Marestail has farmers by the gonads. My friend Hud just posted about his trip around southwest Ohio and how many fields are loaded with them. I have scouted 1000 acres of non GMO soybeans so far for seed and Asian shipment and most of them were loaded with Marestail. They will really have to be cleaned with all that seed in the samples.
I know these guys aren't using enough 2,4-D in their burndowns or at the right time. Tillage isn't the answer for me because I loose too much valuable topsoil. I know they must not be using a full residual, either because the fields I know that have it are much cleaner.
A friend sent a worrisome article on 2,4-D and other chemicals being considered dangerous chemicals and could only be used with the new chemically resistant crops coming out and the tech fees that go with them! Read the PDF file on the first link to read the article.
Atill, my harping on resistant weeds goes un-noticed and it is costing us yield and quality. I think everyone needs to go back to weed school for a refresher and an update. They are teaching it in the pesticide classes I have attended but obviously no one is following their advice.
We went to Farm Mass tonight. We fought one whale of a heavy Thunderstorm from home to below Lynchburg before the roads were dry and no storms. The lightning was so strong and so close it made your hair stand on end.
We had a wonderful Mass in a farmers barnyard I went to school with, the Schwallie's. It was so nice to be so close to nature taking part in the body, blood and divinity. We really enjoyed it. Then we sampled everyone's best dish set out on a hay wagon inside the shop and ate too much. You have to do that once in awhile, don't you?
Archbishop Schnurr sure gives good farm homilies. He was raised in the country in a small town in northwest Iowa and got to close to farming as working on bean crews, hoeing, cutting and pulling out weeds like we used to.
Some southern farmers have resorted to this to fight these resistant weeds and I tell you friend we are not far behind. I never pulled so many weeds as this year and sprayed another tank of Banvel on vines and thistles this afternoon.
Die, weeds, die!
Ed
Marestail is a contrary plant, it gobbles Round-Up like it's a fertilizer! ^-^
ReplyDeleteI don't think the problem is no-till either, not directly, it has more to do with how these super-weeds adapted to glyphosate and are able to thrive in the absence of competition from other weeds.
How come we can send robots to Mars, but none to weed our fields? ^-^
It will be curious to see how we handle these super weeds. They are costing farmers big money right now.
ReplyDeleteA friend sent me an article on 2,4-D being labeled a dangerous chemical so there would be even less options for weed control UNLESS you go with the new 2,4-D and other chemically resistant crops!
I will post the link at the end today's blog on New Dairy right now.
I decided to insert the link in a new third paragraph of the blog on Marestail. It makes a little more sense stationed here.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 2,4-D was not so popular in Vietnam, where a million people died or were born with birth defects from it, but it had to do mostly with the dioxins that accompany 2,4-D production, not 2,4-D itself. These dioxins are probably not present in Dow or Monsanto 2,4-D, but they are likely to be present in cheap generic 2,4-D. One of these dioxins is not even regulated by the EPA, so basically it's spray and pray.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that although 2,4-D and dicamba are supposed to break down and degrade quickly, both leach to ground water reservoirs.
By the way, the Reuters article is the 3rd link for me, the PDF in the first link is actually protesting the article.
Better put direct links anyway, now that Google search results are customized for each user and could be different for different persons.