Cover Crops: One More Tool in the Fight against Herbicide Resistance
MSPB doctoral fellow finds cover crops combined with residual herbicide provides great weed control
CANTON (Oct. 20, 2015) Herbicide-resistant weeds are not new to Mississippi farmers, and the days of thinking about herbicides as the only weed management option are gone. Now that PPO resistance has been detected in Palmer amaranth, it’s imperative that farmers find more ways to fight herbicide resistance.
Ryan Edwards, Ph.D., and recipient of Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board’s (MSPB) T.S. Bufkin Doctoral Fellowship, found that cover crops in combination with residual herbicides can reduce weed emergence and growth, specifically Palmer amaranth, upon completing his three-year research project.
“Palmer is a complete game-changer weed – you either stop it or you have to change your mindset,” Edwards says. “And, although cover crops are a large investment, it is another option for Palmer control.”
Edwards’ research showed that the use of cereal cover crops alone wasn’t adequate to manage Palmer amaranth, since it only reduced the field population to 67 percent. However, cover crops paired with a residual herbicide provided control that was greater than 89 percent at 28 days after treatment. He also found that with all cereal cover crop species tested, cutting them 10 centimeters above the soil and leaving the residue reduced weed numbers compared with other cover crop termination methods. Out of the cereal cover crops tested, he found that cereal rye was the most effective in suppressing weeds.
“From our experiments, it didn’t matter which residuals or which cereal grains you used, having that synergism between the two really did knock down the early growth of the amaranth species and kept the weeds out for three or four weeks, which gave the crop time to become established,” adds Edwards.
MSPB believes the success of the soybean industry in Mississippi relies in part on the presence and stability of a public research program that addresses production challenges faced by the state’s soybean farmers. For this reason, MSPB continues to support the post-graduate educational development of soybean scientists, especially in the area of production agronomy.
MSPB annually invests over $225,000 in the current three soybean doctoral fellowships at Mississippi State University, The newest fellowship was awarded to John North in honor of Billy Moore, Ph.D. Moore is recognized as a preeminent authority on Mid-South soybean diseases and their control, and is a longtime supporter of Mississippi soybean farmers. The fellowship provides an annual stipend of $30,000, plus tuition and fees, for up to three years to a new Ph.D. candidate who is not already being funded as part of an MSPB project. It also includes a funded research project not to exceed $30,000 per year for that period, provided that the student makes satisfactory progress towards degree completion.
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MSPB is made up of 12 farmer-directors who oversee the investments of the soy checkoff on behalf of all Mississippi soybean farmers. These volunteers work to increase soybean farmer profitability by investing checkoff dollars in ongoing public research and extension programs that address Mississippi production challenges, thereby driving the adoption of best management practices developed through research and ensuring the sustainability of Mississippi soybean production.
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