Indiana Growers Find Effective Tool in Battle Against Weed Resistance
With each passing season, more and more Indiana growers are dealing with weeds that are resistant to Glyphosate. Many Hoosier growers are finding success with the Liberty system. Beck’s Hybrids reports that over 40% of their soybean sales have been Liberty Link soybeans, an indication that Hoosier farmers are getting serious about dealing with weed resistance. Doug Clouser with Beck’s says, across Indiana, IL, and Ohio, growers are finding weed resistance to be a serious issue, “Several weed species are driving the move to look for a solution to weed resistance. These include Marestail, Giant Ragweed, and Palmer Amaranth.” The latter has been trucked in from the south were it has become a serious problem for farmers.
Clouser added that Liberty is being embraced because it is one of the few new technologies that is available now, “Some of the new products we had hoped would help with resistance have been delayed in getting government approval, and farmers want tools they can use today. So many are turning to the Liberty system to deal with the problem now.” But he warns making the switch to Liberty has a learning curve, “Farmers have to learn to do some things differently from when they used the Roundup system. They have to start their weed control program earlier and monitor their fields closely.” He said it takes some practice to manage a residual herbicide program. Going forward, he added, this is the way a weed control program will need to be operated regardless of what product or system one uses.
Clouser says that more growers are learning to make the changes necessary and that the Liberty trait has not proven to have any yield drag when paired with the Beck’s genetics, “The Liberty system has worked well for growers using a wide variety of Beck’s varieties on a number of different fields and soil types.”