With more and more herbicide resistant weeds, or at least a wider range of those that are resistant to certain herbicides agriculturists are being told to change their herbicide mix.
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Or being told to create one.
It is understood in the agricultural world that if herbicides are used there will be plants resistant to them, so the fact there is now herbicide resistance to glyphosate is not surprising.
Of course farmers are being given lots of advice about how best to deal with them.
Adding crops to your rotation seems to be a good one, that we heard recently because if you are using different crops you are likely using different types of herbicides, and that can get rid of glyphosate resistant weeds before they create seeds.
There is also an implication in all of this that it is somehow the fault of agriculture that resistance developed. It developed because they used straight glyphosate for some many years.
But isn't that the point of using a total burn down product that knocks out everything? You don't have to worry about mixing and what to mix with, and the cost of that second or third chemical.
At least I seem to recall it was marketed that way. Why didn't the manufacturers and marketers think of that at the time? It's not like this is the first time there have been resistance issues.
Resistance was probably always inevitable at least to a degree but it became certain with the introduction of glyphosate resistant corn and soybeans.
If farmers could use it on corn and beans and then to clean the field for the next crop, if needed, and then take out the covercrop after wheat to plant corn again the next year, well, you know what is going to happen.
Add in sugar beets and it's even more of a problem. It is probably a good thing there is no glyphosate resistant wheat and alfalfa in serious use or it's possible every weed would have the trait.
When resistance started showing up and farmers were told to throw something else at the resistant varieties many began to wonder, and ask out loud that if they have to add more sprays to the mix, why are they paying the premium for the resistant crop in the first place.
In the world of agronomy it is not really that simple of course, it never is. But this was virtually inevitable and not the fault of those who liked the product, even if they did, perhaps, like it too much.
Some of the types of weeds affected likely aren't that big a problem, yet, some certainly are. But we all know there will be more, and there is the potential they will be big problems.
It will be up to the farmers to deal with it whether it should be their responsibility or not. Somehow it always is.
