Robert Stevenson hitched up his cultivator in 2007.
It was only for a 10 acre patch of bothersome foxtail barley, but it was the first time in years that the farmer from Kenton, Man., had needed to till for weed control.
The pedigreed seed grower put half of his farm into zero till in 1974. The remaining fields followed in the next few years.
He wasn’t happy about bringing out the cultivator.
Stevenson said he doesn’t know whether the foxtail barley patch is resistant to herbicides, but it was a tough 10 acres to deal with.
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“I think this was what you would call a strategic tillage event,” he said.
“Foxtail barley is always tough to kill. It’s a perennial. It’s a winter annual. It likes salinity and wet soil, and we’ve had eight rainy years so our salinity levels are high. Plus, I think the foxtail seeds germinate every single day of the year. They’re probably germinating today for all we know.”
Although he was reluctant to implement the strategic tillage option, Stevenson said herbicide resistant volunteer crops are a bigger threat to his zero-tillage system than conventional weeds.
“Volunteer crops now constitute over 50 percent of our weed problems,” he said.
“So if we should be forced into a situation where we cannot control 50 percent of our weeds with herbicides, then we all have a real problem. You’ll have to do something, and it’s going to cost you money. I think real weeds are relatively easy to kill. And we can manage resistant weeds. But managing resistant volunteer crops is hard.”
Although he has never grown Roundup Ready canola, Stevenson said the volunteer plants are all over his farm.
“We continue to increase the number of crops that are resistant to particular groups of herbicides, and the chemical companies are not releasing new modes of action, new groups,” he said.
“With Clearfield, we now have resistance in lentils, sunflowers, peas, wheat and canola. Pretty much every major crop is resistant to Pursuit or Oddyssey. With Roundup, we now have lots of broadleafs that are resistant – canola and soybeans. In eastern Manitoba they have a problem with Roundup Ready canola and soybeans. It’s an expensive problem.”
Stevenson said he was heavily involved in the debate over Roundup Ready wheat. Although it was the fear of losing markets that put it on the shelf, he said the agronomic aspect did not receive nearly enough attention.
“If we were to throw herbicide resistant cereals into the mix we already have, zero tillage would be in big trouble because we depend so much on that glyphosate group.
“It’s a very important question and I think at some point we’re going to have to make a choice between zero tillage and herbicide tolerant crops.
“Going back to widespread tillage – the common practices of 20 years ago – is unthinkable. It would be disastrous for the environment. I don’t even know if we’d have access to the necessary inputs to farm that way again. The fuel cost would be tremendous.”
What about the idea of using strategic tillage to incorporate that top one-inch of nutrient-rich, organic matter more deeply into the soil? Some producers speculate that the value of the top inch might be more beneficial if mixed into the entire root zone. It’s being wasted laying on the surface.
“We’ve discussed that idea since the beginning of zero tillage,” Stevenson said.
“But I’m convinced that today we’re farming the top few inches of soil to a much greater extent than we were 30 years ago. The nutrients today are closer to the surface with zero till. The moisture is closer to the surface. And the roots stay closer to the surface. I’m not totally opposed to strategic tillage. I’m just not convinced that it’s progress.”
Glen Gusta, who runs the Gusta Seed and Sod Farm at Stead, Man., said he may want to be a straight no-till farmer, but his farm is near Lake Winnipeg so rain is part of the weekly fare. He nearly always needs to harrow before his drill hits the field.
Gusta said his Concord with Atom Jet openers and NORAC depth sensor is capable of seeding into mud but not with good seed placement. A single cultivation pass dries the surface enough to ensure accurate placement. However, those passes always come with a price.
“They’re now talking about diesel at $1.20 to $1.30 a litre come spring time,” he said. “Tillage is becoming prohibitively expensive.”
Gusta said producers should consider what fuel prices may be in the future when they make their weed control decisions today.
“I’m convinced that the future of our agricultural production depends on making fewer passes across the field. The farmers who can figure out how to be more efficient and make fewer passes will be the ones who survive.
“That’s why you absolutely have to be careful today with your herbicide selections. If you’re not careful and if you don’t do a proper rotation, you can be creating a whole new world of problems for yourself.
“What’s going to happen down the road? Are we going to see cross pollination between Invigor varieties and Roundup Ready varieties? Something like that could result in a lot of extra yet very essential tillage operations. And that’s only going to become more expensive as time goes on.”
Lee Moats said part of his answer to the herbicide resistance threat is to give each field a 24-month glyphosate holiday as a standard part of his crop rotation.
“I don’t mean to sound alarmist, but here’s the fact,” said Moats, a Ducks Unlimited agrologist who also farms 2,600 acres at Riceton, Sask. “The way we have come to practise zero till on the Prairies is just flat out Roundup glyphosate based.”
He said widespread glyphosate resistance would be a major setback for agriculture, but zero till has a built-in complacency that glyphosate will always be there. People need to get serious about weed control strategies that minimize the potential for glyphosate to become an enemy, he added.
“There are two main factors we have to consider,” Moats said.
“First, we are not yet even looking for an alternative to glyphosate. Secondly, very few people have acknowledged the risk yet. Put those together, and I see the potential for a major problem.
“Let’s put it in context. Farmers are very aware of what’s happened with wild oats and Group 1 herbicides, but we still see people putting Horizon on durum and Poast on lentils back to back. They continue to fuel the resistance problem.”
He said that on his farm he tries to solve problems without always resorting to the solution in a can. For example, in 1990 when wheat midge was at a peak in his area, he made a conscious decision to stop spraying insecticides for midge. The only way to accomplish that was to stop growing durum and hard red spring wheat. That’s what he did.
His next step was to attack the Group 1 issue. Moats grows a lot of lentils, and Group 1 is essential in that crop. His decision was to use Group 1 in the lentils but not in cereals. He now sprays Group 1 on cereals only if it’s absolutely necessary.
“But at the same time we were making those changes, we were out slopping glyphosate all over the place. And that’s a resistance problem we do not want to see. I had to figure out a way to grow a zero-till crop without spraying glyphosate,” he said.
“You accomplish two things when a field goes 24 months without glyphosate. First, you reduce your reliance on the glyphosate. More importantly, you stretch out the time interval between glyphosate applications. That’s what you need to do if you want to prevent the problem.”
The scheme Moats has devised gives every field in the rotation a full 24 month break between glyphosate applications.
For example, his target fields were given a burnoff with glyphosate last May and then seeded to Liberty canola. The crop was harvested in August and winter wheat was seeded directly into the stubble. No pre-harvest glyphosate was applied.
The winter wheat should be up this spring before the weeds so no glyphosate is expected to be applied. Moats said he should harvest the winter wheat in the summer without a glyphosate pre-harvest.
If it all goes according to plan, the target fields won’t see a drop of glyphosate until the spring of 2009. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that well. If he has bad Canada thistle or dandelions, he might do a pre-harvest in 2008.
“But more often than not, we don’t spray our winter wheat in the fall. So that field should go without glyphosate until the spring of 2009, when we put it into lentils. Our lentils get in-crop Group 1 herbicides.
“I’m not saying this is the whole solution. I’m just saying we all need to start doing things now to get off this path that will create problems for ourselves in the future.
“Our concern level regarding glyphosate resistance is very low relative to the potential problem. The potential for a catastrophic event is very high.”
But, Moats isn’t sure cultivation alone can be counted on to do the job.
“Maybe tillage is a strategic operation that has to be brought back under some circumstances. But I think on our farm, if we had something like a glyphosate resistant situation, my first choice would be to introduce perennials into the rotation.”
