I've noticed some corn fields where the weeds are so high, you can't see the corn. Is that a result of the wet spring or because farmers aren't using Round up to keep the weeds down?
all the above and other reasons Jim. What you are seeing to a large degree are giant rag weeds which are not affected by a fall burn down. Also they love warm and wet. esp around the edges of fields coming in from the boarders. Wet you say? Yes many farmers still work the corn ground prior to planting and we all know that was not possible in most areas. Also too wet too spray. That's one of my chief concerns with prevented planting is care of the ground all summer and fall
It is interesting that certain weeds fav our certain conditions. A wet spring has a different flush of weeds than a dry year
http://www.glyphosate.eu/history-glyphosate
The substance glyphosate was initially discovered in 1950 by a Swiss chemist, Henri Martin, at the pharmaceutical company Cilag. At that stage the product had no pharmaceutical purpose, and it was not until the seventies that glyphosate was discovered to have herbicidal activity. At that time Monsanto Company was testing different compounds as potential water-softening agents when it found that two molecules closely related to glyphosate had some herbicidal activity against perennial weeds. The scientist John Franz then synthesized derivatives of those two compounds and quickly discovered glyphosate to be a potent herbicide, which was subsequently patented under the trade name “Roundup®”. Roundup® was first commercialized in Malaysia for rubber and in the United Kingdom for wheat in 1974. The first US approval, also in 1974, was for industrial non-crop use. In agriculture, glyphosate was first developed for weed control in stubbles in all crops. Later its use was extended to include additional applications including pre-harvest in cereals and oilseed crops.
Since its first introduction, glyphosate has become one of the most widely used broad-spectrum herbicides around the globe with a significant impact on worldwide crop production practices. For “the impact of glyphosate upon the production of agricultural food and fibre throughout the world”, the scientist John Franz received the U.S. National Medal of Technology in 1987.
Initially patented by Monsanto, glyphosate is now marketed by over 40 companies under an assortment of trade names, after its US patent expired in 2000. Glyphosate is now widely registered in all the countries of the European Union including France, Germany and Sweden, representing each of the regulatory zones, South, Central and North. Over 2000 plant protection products containing glyphosate are currently registered in Europe for use on croplands. Its broad-spectrum effectiveness and the simplicity of weed control have made glyphosate one of the most popular herbicides in agriculture, gardens and non-cultivated areas.
Last update: 25 October 2012
So it looks like the production and use of round up/glyphosate had not been well known and certainly not in mass production in the 1960's.
Otherwise, during the Vietnam War, one would think that glyphosate would have been a better choice to use, instead of the one they did and called "Agent Orange" because of the color of the barrels it came in.
What the US did for a decade spraying to defoliate the jungle but even more so, to kill the food crops and starve the people was an atrocity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
Half the chemical(weaker half) that they used is related to the broad-leaf herbicide that many of us spray on our lawns to kill weeds...........2-4 D.
But the other half was way stronger and much more harmful. I thought that I read previously that they jacked up the concentration of this potent chemical to make it more effective and this is the main reason it did unimaginable damage. Hard to imagine that people with a conscience could do this to other human beings, animals and the environment.............for an entire decade!
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/environmental/html/245t.htm
2-4 D.
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/24Dgen.html
Mike, we are talking about a country that injected syphilis into black people just to see what would happen if it was left untreated. Man's inhumanity to man never ceases to amaze me.
I believe it was more the dioxin impurities that were the major carcinogen in the spray, could be mistaken.
Weeds, in general, are becoming more resistant to Glyphosate. And these cool wet conditions are causing the weed to become lethargic and not actively growing to absorb chemical to grow itself to death.
Nature protects it's own.
Thanks cliff, mcfarmer and jim.
Imagine what life was like farming 80 years ago? How about during the Dust Bowl years?
Years ago weed control was done with moldboard plows or by hand weeding...I recall walking soybean fields hour after hour day after day to pull weeds. And then we rode thru on bean buggies and spot sprayed weeds...still labor intensive but it worked but the farm economy worsened which meant less population and available help to do weed control as well as a lot of other things. Then chemical co.'s introduced sprays that worked for awhile but the weeds became resistant and then glyphosate tolerant crops were intro'd. Now we have glyphosate resistance and very few new chemical compounds are being introduced but the weeds eventually get resistant to them anyway.
A weed won't survive being pulled out by hand or the "cold steel' of a moldboard plow or some other tillage tools. This is something ag universities and chemical co.'s need to realize again.