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Poll: farmers know herbicide resistance is a problem

Feb. 25, 2014, Mississauga, Ont. –  According to the third annual herbicide resistance poll conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of BASF Canada Inc., 86 per cent of growers say weed resistance is increasingly becoming a concern and most (89 per cent) agree they will adjust their growing practices to prevent herbicide resistance on their farm. Interestingly, less than half of those polled (44 percent) suspect they have troublesome weeds.

The telephone poll was conducted between Dec. 14 and 23, 2013, among a sample of 500 farmers in Western and Eastern Canada with minimum acre thresholds. 

Ian Heap, Ph.D., a global weed scientist and the director of the International Survey of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds, is monitoring the incidence of herbicide-resistant weeds from around the world with his team.

“There are 416 different herbicide-resistant weeds that occur around the world and Canada now has 59,” said Heap. “One of the most important things farmers can do to reduce the occurrence of herbicide resistance is mix things up – either by crop rotation, tank-mixing or by simply using different modes of action in sequence.”

According to the poll, growers do know how to combat the problem. Half of those polled agreed glyphosate alone is no longer effective in controlling weeds. The majority (96 per cent) also indicated they used herbicides from more than one herbicide group to manage weeds and 98 per cent said they used crop rotation as an effective herbicide-resistant weed management strategy.

Full tabular results of the poll are available at www.ipsos.ca.

February 25, 2014  By Top Crop Manager