After attending several meetings this winter where I thought the speakers were trying to scare farmers out of their coveralls over the threat posed by glyphosate resistant weeds, I found Brian Hefty’s recent “we-can-handle-it” take on the problem reassuring.

Hefty – a Baltic, S.D., farmer and co-owner of Hefty Seeds and Ag PhD – says people incorrectly label Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, marestail, giant ragweed, common ragweed and kochia as "Super Weeds." All have biotypes resistant to glyphosate in one of more states in the U.S.

None is a super weed, Hefty says.

Good weed control is still possible with careful, season-long management.

“First, none of these is resistant to tillage,” he wrote in an article published in Vital, Poet ethanol’s magazine. “I’m not saying all farmers should till, but for those who do, their problems are greatly reduced.”

“Second, crops can choke out weeds themselves if they get off to a good start and grow quickly. Using proper fertility, drainage, seed variety select and seed treatments all help great with this.”

“Finally, all it takes is a simple switch of herbicides to stop these weeds. We are very fortunate in modern that we have many safe, effective products to help control weeds. Many of these have been derived from nature, which is exactly what we’re looking for...”

“In the near future, we expect to have even more safe, effective and quite often natural ways to control weeds in our crops…”

“So the next time you hear someone talk about super weeds, just remember that there is no weed we can’t control in corn and soybeans today with the right season-long management. That’s part of the reason I predict yields will continue to climb in the next few years.”