PROSPER, N.D.-Many of the farmers at Peterson Farms Seed's annual Groundbreaker Field Day held here recently share the same concern-controlling herbicide-resistant weeds.
"It's a big problem, and it's going to get only worse," said Dale Rust, who farms corn and soybeans with his son, Brandon, near here.
They attended the event to learn more about increasing yields and controlling weeds that are showing resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
"Two years ago, a lot of us didn't even know what waterhemp looked like," Rust said. "We knew kochia was around, common ragweed's becoming a problem, but waterhemp exploded on us. Three years ago, there wasn't a one that I knew of, and now this year they're all over the place."
Glyphosate-resistant weeds are becoming a bigger problem every year, said Carl Peterson, president of Peterson Farms Seed.
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"It's something we've been talking about for a long time, and until it actually got here, it was very difficult to get farmers to take action," he said. "Now, you can't hardly take a drive throughout the countryside without seeing weeds sticking up out of a bean field."
LibertyLink soybeans and herbicide, which uses the chemical compound glufosinate instead of glyphosate, is a good option, Peterson said.
"It's a different mode of action, and that's what we really need to do to deal with resistant weeds, is to break up that mode of action," he said.
Peterson Farms Seed has also been testing some new soybean varieties, like Xtend from Monsanto and Enlist from Dow. They're not yet available, but Peterson expects they'll be approved before the 2016 planting season.
"We're going to need all the tools that we have to keep weeds under control, so we're excited about all of those," he said.
Attending events like the field day gives farmers a chance to see how the chemicals work and what the plants look like.
"It's very informational," said Brandon Rust, Dale Rust's son. "You learn all the new varieties, all the different new technologies we can use, and it just keeps you up to date with everything."
Growers also heard from speakers, like agronomist John McGillicuddy, who talked about managing farm budgets.
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"You can't budget for a loss," he said. "You have to at least be projecting, and so you have to use realistic yields, realistic prices, and unfortunately agronomy's a terribly local thing. There's a different answer for a different field, a different grower, different practices."
Peterson Farms Seed has been hosting the field day for more than a decade.
"Our goal for this field day is any farmer who comes here will take at least one piece of information back that they can apply to their operation, and it'll help them improve their yields in 2016," Peterson said. "That's how we're going to feed the world, and that's what it's all about."
