A recent perusal of a well-known ag media site found stories on technologies to better seed cover crops, and machinery tech allowing for cultivation for weed control between crop rows.
Both are not widely used at this juncture, at least not on Western Canadian farms, although that might well change.
Both ideas, inter-row cultivation and cover crops, seem best-suited to organic farm systems, and they do harken back to an earlier time in agriculture when the answer to the appearance of a weed was not the immediate application of a crop protection product.
Of course huge steps in the development of such products, and the ability to do tank mixes of approved combinations, afford producers today a rather reliable way to deal with the appearance of weeds whether a singular type, or a salad of several appearing to steal moisture and nutrients from a crop.
While science has shown the use of crop protection products to be safe when used as prescribed on the label, there is concern being shown from the public. Whether it is a growing concern in terms of the number of people, or simply the squeaky wheel syndrome of people getting attention for a cause via the myriad of social media platforms that exist today is not always clear.
What is clear though is that the concern is out there, and that tends to turn the heads of politicians.
It is politicians that often impact farmers most, when they enact legislation that impacts how they operate. It is a sure bet that moving forward farmers are going to see greater restrictions when it comes to the use of crop protection products.
Glyphosate is clearly under scrutiny given the recent court decisions regarding compensation stateside, and the decision of at least two Prairie oat processors to move away from oats where the product has been applied.
And, there have been notable headlines decrying neonicotinoid pesticides and their effect on bees which are a key plant pollinator. The range of herbicides has faced restrictions and bans in various jurisdictions.
It would be folly if agriculture did not anticipate further product bans and restrictions moving forward, whether those are supported by good science, or are largely paranoia notwithstanding.
So options will be needed to deal with weeds, because they certainly are not going away.
That is where older concepts; cover crops, companion crops, cultivation come back into the mix. Of course those techniques do need to be adapted to the current continuous crop systems most producers employ, but at least they are alternate technologies with a foundation to build on in a world where less crop protection products may be available to producers to use.
Calvin Daniels is Editor at Yorkton This Week
