Today's low grain prices are another problem for farmers. Faced with these issues, many farmers are interested in ecologically based weed management strategies. A team of weed scientists from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences believes that understanding the ecological relationships between weeds and crops is crucial to those new approaches. In addition to Boerboom, the team includes Larry Binning, David Stoltenberg and their students. To non-farmers the idea of being able to predict if and when weeds will reduce crop yields may sound like a simple one.
Weeds are a grower's most resilient enemy.
Weed problems change from year to year depending on the crop and cultivar planted, the time of planting, the weed species present, the weather, the soil type and other factors. More than 100 weed species infest Wisconsin fields. New weed species, such as water hemp, periodically appear in the state. Some weeds emerge early in the growing season, others when crops are planted, and still others well after crops are growing. Since the 1960s, farmers have relied primarily on herbicides to control weeds.