Moving Beyond Just Herbicides

By: John Hart

The clear takeaway message: Farmers can’t rely on herbicides alone to control tough weeds.
Farm journalists from across the country received a short course in managing resistant weeds during the Syngenta Media Summit held Oct. 28 at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary, N.C.

In a panel discussion at the summit, Dane Bowers and Gordon Vail, Syngenta’s technical product leads for herbicides; Tim Hambrick, area field crop agent for Forsyth, Stokes, and Surry Counties with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service; and Dorchester, Nebraska farmer Jayme Dick-Burkey all agreed that cover crops, hand pulling and tillage practices play critical roles in managing resistant weeds in addition to the use of herbicides.