C.
I definitely think farmers in the Mid-South and Southeast have made amazing progress in dealing with weed resistance. When you drive by these beautiful clean fields, you can tell how far we’ve come. Of course, what you can’t see in those fields is the amount of money that farmers have spent to control resistant pigweed. Looking at the last three years, there is no doubt about how they’ve implemented some effective programs.
Chuck Farr
Consultant
Crawfordsville, Ark.
We’re going to see a big decrease in cotton acreage in 2013, and it’s primarily due to weed pressure and high prices in the corn and soybean markets. With cotton having such a wide-row spacing, that does create problems when trying to control resistant weeds such as pigweed. Having said that, I do think we have made significant progress in controlling weed resistance. I believe today’s farmers know how to implement a program that will deal with this issue. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve made so much headway.