Farmers still have a fighting chance to stop Palmer Amaranth, a tough yield-robbing weed, from spreading in Iowa.
The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach are working together to provide information to keep the weed at bay. Native to the southwestern United States, Palmer was first officially identified in Iowa last September. There are now documented cases in Harrison, Page, Muscatine, Fremont and Davis counties. Herbicide resistance, primarily to glyphosate, is an issue.
“We’re at a point that we can really restrict how quickly it spreads,” said Mike Owen, ISU weed specialist. “If we ignore it, in the next 10 years it could be infesting half the (row crop) acres in Iowa.”
That will decimate yields and the bottom line.
