There are always challenges when growing crops. You need adequate rainfall during the growing season, although last year’s dry summer surprised everyone as the crops were much better than expected. Bugs and insects can do a lot of damage to crops. Weeds are a huge problem and they seem to be outsmarting us. They seem to be getting taller and bigger all the time.
I always dig out blueweed roots with a shovel if I see the plant growing along the side of my fields. This is a bad weed and it usually grows along the roads in the gravely soil. I dig out milk weed that grow along the edge of my soybean fields. Have you noticed the size of lamb’s quarters? Some plants are like brush size.
You think you’ve done everything right to prevent the spread of weeds into your fields. You may well have been wasting your time. The weed seeds could be arriving by air-drop. I read about new research done at the University of Missouri and featured on the AgProfessional web site, which said that migrating ducks and geese are a major source of weed seeds being spread over huge areas.
The study found that a flock of Mallards can cover hundreds of miles in a few days, feeding in fields along the way, and dropping fecal bombs on fields below as they travel. The researchers said those droppings are likely laced with resistant weed seeds.
The research scientists collected 237 ducks and 111 snow geese from duck hunters in the area. They removed the seed from the esophagus, gizzard and intestine and planted each one in a greenhouse for a three-month germination test. They grew up over 14,000 weed seedlings, including 30 percent waterhemp or Palmer amaranth.
Palmer amaranth may not be a familiar name to Whitewater News readers. Palmer amaranth was once widely cultivated and eaten by Native Americans across North America, both for its abundant seeds and as a cooked or dried green vegetable.
Palmer amaranth is considered a threat most specifically to the production of cotton and soybean crops in the southern United States. It’s toxic to livestock. In many places, the plant has developed resistance since at least 2006 to glyphosate, a widely used broad-spectrum herbicide. The weed is on the move northward.
The scientists did another test, looking at whether weed seeds stay viable when they pass through the birds’ digestive system. They fed captive ducks an assortment of 13 different weed seed spies — everything from lamb’s quarters and smart weed to rag weed and various pigweeds. Of the 13 weed spies, 11 were passed within four hours and remained viable. The majority of seed passed within 12 hours. The tiny Palmer seeds were passed in viable condition at 40 hours and beyond.
The scientists then figured out how much distance a duck might cover in those 40 hours. At a flight speed of 48 mph for 38 hours that works out to 1,824 miles, enough to travel from the southern U.S. all the way into Canada. Probably right to the good agricultural fields of Cobden, Forester’s Fall and Beachburg. Okay, the scientists didn’t actually mention the Whitewater area. They did say that those weeds are being dropped all along the way.
Of interest is the fact that the researchers found an average of 18 Palmer amaranth or waterhemp seeds in each duck harvested during 2014-15. With a continental breeding duck population of 48.4 million, these ducks could transport 871 million pigweed seeds during their migration. Ohhhh!
