Concerns about the increasing number of cases of herbicide-resistant weeds have prompted the industry to hold seven listening sessions across the country to look for answers.
The only Pacific Northwest meeting will be 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Red Lion Conference Center in Pasco, Wash. The listening session is limited to the first 160 registrants.
“Specialists who are managing weeds are throwing their hands up,” said Ian Burke, associate weed science professor at Washington State University. “We’re really sort of out of options. We need industry, stakeholder and grower input to chart a path forward.”
Burke said he’s documented dozens of new types of herbicide resistant weeds in recent years, calling it a “widespread” problem in the Pacific Northwest.
“We don’t produce a Roundup Ready crop on a widespread basis, but we’re working on new cases of Roundup resistant weeds because we use a lot of Roundup,” he said.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.
For example, Russian thistle in fallow areas can sometimes harden under hot summer conditions and not absorb herbicide like they would under optimum conditions, for one example, said Jim Fitzgerald, executive director of the Far West Agribusiness Association in Spokane.
The meeting is sponsored by Far West, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Weed Science Society of America and the United Soybean Board.
To register visit www.cvent.com/d/wvqdfj/4W.
Source: www.capitalpress.com