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Soybean agronomist suggests next weed control “silver bullet” isn’t coming

An extension soybean agronomist is concerned about the long-term outlook for controlling weeds.

Seth Naeve with the University of Minnesota says because herbicide resistance isn’t slowing down, alternative management strategies are becoming more necessary.

“Farmers unfortunately I think have this thing that we call ‘techno optimism’ where they’re just focused on the idea that there will be another silver bullet coming around, and there just aren’t any.”

He tells Brownfield some waterhemp populations have shown resistance to five different herbicide modes of action.

“That five-way resistance exactly matches up with some of the new, next generation of soybean resistance that’s coming out. So it’s simply, the newest tools we have are already going to be obsolete before we have them.”

Naeve says the timing of planting, narrow row spacing, cultivation, cover crops, and weed-seed destroyers on combines can all play a part in suppressing weeds.