Australia
May 14, 2014
We are creatures of habit. For some reason I always buy Colgate toothpaste, the other brands don’t even get a look in. Mrs Marsh was just so trustworthy and I daren’t use another brand for fear of my teeth falling out.
Similarly, when it comes to knockdown herbicides, most growers automatically reach for the glyphosate. Such a reliable, brilliant herbicide that rarely lets them down.
But this year may be the first year that glyphosate fails for many Australian grain growers as resistance to this herbicide is going through the roof in some areas.
Random surveys of WA by AHRI researcher Mechelle Owen in 2010 found that 7% of paddocks surveyed had glyphosate resistant ryegrass. This was up from 1% in 2003. Another survey (not random) by Sally Peltzer from DAFWA in the South West of Western Australia in 2013 found that 44% of paddocks surveyed had glyphosate resistant ryegrass. Other surveys by John Broster, CSU, and Peter Boutsalis, Plant Science Consulting, are also turning up plenty of glyphosate resistance.
The short term answer is to use more paraquat based products and don’t automatically reach for the glyphosate. However, this is not a long term solution as paraquat resistance will result. There can be only one true long term solution and that is to farm with a very low weed seed bank.
Take no prisoners.
To see the Australia-wide escalation of glyphosate resistance in ryegrass click here.
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