Herbicide Heartbreak The days of easy weed control are over in Western grain fields.

摘要

Greg Slough is fighting a battle on the Texas High Plains with weeds that don't fight fair. "I have johnsongrass that isn't responding to Roundup in corn and Palmer amaranth that [doesn't respond well] to Huskie and dicamba in milo," notes Slough, whofarms near Gruver.The reduced efficacy of his normal herbicide program is a management problem spreading across western fields from Texas to the Canadian border. Sometimes, the problem is true herbicide resistance. Sometimes, it's environmental conditions. Whatever the case, western corn farmers such as Slough now battle some of the same stubborn weeds to which their Eastern cousins have long,and unhappily, become accustomed. Plus, one weed that doesn't grow in the east, kochia, is also thumbing its nose at western growers' management practices.