Richard Zollinger is done talking to North Dakota farmers about herbicide resistance.
Zollinger, a North Dakota State University weed specialist, said glypho-sate resistant waterhemp, kochia, horseweed and common ragweed all live in the state, but most growers ignore the issue.
“We (weed scientists) have been preaching weed resistance, just like they have in Canada, since the mid-90s,” he said from his office in Fargo. “I have come to the conclusion that changing farmer, or human be-haviour, is the hardest thing I have ever faced in my life.”
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Zollinger said weed maps illustrate the rapid spread of glyphosate resistance in North Dakota. In 2009 two counties had glyphosate resistant common ragweed. In 2013, nearly every county in the eastern half of the state had one to four types of glyphosate resistant weeds.
Zollinger has told North Dakota farmers to use a pre-planting herbicide, to rotate herbicides and diversify crop rotations, but most growers disregard his advice.
“When we tell them ‘you have to use a pre-(planting herbicide),’ they say ‘no. I want to know what rate of Roundup I need to kill this weed,’ ” Zollinger said.
The central problem, he said, is that Roundup is cheap compared to many other chemicals and growers are unwilling to spend extra money to vary their chemistry. Zollinger has grown so weary of grower in-transigence he no longer speaks to North Dakota farmers about herbicide resistance.
“Basically, I’ve thrown my hands up in the air and I’m done. I’ll talk a few minutes about weed management principles in my extension talk, but I’m done talking to growers,” he said.
“It tells me that I’m a failure…. No matter how much logic and common sense and motivation I use in my presentations, none of us (weed scientists) have been able to figure out a way to make a difference.”
Neil Harker, an Agriculture Canada weed scientist in Lacombe, Alta., said prairie farmers are less addicted to glyphosate.
Harker said a number of western Canadian growers are implementing integrated weed management, which involves rotating herbicides and other agronomic strategies to limit the spread of glyphosate resistant weeds.
Still, convincing prairie farmers to diversify their crop rotations re-mains a challenge, Harker said.
“To ‘arm-chair farmers’… implementing IWM (integrated weed management) appears to be a no-brainer. However, in some cases, more profit in the short term can save an operation; long-term profits could be too late,” he said. “More diverse rotations and adopting IWM require more knowledge and labour. The latter makes things difficult, as the general trend is for larger farms.”
Adam Davis, a University of Illinois weed scientist, said farmers in his region have woken up and many are taking steps.
“(We’ve) noticed a substantial uptick in the number of growers interested in the herbicide resistance issue and who are wanting to take decisive action against it,” he said.
