Roundup Resistant Palmer Pigweed Costs Farmers Cash

Date:03-01-2010


Palmer pigweed is expected to be an agricultural nightmare as it has become resistant to Roundup, Monsantos glyphosate-based herbicide, according to The Commercial Appeal.

Larry Steckel, a University of Tennessee weed specialist, said farmers are resorting to herbicides used in the 1980s and 1990s -- at a cost of about US$35 to $40 per acre per season. Roundup costs farmers about $10 per acre per season. Steckel says Palmer pigweed is expected to have a huge presence on cotton fields in the mid-South US this year.

A difficult pest, Palmer pigweed has to be sprayed for prior to its emergence from the ground, or else the weeds become like "steel" and must be pulled out by hand.