Texas farmers urged to rotate herbicides

Farmers in Texas need to keep watch over their crops when rotating herbicides to prevent the threat of glyphosate-resistant herbicides. 

“We’ve got to keep the pressure on whether we are talking about common waterhemp or using alternative chemistries,” Paul Baumann, AgriLife Extension’s state weed specialist, said at the recent Texas Plant Protection Association Conference. “You just can’t let it go. Unless you go out there and pull that weed up, you’ve still got to get control of it. You’ve got to get ahead of the problem before it starts.”

Peter Dotray, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research weed scientist, reminded the attendees that each field is different and can change from one growing season to the next and that weeds. An example he used is the Palmer amaranth plant, which has the potential to produce hundreds of thousands of seeds.

“If we control with the same approach year after year, you know what’s going to happen,” Dotray said.“Weed resistance is a real global issue that requires local solutions. There’s no silver bullet coming in the next year or the next 10 years.”