Australia
October 31, 2013

People who alternate between beer and wine on a night out still end up drunk. Unfortunately, alternating between glyphosate and paraquat could result in resistance to both.

Last week in Australian rural media, we heard from Andrew Storrie (Australian Glyphosate Sustainability Working Group) who reported a population of ryegrass that is resistant to both paraquat and glyphosate in a vineyard in Western Australia. Very scary stuff!

Resistant ryegrass survivors were found directly under the vines

Is this a freak event that will only happen in vineyards or is it a warning sign for broad acre agriculture?

AHRI researcher, Dr Roberto Busi published a paper in 2011 suggesting that perhaps resistance to glyphosate and paraquat could be linked. In this research, Roberto exposed ryegrass to low doses of glyphosate for three or four generations. This not only caused a shift towards glyphosate resistance, but the population also shifted toward paraquat resistance.

What does this all mean for herbicide rotation and the double knock strategy? Click here for more.
 

Website: http://www.ahri.uwa.edu.au/

Published: October 30, 2013