Fresh Ideas for Resistance Management

In a recent article in Delta Farm Press, Ford L. Baldwin of Practical Weed Consultants LLC. makes an argument in favor of rice as a resistance management tool in the South.  In his rationale, Baldwin explains that rice growing in Arkansas is essential for a solid crop rotation that will allow growers to rotate modes-of-action in the herbicides they use to target different weeds.  In Southern states, growing rice in rotation with corn and soybeans also works to manage resistance in rice fields.

However, the complications of an effective resistance management program are every field’s unique history and weed pressure, so it can be a challenge to develop a specific plan that is best catered to individual fields.  The basics should always remain in play, like rotating crops and chemical modes of action, using tank mixes, using pre-emergence, residual herbicides, applying full rates and following correct application timing instructions.  But, more specific recommendations, like the one mentioned above, can be made.  Sharing what works and what doesn’t work is key to helping everyone learn better practices to delay the onset of resistance.

Where have you learned the resistance management practices implement on your fields– retailer, consultant, university extension, agricultural magazines and publications, other? What methods, whether traditional or experimental, seem to work best in your circumstance?