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Increased costs for managing herbicide resistant weeds

A weed scientist at the University of Missouri says herbicide resistance has made managing weeds more expensive.

“In just a 20-year period, we’re spending like $20/acre more on weed management in soybeans.”

Kevin Bradley says controlling resistant waterhemp has been a big challenge this year and the problem is only getting worse.

“Consultants, retailers, farmers, you name it. They tell me, Kevin, I did everything. The weed wasn’t too big, I put all the right adjuvents and I still can’t kill it. You take that and add to it the fact our own screening efforts have shown an increase in resistance year after year.”

He says the added costs to only using only herbicides for weed management aren’t sustainable long-term.

“We’ve got to start thinking differently.”

Bradley says farmers should consider integrated weed management.

“How much more expensive does it have to get before something like electrocution, robotics or whatever the technology is, is on the same level as what we’re paying for herbicides right now?”

He says while not all technologies are widely available to farmers and other tools, like herbicides, are more defined, there are other options for farmers to consider.

Brownfield interviewed Bradley at the University of Missouri’s Crop and Pest Management Field Day.