This wasn’t really a surprise to anyone, but the Supreme Court released their decision and opinion in the Bowman v. Monsanto Co. case. The case revolved around a farmer purchasing soybean seed from a local elevator, planting the seed, spraying it with Roundup, then harvesting the seed to plant the following season. He did this for [...]
In the latest issue of Nature, Natasha Gilbert takes “A hard look at GM crops.” Ms. Gilbert states: “it can be hard to see where scientific evidence ends and dogma and speculation begin.” “Researchers, farmers, activists and GM seed companies all stridently promote their views, but the scientific data are often inconclusive or contradictory. Complicated [...]
The latest USDA-NASS crop weather report for Wyoming didn’t paint a very bright picture for the state. Winter wheat condition was rated at 38% good, 39% fair, and 23% poor or very poor. Yesterday, I was out looking at our winter wheat research plots at SAREC near Lingle, WY. I’d say my wheat strip falls [...]
by Andrew Kniss & Abdel Mesbah At a recent meeting in Powell, I was asked how to best use ethofumesate (active ingredient in Nortron SC and other herbicides) in fields that must be furrow irrigated for sugarbeet emergence. This is a difficult question. Ethofumesate (and almost all soil applied herbicides) require soil moisture to be [...]
A new publication from the University of Wyoming Extension is now available! The Wyoming Weed Watchlist Field Guide is designed to enhance prevention and early detection efforts of weeds not yet widely established in Wyoming. It was developed by students enrolled in the University of Wyoming’s Invasive Plant Ecology course of fall semester 2010. Each weed profile [...]
The Control Freaks are headed to San Diego for the annual meeting of the Western Society of Weed Science. When all is said and done, University of Wyoming weed science will have presented 12 different papers or posters summarizing a variety of research projects. It’s been a busy couple of weeks getting everything ready. We will be [...]
This little thought-piece was originally prepared for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup several years ago, but requests come in every now and then from different sources for it. I thought I would share here so it is more easily available. Every now and then I get a quiet weekend afternoon to take some time for myself. [...]
Just saw a link to a story on the Guardian titled “Common pesticides ‘can kill frogs within an hour’“. Obviously, my interest was peaked. Global amphibian decline is a well-noted phenomenon, and it is possible that pesticides may play some role. But killing frogs “within an hour” is a pretty shocking result for a pesticide [...]
We continue to get quite a few questions about weed control in sainfoin. Unfortunately, there are very few herbicide options currently registered for use in sainfoin (only 6 different active ingredients). We are investigating some additional herbicides in ongoing research trials. Although several herbicides look promising in our trials, these potential options will not be [...]
Ask any sugarbeet grower in the US how their lives have changed since the commercialization of Roundup Ready beets. Really. Ask them. Before you rail against the technology, or denounce the evil corporations for creating them. Before you argue on twitter or Facebook about how good or bad the technology is for society. Before you [...]