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2018 Herbicide Resistance Summit Preview

The Herbicide Resistance Summit is a bi-annual conference brought to you by Top Crop Manager (TCM) and a group of generous sponsors that aims to facilitate a more unified understanding of herbicide resistance and promote awareness that all industry members have a role to play in managing the growing threat of herbicide resistance.

December 6, 2017  By Top Crop Manager Staff


The Herbicide Resistance Summit is a bi-annual conference brought to you by Top Crop Manager

At the event, being held at Saskatoon’s TCU Place, leading researchers will present on key issues faced by farmers, agronomists and crop protection researchers in meeting the challenges herbicide resistance poses to agricultural productivity in Canada.

Attendees will be presented with up-to-date data and specific actions that can be taken to help minimize the devastating impact of herbicide resistance in their fields. The 2018 Herbicide Resistance Summit has also been approved for approved for 5 CCA-CEUs and 7.5 CCSC-CEUs.

Discussion topics and speakers:

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State of herbicide resistance in Western Canada
Hugh Beckie, weed scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and adjunct professor, Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science at the University of Alberta.

Since the initial discovery of herbicide-resistant (HR) weeds in the late 1980s in Western Canada, the majority of annual cropland across the prairies is now affected by HR weeds – most notably wild oat, green foxtail, kochia, and cleavers.

Beckie will discuss the results of the 2014-15 Saskatchewan weed resistance survey and the 2016 Manitoba survey (Alberta was surveyed in 2017 but results pending), as well as 2012-2016 test results of samples submitted by producers or industry.

Additionally, the results of Saskatchewan and Manitoba producer management questionnaires regarding adoption of weed resistance management practices and cost of resistance will be highlighted, in the context of recommended best management practices.


Herbicide use in Canada: Results from TCM’s inaugural survey
Gerald Bramm, president of Bramm Research

Get an early look at the results of TCM’s first-ever Herbicide Use Survey, plus exclusive insights to help you gain a deeper understanding of how herbicides are being used in your area and across the country.


Evolution of resistance: Amaranth species and Group 14 herbicides
Franck Dayan, professor in the Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University

Franck Dayan will focus on how two plants from the Amaranth species (waterhemp and Palmer amaranth) have evolved to resist Group 14 herbicides. He will explain how Protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO, Group 14) herbicides work, as well as cover the research underway to help growers deal with these resistant weeds.

A few of the key takeaways from the presentation will include strategies to manage and mitigate this type of herbicide resistance, including the role of crop rotation and avoiding the application of herbicides with the same mode of action over several years.


KEYNOTE: Global efforts to prevent herbicide resistance
Mark Peterson, chairman, Herbicide Resistance Action Committee

Resistant weeds have been around almost since the beginning of synthetic herbicides, but the issue has taken on a new urgency in the past few years.  Basic evolutionary biology principles drive the development of resistance and understanding these principles can help design resistance management programs.  Adoption of best management practices can help preserve our critically important herbicide tools.


Using Agronomy to Control Weeds – What Works and What Doesn’t  
Steve Shirtliffe, professor in the department of Plant Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan

Decades of research and experience has taught us one unequivocal truth: Using herbicides selects for herbicide resistant weeds. However, when scientists are pressed for solutions they often offer up a shopping list of every possible chemical and non-chemical method that can control weeds. This presentation will attempt to cut through the vagueness of scientific recommendations and give farmers key practical advice on how to effectively control weeds while reducing the likelihood of selecting for herbicide resistance. Shirtliffe will be looking back at a couple decades worth of alternative weed control research and critically evaluate the potential as well as the pitfalls of these methods. These weed control methods include growing competitive crop varieties, harvest weed seed management, mechanical weed control, alternative herbicide application methods and combining tactics.


Distribution and control of glyphosate-resistant weeds in Ontario
Peter H. Sikkema, professor of Field Crop Weed Management, University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus

Glyphosate resistant (GR) common ragweed, waterhemp, giant ragweed and Canada fleabane have been confirmed in 1, 3, 6 and 30 counties in Ontario, respectively.

Surveys show that over time the number of locations is increasing and GR weeds are found over a wider geographical area. In Ontario studies, GR Canada fleabane interference reduced corn and soybean yield 65 and 71 per cent, and GR waterhemp competition reduced corn and soybean yield 52 and 32 per cent, respectively.

A nine-year Integrated Weed Management study has been established on two Ontario farms to determine if GR waterhemp seed in the seedbank can be depleted. It is important to implement weed management practices that limit the selection of additional herbicide-resistant weeds. This will ensure the usefulness of glyphosate and GR crops for many years in the future.


KEYNOTE: Emergence and status of herbicide resistance in Europe and its management
Josef Soukup, professor in the department of agroecology and biometeorology at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic

Soukup will present an overview of European agricultural practices and factors leading to the emergence and spread of
herbicide resistance and main threats for the future.

Diversity of cropping systems, environmental conditions and weed flora produce a variety of specific cases of herbicide resistance. An overview of major European agricultural practices and factors leading to the emergence and spread of herbicide resistance and main threats for the future will be presented. Solutions-focused information will be shared with participants about the strategies for management and mitigation of herbicide resistance, which are being implemented on farms voluntarily or as a consequence of recent political documents such as EU directives ensuring sustainable use of pesticides.


Harvest Weed Seed Control in the Canadian Context
Breanne Tidemann, research scientist with AAFC

Explore the theory behind harvest weed seed control, its use in Australia, the adoption levels there, and the newest techniques. Tidemann will provide an overview of research conducted in Canada on the potential for harvest weed seed control, its potential to control problematic species like wild oat, cleavers, volunteer canola and kochia, and cropping system opportunities (i.e., swathing versus straight-cutting).

She will also provide updates on Harrington Seed Destructor stationary testing and the implementation of field testing in Canada. Tidemann and her team have learned a number of valuable lessons already in fall 2017 on using the Harrington Seed Destructor in Western Canada, and those lessons will be shared with the audience.


Managing resistance with sprayer application technology
Tom Wolf, founder of Agrimetrix Research & Training

It has been reported that repeated use of sub-lethal herbicide doses can accelerate the development of resistant weed populations for outcrossing species such as rigid ryegrass, palmer amaranth and kochia. Herbicide dose can be sub-lethal for to a number of reasons, including poor nozzle patternation (linked to spray pressure and boom height), and also spray displacement due to spray quality, wind, and sprayer-induced turbulence. This presentation will report on new research that documents spray deposit uniformity for a number of common application methods.


Group 4 resistance and the North American Kochia Action Committee
Todd Gaines, assistant professor of bioagricultural sciences and pest management, Colorado State University

Gaines will cover the current status of Group 4 resistance in weeds, an overview of the North American Kochia Action Committee, and mechanisms of dicamba resistance in kochia. Much progress has been made recently in the understanding of how weeds can evolve resistance to Group 4 herbicides. He will share the currently-known distribution and frequency of Group 4 resistant weeds, as well as discuss several recently discovered resistance mechanisms including dicamba resistance in kochia. The North American Kochia Action Committee formed in 2017 to bring together a group focused on kochia biology, management, and herbicide resistance, and Gaines will cover the objectives and role of the committee.

Register for the 2018 Herbicide Resistance Summit now! www.weedsummit.ca/event/registration

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