Cotton Herbicide Programs: What Some Farmers Are Looking At For 2010

I found a thread this morning on the independent forum, New Ag Talk, that discusses cotton herbicide plans that these farmers intend to use in 2010's crop.

Significantly, I doubt if this discussion would have taken place 5 years ago, back when Roundup resistance wasn't a known factor and the main question was, "When do you spray Roundup?" Comments cover Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas.

If you grow cotton and want a quick basis of comparison, here's the thread:

http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=146482&posts=10&start=1

- Owen Taylor

Will Roundup Face A Bleak Future Due To Resistant Weeds?

That's the scenario painted by Steve Powels, an Australian plant biologist, who spoke at the recent Pan-American Weed Resistance Conference in Miami.

“Glyphosate (active ingredient in Roundup) will be driven to redundancy in the cotton, corn and soybean belt,” said Powles in a report by Forest Laws in Delta Farm Press. “Outside of these areas of the U.S., then glyphosate should continue to be effective because it is not massively used.

“Within the cotton, corn and soybean belt the massive reliance on glyphosate means that it will be driven to redundancy because many of the big driver weeds such as Palmer pigweeds, waterhemp, ragweed and Johnsongrass will be resistant. There may be many weed species still controlled by glyphosate, but glyphosate will fail on the driver weeds and that means overall failure.”

Here's a link to the full report. It's worth reading.