Collaborative Take Action program yields unified message, tools for managing herbicide resistance
I will know my weeds. I will scout my fields regularly. I will think beyond herbicides and diversify my approach to weed management. The growing challenge of herbicide-resistant weeds is serious, and the soy checkoff is asking farmers to get more serious in addressing it — for example, by taking this pledge. The vow is part of the checkoff-led Take Action program, which dozens of other ag-industry organizations have joined in support of a unified weed-management message and strategy to help farmers tackle this challenge.
Herbicide-resistant weeds cost U.S. farmers $2 billion annually, according to University of Wisconsin researcher Vince Davis. This industrywide effort prepares all farmers in managing herbicide-resistant weeds to prevent them from spreading further. “With the direction the industry is going toward, breeding herbicide-tolerant traits into the crops, farmers need to be more aware of the products they can and should use, and Take Action is helping spread this message to them,” says Jim Musser, checkoff farmer-leader and soybean farmer from Mount Joy, Pa. “Diversification is important. In my own case, rotating herbicide modes and sites of action on our farm helps with weed control.”
Source: USB