03/01/05 Big-time weed resistance predicted

Farm and Ranch March 1, 2005 A man considered to be a world authority on weed herbicide resistance warned American farmers last week that by 2008 the United States will pass up Australia as the nation with the worst problems of weed resistance because heavy reliance on glyphosate is a virtual recipe for the development of weeds that are resistant to that chemical. Stephen Powles, Director of the Western Australia Herbicide Resistance Initiative, spoke at the Commodity Classic in Austin, Texas. Powles: "I am a great supporter of glyphosate. Got a number of other names. Some people know it as Roundup, Touchdown, etc, etc, but it is all glyphosate. It think glyphosate is the greatest herbicide in world agriculture and really, really important for example in U.S. agriculture. I am concerned about its long term sustainability because of its overuse that is occurring in huge slices of the U.S. and in some other parts of the world. What I say to Australian farmers is that in their careers they will never see as good a herbicide as glyphosate. It is a one in a 100-year discovery." So what should U.S. producers do? Powles: "The answers are not easy, but using glyphosate as the sole or the principal herbicide year-in year-out in different crops is a recipe for resistance and they have got to work out how they are going to give glyphosate a rest." Already in the U.S. there has been the discovery of glyphosate resistant marestail, ragweed, lambsquarter and California ryegrass. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.