Search results for “amaranth”:
DTN staff reporter Emily Unglesbee has ably covered the dicamba-drift crisis over the past couple of years. Her latest is a detailed, three-part series on Palmer amaranth, “possibly the most aggressive weed American farmers have ever faced” (Unglesbee, 2019a). Palmer amaranth is so scary because of its “spectacular reproductive abilities” and it’s extreme adaptability. This […]
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In an experiment conducted in Missouri, researchers have identified Palmer amaranth that is resistant to six herbicides. Amaranthus palmerii is a one tough weed. When full grown, at its base, stalks can match the circumference of a man’s wrist. One plant can set over 400,000 seeds. It has a long history of herbicide resistance, and […]
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DTN Progressive Farmer reports that dicamba-resistant weeds appear to have started to crop up in the Midwest and Midsouth regions. These soy and cotton growing regions have seen a huge increase in dicamba use over the last couple of years since dicamba-resistant varieties of these crops were introduced. An estimated 60 million acres of dicamba […]
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In a carefully orchestrated exchange during an April 9, 2019 House Appropriations Committee hearing, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue asserted that Europe is an “[ag] technology-free zone” and will pay a big price as agricultural productivity suffers. What prompted this striking assertion? Coverage of the Secretary’s comments in EURACTIV.com identifies what prompted the […]
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A duo of research scientists from Australian universities have conducted an extensive review of global data on insect populations, with stark results. Their analysis of 73 historical reports was published this month in the journal Biological Conservation. It reveals “dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40% of the world’s insect species over the […]
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Three new Xtend-dicamba related items have been posted recently on Hygeia. Collectively they frame what is to come as farmers and herbicide applicators begin the 2019 herbicide spray season. In a fact-filled piece in DTN, Emily Unglesbee traces the march of glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth across the southeast, and then to the north and west. This […]
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Dan Charles, NPR’s widely respected food and agriculture correspondent, has written extensively about the dicamba drift crisis over the past couple of years (here are just a few of his pieces that were posted to the Managing Weeds for Healthy Kids site). In his latest NPR piece entitled “Is Fear Driving Sales Of Monsanto’s Dicamba-Proof Soybeans?,” he […]
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Herbicide-resistant weeds are a common topic around here, so we were interested in this new science out of Argentina identifying a new “superweed” resistant to glyphosate, dicamba, and 2,4-D. Plus, the researchers learned more about the mechanism of herbicide resistance in one of the most common weed families – the Amaranths (Amaranthus species). Farmers throughout the croplands of the […]
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“Weeds are winning the war against herbicide resistance.” This stark analysis is part of the title of a new Scientific American deep-dive into efforts to battle weed resistance. The author, Brooke Borel, summarizes the latest science, including research done at North Carolina State University. Scientists at NC State reached the sobering conclusion that “[there is a] […]
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A new study published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes some of the mystery out of how aggressive weeds like Palmer amaranth and common waterhemp developed resistance to glyphosate herbicides so quickly. Researchers from Kansas State University have discovered that these pigweeds develop extra-chromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA), genetic material that […]
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