WINNIPEG – (Staff) A tough new mutation of wild oats in Manitoba is resistant to the Group 2 herbicide Assert and to Mataven.
Weed specialist Luc Bourgeois said a Swan River-area farmer discovered the plant and researchers are still running tests on the sample. He said this is the first time this type of wild oat has been documented. The oats also had Group 1 resistance.
Bourgeois said farmers should not give up fighting resistant weeds.
“We’re a bit worried that some farmers will use this case and say, ‘Well, why should we rotate if we can get a plant that’s resistant to everything?'”
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He told farmers at a zero till workshop last week that herbicides are not always”the magic bullet” for weed control.
Because many farmers don’t till their fields, which provides protection against resistant wild oats, Bourgeois gave them some practical advice for preventing the mutations:
- Rotate your herbicides. Use as many kinds as you can.
- Rotate your crops.
- Check your results. Look for any patches that seem to resist the herbicides you used.
- Show no mercy. Cut patches of wild oats before they go to seed.
- Sketch your fields to keep track of progress.
- Use your head. “We have brains. Weeds don’t,” Bourgeois said. If you give wild oats the same environment year after year, they will adapt to it and thrive.
