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Palmer amaranth found for the first time in Iowa
The presence of Palmer amaranth was recently confirmed in western Iowa, near the town of Modale in Harrison County, Iowa. That’s next to the Missouri River, north of Council Bluffs.
It’s the first confirmed case of Palmer amaranth in Iowa, but Harrison County Extension program coordinator Rich Pope says it was just a matter of time before it showed up somewhere in the state.
“It’s been found in several places in Missouri and Kansas, and a couple counties in Nebraska as well—so it’s not a surprise that it’s here,” Pope says. “It’s just something that we need to be aware of and try to manage because it can pose some potential problems because of the ability that it has to escape some of our management techniques if we don’t pay attention.”
Palmer amaranth has been a big problem for farmers in the southeastern U.S. Pope says that while controlling the weed can be a challenge, it is not insurmountable. But he says it takes a good weed management plan.
“One of the biggest management things is to clean equipment between fields, especially if you’re in an areas where it’s been confirmed to have Palmer amaranth,” he says. “Transport of the little seed in the seed bank from field to field, if we can stop that, that will help a lot with stopping the spread.”
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