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Winona is ninth Minnesota county to confirm Palmer amaranth

Palmer amaranth has been discovered in another southeast Minnesota county.

Tony Cortilet with the Minnesota Department of Ag says a crop consultant scouting for weeds in a Winona County soybean field reached out a couple weeks ago.

“Saw some strange pigweeds and brought it to our attention. We were out on site within the day, and were able to morphologically tell that it was Palmer amaranth.”

He tells Brownfield the noxious weed tested positive for resistance to glyphosate.

“But not to the other PPO modes of action. So that is positive for us moving forward with this particular grower, and (for) managing that field in the future.”

Cortilet says farmers should be looking for any pigweed they’re not used to seeing.

“The good news is in Minnesota there are not these established stands. All the Palmer that we’ve dealt with thus far we have controlled it in year one and stayed on it with the grower. And the growers are also helping.”

Winona is the ninth county in Minnesota to confirm the presence of Palmer amaranth.