EXTRACT: "Their fear is that it's going to be on huge acres of fields this year and I think it most likely will be," [Larry Steckel, a University of Tennessee weed specialist] said. "It's changed everything."
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'Monster weed' escapes chemical lasso
Toby Sells
The Commercial Appeal, February 26 2010
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/feb/26/monster-weed-escapes-chemical-lasso/

Weeds have always bedeviled farmers, but as planting season begins, Palmer pigweed -- called a "monster weed" -- is expected to be an agricultural "game changer."

That's because it has become resistant to Monsanto's ubiquitous Roundup herbicide, a glysophate-based weed killer that has been the top-selling herbicide for decades.

Monsanto said 2009 sales of Roundup were about $1.8 billion, and sales of other glysophate-based herbicides were $422 million.

Monsanto pairs the weed killer with its seeds that are genetically modified to be resistant to it. So, if a farmer sprays Roundup on a field, it will kill everything but those plants modified to resist it. While Monsanto engineered this trait into crop seeds in laboratories, pigweed and a handful of other weeds have developed it on their own.

Larry Steckel, a University of Tennessee weed specialist in Jackson, Tenn., said farmers are now turning to herbicides used in the 1980s and 1990s to weed their fields. While Roundup costs farmers about $10 per acre per season, these other chemicals can cost $35-$40 per acre per season, shaving already thin profit margins.

He said the problem is top of mind for Mid-South farmers on both sides of the Mississippi River from the Missouri Bootheel to Tunica County.

"Their fear is that it's going to be on huge acres of fields this year and I think it most likely will be," Steckel said. "It's changed everything."

The existence of glysophate-resistant weeds was a rumor in 2004. Pigweed first emerged on a Georgia farm in 2005 and slowly made its way across the South and now to 18 states. It first showed up on a Tennessee farm in late 2005.

Dyersburg cotton and soybean farmer Jimmy Moody said he has worried about Roundup-resistant weeds for a long time but that it finally "exploded on us last year."

He said he'll spray Roundup again this year and spray a herbicide mixture just for pigweed. But farmers have to spray for pigweed before it comes out of the ground or else the weeds become "steel" and have to be pulled out by hand.

"If we can't control the weeds, you just can't grow cotton with them," Moody said. "The worst possible scenario is that it puts us out of business."

While one crop-input problem rarely gets a spotlight at the annual Mid-South Farm and Gin Show, this year's show will feature a special seminar solely devoted to glysophate-resistant weeds.

"Sometimes an issue comes along that we think merits a highlight," said Timothy Price, the show's manager. "Our industry openly and honestly looks at challenges and tries to find solutions."

Price said about 20 companies will bring a total of 40-50 products or services to deal with glysophate-resistant weeds.

The 58th annual Mid-South Farm and Gin Show opens this morning and ends at 4:30 p.m. Saturday Downtown at the Memphis Cook Convention Center.