During the week of May 27^th, Brownfield will be visiting several farms in Iowa to get the farmers’ perspectives on the issue of herbicide management in weeds.  Stay tuned to your local Brownfield station for our reports and come back to this web site each day to see and hear their comments.

Farmers we’ll be visiting with on our weed management tour include:

Tom Oswald, who has been farming for 31 years and currently farms with his wife, Susanne, near Cleghorn. They raise no-till soybeans, strip till corn and do custom planting and harvesting. He attended Iowa State University, earning a B.S. in farm operations and a master’s degree in agriculture. He’s been involved with the Iowa Soybean Association, serving as an at-large director, at-large for the executive committee, secretary and treasurer. In addition, he has been involved with the Cherokee County Farm Bureau, serving as treasurer, secretary, vice president and president. Tom has also been a commissioner, vice chairman and chairman of the Cherokee County Soil & Water Conservation District. He’s active with the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce ag committee.

Cliff Mulder, who has been a farmer for 44 years and currently farms with his wife, Sheri, near Pella. They raise soybeans, corn, alfalfa, cattle and sheep. Cliff served in the U.S. Army following high school, attending officer candidate school with service as a first lieutenant. He’s been a director with the Iowa Soybean Association, a board member with the North Central Soybean Research Program and is a member of the Marion County Farm Bureau. Cliff has also been involved on the search committee for Iowa State University’s dean of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. Cliff is a member of the Faith Christian Reformed Church and has hosted farm tours for several University of Iowa international students.

Dean Coleman and his wife, Carol, who along with their son and his wife, raise corn and soybeans on their farm near Humboldt.  As an ISA director, Dean has chaired the Supply, Demand, Information & Education and Public Affairs Committees. He is currently the board president. He has been involved in rust risk analysis and has participated in ISA trade missions to the Philippines, China and Thailand. In addition to serving on the ISA board, Dean is chairman of the Humboldt County Soybean and Corn Growers. His involvement in Farm Bureau has included serving as county president, vice president and voting delegate. He was a member of the local elevator board and has been president and treasurer of the fair board.  He has also served as chairman of the Humboldt County Extension Council and as a 4-H leader. Dean serves as church trustee.  He has gone to Slidell, La.; Greensburg, Kan.; Redbird, Ky.; and Oakville, Iowa , as part of his church’s mission team, to help rebuild damaged homes, as well as helping build local Habitat for Humanity homes in Humboldt. 

Jeff Jorgenson and his wife, Jennifer, who farm near Sidney, where they raise corn and soybeans in addition to having a cow-calf herd.  He attended Northwest Missouri State in Maryville before returning to Sidney to farm. He has coached little league basketball and also helped with youth track. Jeff served on the Sidney school board until joining the ISA board to complete the term of another member.

Roger Wuthrich and his wife, DeAnn, who operate a corn, soybean and cattle operation near Bloomfield, where Roger has farmed for 32 years. In addition to serving as a township trustee for the FSA committee, Roger has served on the Pork Producers board and led in the building of a new pork stand. He has served as secretary-treasurer of the Davis County Corn and Soybean Growers and as a member of the state grassroots committee of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. He is a member of the ISA District 9 Advisory Council. In his community, he has served on a Development Corporation Board and the Courthouse Restoration Committee, and is an EMS crew member. He has held several offices as a trustee of his church.

Dennis Lindsay, who farms with his wife, Barb, near Masonville. He has farmed for 42 years, growing corn and soybeans. He serves as director of district 3 for the Iowa Soybean Association.

Mark Carlton is a field agronomist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in southeast Iowa. 

ISU Extension agronomist Mark Carlton

“For the past two or three years, we are seeing more and more waterhemp, giant ragweed and marestail—and after we make an application of a herbicide, they’re still living out there,” Carlton says. “I’m to the point here in 2013 where this whole resistance thing really has me concerned.”

Carlton believes most farmers are also concerned about herbicide resistance, “but I think it’s a matter of ‘maybe someone else has a problem and I haven’t seen it in my fields yet—or at least I haven’t recognized it’.

“That may be true,” Carlton says.  “However, my observation over the last three years is that it is evolving to the point to where, I think, every farmer in every field is going to have to recognize that we have the problem developing here.”

AUDIO: Mark Carlton (7:12 MP3)

Ed Anderson, director of supply and production systems with the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA), is excited about ISA’s new initiative to increase farmer awareness of herbicide resistance in weeds and offer advice on how to deal with it.

“I think it’s a real opportunity for us to get out in front of this problem,” Anderson says. “To provide some information and maybe even some additional opportunities for our farmers in Iowa, as well as others in the North Central region.”

ISA’s campaign will feature radio ads, a special web site, interviews with Iowa farmers, agronomists and weed experts, and social media messages.  The initiative challenges farmers to “Take Action”.

“I think the best advice is to be as proactive as possible,” Anderson says. “If you wait until the problem is occurring on your farm, you’re going to have a much difficult time managing weeds than if you are proactively out there, considering the long-term rather than the short-term.”

AUDIO: Ed Anderson (8:37 MP3)

Common waterhemp in a soybean field

Just how serious is the issue of herbicide resistance in weeds in Iowa?

“It’s increasing at an increasing rate,” says Iowa State University Extension weed scientist Mike Owen.  And Owen says while farmer awareness of the issue is growing, their response to the problem has been not been nearly as aggressive as it needs to be.

Owen says the biggest concerns right now in Iowa and across much of the Midwest are common waterhemp, giant ragweed and marestail.  But he’s also keeping a close eye on Palmer amaranth, the weed that has caused major headaches for Southern farmers.

AUDIO: Mike Owen (12:07 MP3)