Seeds taken from 11 Saskatchewan canola fields are expected to turn up resistance to both Roundup and Liberty herbicides. The big question still to be answered is how much will they find.
Hugh Beckie, with the Agriculture Canada Research Centre in Saskatoon, focused his research on places where Roundup-tolerant and Liberty-tolerant canola were planted close together last year. The expectation is that bees and pollen drift will have transferred each herbicide-tolerance trait to the other. Thousands of seed samples were taken throughout the fields for greenhouse testing.
Beckie is confident the study will find that seeds taken from plants near the edges of the fields produce plants resistant to more than one herbicide.
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He wants to know how far pollen has drifted into the fields and how common the problem is.
“It will give us a better handle on how many multiple-resistant weeds there are,” said Beckie, who chose fields from different soil types across Alberta.
The test results will be released this spring after the mammoth task of growing the thousands of seeds in the greenhouse and testing them for resistance. Later this spring, the fields where the seeds were taken will be sprayed with either Roundup or Liberty to confirm herbicide resistance.
“It will give us a much more accurate picture.”
Beckie said multiple-resistant canola isn’t a big concern, despite the increased occurrence. The herbicide-tolerant volunteers can be killed by phenoxy herbicides like 2,4-D.
Steve Meister, head of communications in Canada with Aventis Crop Science, said finding multiple resistance in volunteer canola is a farm management concern.
“It’s a management issue and growers need to think out their rotations. It’s nothing we and other companies haven’t been talking about for the past 10 years.”
Lorne Hepworth, president of the Crop Protection Institute of Canada, said weed resistance is no different than drug resistance in people. It’s a problem that should be on the minds of farmers when they choose crops and herbicides.
“Are we working hard to keep ahead of the problem – you bet,” said Hepworth.
