Category Archives: Herbicides

30 Years Ago, We Knew Herbicides Increased Canadian Wheat Yields

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Canada ranks sixth in the world in wheat production and is the second largest exporter of wheat with 70% of its production exported annually. Since 1960, wheat yields have doubled in Canada. A group of Canadian researchers set out to identify the key factors accounting for the yield increase…

From abstract: “Therefore, we suggest that chemical weed control was the main contributing factor to the yield increases. This control has resulted not only in reduced competition from weeds, but also in better seedbed moisture because fewer cultivations are needed in the spring. “

“Because of the ability to control weeds with chemicals, it is now also possible to seed shallowly into a moist seedbed immediately after one cultivation since numerous spring cultivations with a resultant loss of valuable soil moisture are no longer necessary to eliminate germinating seeds. Fertilizer application and improved cultivars have also contributed, but to a lesser degree, to the yield increases.”

Authors: S. Freyman et al.
Affiliation: Agriculture Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Title: Yield trends on long-term dryland wheat rotations at Lethbridge.
Publication: Canadian Journal of Plant Science. (1981) 61:609-619.

Sustainable Ag Pioneers Learn Value of Modern Herbicides

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Dick and Sharon Thompson of Boone, Iowa are pioneering giants of the sustainable agriculture research agenda in the U.S. They helped found Practical Farmers of Iowa. Since 1986, the Thompsons have conducted on-farm research trials and have produced an annual report. The Thompson farm is not organic; however, they generally do not use herbicides, preferring to use a rotary hoe to destroy weeds. In most years, the mechanical control works well, but then came the very rainy 2008 growing season…

“2008 was not a good year for soybeans because of weather, rain and more rain. This was the first year that we lost money on a soybean field. We could not rotary hoe. The beans were good size when we cultivated the first time (June 24). The cultivator threw soil in and around the bean plants, looked like an excellent job. It rained 1.25 inches two days later on June 26 starting all the weed seed we pushed into the row. We had grass in the row, which is not the norm, along with broadleaf weeds. … The field was a mess. The rope wicks attached [to] our old hyboy filled with round up [herbicide] went up and back on the same rows to kill the weeds so that our small combine could harvest the field. The rope wick killed the weeds and the combine was able to handle the dead weeds. The yield was 37 bushel per acre, 7 bushel below county average of 44 and we lost $49 per acre. The field was sprayed for aphids adding more expense.”

“We could not manage weeds in the end rows of corn and soybean fields without herbicides.”

Authors: Dick and Sharon Thompson
Publication: Thompson Agriculture Alternatives 2009 Report
Available at: http://www.practicalfarmers.org/resources/alternatives-in-agriculture.html

Herbicides Eliminated Inhumane Drudgery of Weeding Rice

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For centuries, rice fields in Japan were weeded by millions of people who spent their summers in the hot, humid, muddy fields working in a stooped position that could cause permanent back pain and damage. Herbicides freed people from this drudgery…

“For a long time before 1949, all weeding in rice fields had to be done by man-power. It was so severe and cruel labor for farmers. Modernized weeding, that is with the use of herbicides, has saved them from these physical and mental pains.”

“Herbicide has brought a great benefit to rice cultivation… in liberation from the inhumane physical and mental pains of farmers during serious weeding labor in hot, humid and muddy paddy fields. …for the ‘perfect’ hand weeding we need 506 hours/hectare, which can be calculated as the work of 1.89 million people every day for 60 days in summer all over Japan. It is not practical in the present status in this country.”

Author: Shooichi Matsunaka
Affiliation: Former President of the International Weed Science Society
Title: Historical review of rice herbicides in Japan
Publication: Weed Biology and Management. 2001. 1:10-14.

Jimmy Carter Lived the Weed Nightmare

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Our 39th President, Jimmy Carter, grew up on a peanut and cotton farm long before herbicides were available to manage weeds. In his autobiography, President Carter recounts the nightmare of trying to control weeds with tractors and hand labor.

“Our part of Georgia receives about fifty inches of rain during an average year, mostly during the spring and early summer… However, depending entirely on draft animals and hand labor, small variations in the rain pattern could be devastating. … The dry ground permitted the mule-drawn cultivating plows and hoes to restrain the ever-encroaching weeds and grass. However, when no plowing was possible because of several successive days of rain, the noxious plants were uncontrollable. Something like the terrible creeping and oozing things in horror movies, Bermuda grass, coffeeweed, cocklebur, Johnsongrass, beggar-lice, and nut grass would emerge from what had been a cleanly cultivated field, and in a few days our entire crop of young peanuts and cotton could be submerged in a sea of weeds. Often, despite the most heroic efforts by the best farmers, parts of the crop would have to be abandoned. Although partially salvaged, the remaining young plants were heavily damaged by the aggressive plowing and hoeing. During these rainy times, Daddy would pace at night, scan the western skies for a break in the clouds, and scour the community, often far from our own farm, to recruit any person willing to hoe or pull up weeds for day wages.”

Author: Jimmy Carter
Publication: An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood. 2001. Simon & Schuster, New York.

Herbicide Use Can Increase Bumblebee Populations

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Bumblebees play a crucial role in crop and wildflower pollination. One way to increase bumblebee populations would be to increase the number of wildflowers growing in grassy strips around crop fields. Recent research in the UK has shown that by sowing wildflowers around crop fields where grasses have been suppressed with herbicides, bumblebee populations increase.

“The benefit of applying graminicide [herbicide targeting grasses] was confirmed by a significant increase in sown wildflower cover. This supports previous work showing that graminicide applications can reduce levels of competitive grasses and promote the development of wildflowers.”

“This study has demonstrated that wildflowers can be successfully introduced into existing grass buffer strips when managed with a combination of cultivation, seed and graminicide, producing greater bumblebee abundances than existing conventionally managed strips.”

Authors: Robin J. Blake et al.
Affiliation: Center for Agri-Environmental Research, University of Reading, UK
Title: Enhancing habitat to help the plight of the bumblebee.
Publication: Pest Management Science (2011) 67:377-379.

Organic Wheat Growing a Threat to Food Security in India

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There are a small number of organic wheat growers in India. These growers do not use herbicides to control weed populations and, as a result, organic wheat yields are 37% lower than growers who use herbicides. A recent in-country study looked at the implications for food security in India…

“The study has clearly brought out that though the organic wheat cultivation has been found much more profitable for the growers in the study area, the significant reduction in its productivity level poses a serious challenge in term[s] of food security of the nation.”

Authors: Inder Pal Singh and D.K. Grover
Affiliation: Agro Economic Research Centre, Punjab Agricultural University
Title: Economic viability of organic farming: An empirical experience of wheat cultivation in Punjab.
Publication: Agricultural Economics Research Review. 2011. 24:275-281.

Organic Foods Cost More Due to Lack of Herbicides

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Organic growers do not use synthetic chemicals for controlling weeds. Many organic growers rely on workers to remove weeds by hand. However, hand-weeding labor is much more expensive than the use of herbicides – as high as $1000/acre in comparison to $50/acre. The increased cost of weeding is one of the reasons that organic food costs more, a point recently made by the well-known food writer, Michael Pollan…

“There are several reasons organic food costs more than conventional food. … Farming without chemicals is inherently more labor-intensive, especially when it comes to weeding.”

Author: Michael Pollan
Title: “Michael Pollan Answers Reader’s Questions”
Publication: The New York Times Magazine. October 6, 2011. pp.34-36.

Herbicides Essential for German Sugar Beets

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Germany is a major sugar producer because of a significant number of sugar beet hectares. Historically, weeds were removed from these fields by handweeding. Today, however, herbicides are indispensable because such labor would be prohibitively costly, a point made recently by German researchers…..

“The application of herbicides in sugar beet is essential to prevent yield loss due to weed competition. … Consequently, herbicides are extensively used in sugar beet in almost 100% of the conventionally cultivated fields in Germany.”

Authors: Andreas Marwitz, Erwin Ladewig and Bernward Märländer
Affiliation: Institute of Sugar Beet Research, 37079 Göttingen, Germany
Title: Impact of herbicide application intensity in relation to environment and tillage on earthworm population in sugar beet in Germany.
Publication: European Journal of Agronomy. 2012. 39:25-34