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Midwest ground zero for glyphosate resistance

Unless action is taken – and soon – farmers may lose a key tool in fighting weeds.

Weed resistance is a challenge for farmers around the world.  Stephen Powles, grain farmer and Professor at the University of Western Australia says nowhere is it a greater problem than for farmers in the Midwestern United States.

“They’ve had it really good for the last 15 years; that’s in the form of Round-up Ready crops.  They’ve overused that great technology – way overused it – and it’s gonna fail.”

If it’s still working on your farm, Powles advises that you do everything that you can to keep it going.

“Give it a rest.  There’s way over-use of glyphosate in U.S. agriculture.  The weeds are fighting back.”

Powles tells Brownfield glyphosate is at risk across much of the U.S.  “Sixty million acres of U.S. cropland is infested with glyphosate resistant weeds.”

He told those attending the Bayer CropScience Corn Soybean Future Forum in Frankfurt, Germany that weeds remember that they are resistant to chemicals used before.  He cited examples of ALS and atrazine.

U.S. farmers, said Powles, have doubled their herbicide spend in the last few years.

Powles calls glyphosate the world’s greatest herbicide. He said it is a 1 in 100 year discovery.  Never will we see another chemical so good.

“We’ve forgotten the basic principles,” said Powles.  “If you use the same ting all of the time, nature will fight back.”

AUDIO: Conversation with Stephen Powles