Roundup-Ready Marestail Confirmed In Eastern Montana; Can Cut Soy Yields By 87%

[hatrack]

Neighboring eastern Montana has its first verified case of glyphosate-resistant Conyza Canadensis, more commonly known as horseweed or marestail.

While Williams County Extension Agent Danielle Steinhoff said resistant marestail has not yet been identified in Williams County or surrounding areas that she knows of, she suggested that producers be vigilant this coming spring about reporting it if they happen to notice an instance. And though it hasn’t been verified in the North Dakota side, Glyphosate-resistant marestail was confirmed in southwest Cass County in a soybean field in 2011.

Marestail is a native plant that can sap yields in soybean and other fields by as much as 87 percent. Resistant varieties have already swept into a number of states throughout the continental United States, partly due to how easily the seeds spread. One plant can produce up to 200,000 seeds, which can be dispersed on the wind as much as 100 miles in one flight.

It is not known whether the resistant plants found in Montana adapted there or blew in from another state. However, in general, the selection and spread of herbicide resistance has occurred due to over-reliance on glyphosate and the failure to develop integrated weed management programs.

EDIT

http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/news/nation-and-world/3928245-resistant-marestail-rears-eastern-montana-fields

[djean111]

1. Gee, who could have foreseen this happening?

I wonder if Monsanto has another herbicide waiting in the wings?
And - can something like this happen to corn and wheat and rice? Not, of course, the same exact problem.

[n2doc]

2. Nature always finds a way n/t

[pscot]

3. Cool

[cprise]

4. That assumption about adaptation going into retirement

...the moment a genetic engineer casts his/her gaze upon a plot of land -- its turning into quite a liability.

[Nihil]

5. Yeah ...

... but apparently we're "anti-science" & "left-wing Luddites" if we don't bow down and
swallow whatever GMO or "Advanced Technology" crap the resident astro-turfers try to
force on us ... go figure ...

(Strange how they didn't leap in to defend Bayer from their own admission about
neo-nics being bad for bees ... you'd have thought that all the "true believers" would
have been there to re-word the press releases ...)