Overview
Herbicides are an effective and important aspect of crop protection. Unfortunately, if certain precautions aren’t taken, herbicides can lose their effectiveness.
Herbicide resistance
Herbicide resistance is when a previously controlled weed is no longer killed with an application of the same herbicide, even at a higher rate.
There are many steps that can be taken to help prevent herbicide resistance including:
- rotating herbicide groups and crops
- keeping detailed crop histories
- using herbicide mixtures with more than 1 mode of action
- using an integrated weed management approach including:
- crop rotation
- use of perennial crops
- competitive cropping
- higher seeding rates
- mechanical control
- biological control
- adjusted seeding dates
- sanitizing equipment
- using herbicides if they exceed the economic threshold for the crop
- limiting herbicides with long soil residual time
Herbicide water quality
Using clean, clear water is an important part of mixing herbicide solutions. Research has shown that some water minerals can have an adverse effect on the performance of some herbicides.
For more information, read Water quality for mixing herbicides.
Anaerobic digesters
Anaerobic digestion is a process that occurs naturally in the absence of air. During this process, micro-organisms stabilize waste organic matter and release biogas.