The development of herbicides has made management easier in crop production; however, it has also led to problems with some weeds developing resistance to these weed killers.
Iowa State University Extension Weed Specialist Mike Owen said the changes in Iowa agriculture over the past 30 years have led to different ways of managing crop production.
From aggressive tillage in the 1970s to the introduction of acetolactate synthase inhibiting herbicides in the 1980s and then the application of imidazolinone and sulfonyl urea herbicides on nearly all of the crop land, Owen said farmers have seen challenges because of some of these practices.
"Despite warnings that this production practice would result in significant problems, commercial agriculture continued with the unsustainable practice of using one type of herbicide exclusively, and the inevitable resistant weed problem evolved as predicted," he said.
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