WHAT’S NEW WITH BAYER PRODUCTS
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hen the first herbicideresistant wild oats were found in Manitoba close to 50 years ago, the news was received in western farming circles with just mild alarm. “We’ve come a long way since then and it’s good to see the entire industry coming together to help manage the risk of herbicide resistance development” says Jon Weinmaster, Crop and Campaign Marketing Manager, Cereals with Bayer. The specifics vary by region in terms of key weeds and herbicide Group resistance, but the solutions are almost always the same: maintain a diverse crop rotation; promote crop competition with weeds; rotate herbicide Groups; use herbicide tank mixes that contain different herbicide Groups; scout often; keep good records; till strategically; and manage weed escape patches to keep them from going to seed. The most recent strategy to join this list is early weed removal. On the surface, it seems like a logical plan to take weeds out as early as possible to protect yield. But growers know it's not always that simple.
LESSONS FROM THE U.S. The fact is that weed control is way more complicated than it was 10 years ago. “Growers in Canada are getting very good at understanding their weed spectrum and realizing any resistance problems that currently exist, or have the potential to develop,” says Weinmaster, “by working together as an industry we will all continue to get better at managing the risk of herbicide resistance development.” It’s better here than in some areas of the world where herbicide resistance
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has become such a critical problem that growers are making crop choices based on what they can grow, not what they’d like to grow. “There are areas in the Southern U.S. where growers have run out of herbicide options,” says Weinmaster. “And it’s not uncommon for growers there to hire people to hand weed fields, at an enormous cost.” Growers are encouraged to protect the herbicide tools they have by not overusing them and short crop rotations make this difficult. However, the economic imperatives of growing high-paying crops in short rotation are very real, and farming economics are tough — growers know they need to make money when they can. With what we’ve seen in the Southern U.S. we also know the realities of not being able to grow a crop at all if the weeds can’t be controlled, says Weinmaster. “The financial impact can’t be ignored,” he explains. “It’s really easy to think you’re okay, that you’ve got a handle on it, until you don’t. There is a great video on Mixitup.ca of Ford Baldwin, a U.S. grower discussing the need for increased herbicide and crop diversity. It’s a good reminder for us here in Canada.”
THERE ARE SOLUTIONS “We take herbicide resistance very seriously at Bayer,” says Weinmaster. “We want to make sure our customers have the tools they need and continue to be profitable while keeping herbicide resistance at bay.” On the early weed removal front, Olympus™, Velocity m3, Luxxur® and Varro®
herbicides are great options for wheat, says Weinmaster. “We know that early weed control, both early at the weed stage and early at the crop stage, is a good practice. “Still, we recognize that most in-crop herbicides available in Western Canada only control emerged weeds, so there needs to be a balance between spraying as early as possible but also having as many weeds emerged as possible." This is a big part of why two-pass weed control is becoming more popular and more economical. New Olympus herbicide from Bayer is part of a two-pass system approach. It's applied pre-plant or preemerge followed by Varro or Velocity herbicide in-crop, providing flushing control of foxtail barley and best in-class wild oat control. The new lineup of Bayer herbicide products offers growers a lot of combinations and permutations for effective herbicide tank mixes where more than one mode of action is applied in a single operation. “It keeps weeds on their toes,” says Weinmaster. And with Roundup® and Roundup Xtend® now in the portfolio, growers have some new preseed and post-harvest options to use with Bayer's strong in-crop herbicide products. “We’re here to help,” says Weinmaster. “I encourage people to think about practicing early weed removal this year, and also to visit Mixitup.ca to learn more about herbicide resistance and how it’s being managed in North America. And if they have any questions, or want advice on devising an integrated weed management (IWM) plan for their farm, our field staff are always ready to help.”
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
The new realities of weed management