4 Responses

  1. Theresa Marquez
    Theresa Marquez at |

    The Fraley piece touting the great success of dicamba is so irresponsible. How do these guys sleep at night?

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  2. Chuck Benbrook
    Chuck Benbrook at |

    The seed-biotech industry has moved the dicamba-resistant gene into about one-half the soybean seed supply for the 2018 crop season. This ties the hands of regulators, who are not likely to condemn half the soybean seed supply, and so the struggle over this technology will go on. Hopefully farmers and their organizations will become a bit more skeptical going forward the next time the industry touts a new herbicide-resistant technology involving resistance to several herbicides as the solution to the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds created by herbicide-resistant technology. The failure of so many people to grasp these simple connections mystifies me.

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  3. Dave Bishop
    Dave Bishop at |

    Our on farm trials show that a cover crop of cereal rye is very effective at reducing resistant Waterhemp – 90 plus percent. Not to mention the many other benefits of using cover crops.

    Reply
    1. Chuck Benbrook
      Chuck Benbrook at |

      Dave, killing or setting back cover crops is one of the unintended impacts of rising reliance on herbicides, and especially ones prone to off-target movement. Are you seeing that in your area? I worry that the hopeful trend toward cover crops and enhancing soil health is going to be made more costly and difficult than need be because of all the herbicides moving around ag landscapes. A decade ago, I think the use of sulfonylureas hurt the efforts to establish grass waterways, although there was very little public discussion, and next to no research to document the impacts. A penny for your thoughts.

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