perhaps a glyphosate shortage coming

[Bassattackr]

I know it's not a popular opinion in our industry but I agree with Dan, it (among other herbicides) have become quite a crutch for many.

How many times have you read... Starting a food plot for beginners - First step, burn down your entire farm with a destructive chemical, killing everything in sight. Ok great! Now you're ready to seed! Please.

There's a rather growing trend among soil biologists that preach "If you're tilling/disking/plowing you're destroying the soil microbiology!". Yet in their podcasts and tv shows, they routinely recommend field burn downs with glyphosate. You know what else kills soil microbiology? You guessed it, Glyphosate! The irony is almost humorous.

While the (potentially carcinogenic) affect on humans is debatable, increasing number of studies are coming out regarding blanket herbicide spraying and their affects on predator/ prey insect populations, honeybees & other pollinators, soil microbes, turkey poults... Essentially affecting the entire ecosystem as a whole. As I've touched on before/above, I'm not a fan of blanket spraying fields for burndowns or weed control. Spot spraying invasive plants like Sericea lespedeza, multifloral rose? Yes I would. Only option in some scenarios and much more limited exposure/impact.. I don't subscribe to the "You're a lousy steward of the land if you use herbicides!" ideology but I do think we as property managers are too reliant on them, and they do have much greater affects, and farther reaches than we realize.

 

[Mortenson]

My take is if I burn down 3-5 acres of plots out of our farm, and then get a great stand of turnips and rye, I'll do the deer herd a lot more good than if I choose not to do that. It's been working pretty well "here". There are plenty of chemicals worse than gly. Not saying to be careless with it. I know the "never have a non green plot" is trendy but in my case I want a packed plot of turnips for winter.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I know it's not a popular opinion in our industry but I agree with Dan, it (among other herbicides) have become quite a crutch for many.

How many times have you read... Starting a food plot for beginners - First step, burn down your entire farm with a destructive chemical, killing everything in sight. Ok great! Now you're ready to seed! Please.

There's a rather growing trend among soil biologists that preach "If you're tilling/disking/plowing you're destroying the soil microbiology!". Yet in their podcasts and tv shows, they routinely recommend field burn downs with glyphosate. You know what else kills soil microbiology? You guessed it, Glyphosate! The irony is almost humorous.

While the (potentially carcinogenic) affect on humans is debatable, increasing number of studies are coming out regarding blanket herbicide spraying and their affects on predator/ prey insect populations, honeybees & other pollinators, soil microbes, turkey poults... Essentially affecting the entire ecosystem as a whole. As I've touched on before/above, I'm not a fan of blanket spraying fields for burndowns or weed control. Spot spraying invasive plants like Sericea lespedeza, multifloral rose? Yes I would. Only option in some scenarios and much more limited exposure/impact.. I don't subscribe to the "You're a lousy steward of the land if you use herbicides!" ideology but I do think we as property managers are too reliant on them, and they do have much greater affects, and farther reaches than we realize.

Serious question cause I don’t know, does gly affect soil microbiology? I didn’t think it had any soil activity and was only effective on the leaf of a plant/grass.

 

[Bassattackr]

A few references.. Definitely needs to be more research in this field.

Excerpt from a paper from CA Weed Science Society:



Newer research is also starting to support this. (Soil Association Report)



Center of Biological Diversity, released only a few months ago about certain herbicide affects on honey bees..



Again, not trying to bash anyone over this, rather just raise awareness that there are further impacts on our habitat than we likely realize.

 

[Barndog56]

A few references.. Definitely needs to be more research in this field.

Excerpt from a paper from CA Weed Science Society:

View attachment 36056

Newer research is also starting to support this. (Soil Association Report)

View attachment 36063

Center of Biological Diversity, released only a few months ago about certain herbicide affects on honey bees..

View attachment 36060

Again, not trying to bash anyone over this, rather just raise awareness that there are further impacts on our habitat than we likely realize.

And the reason one formulation kills 98% of bees while another does no harm is due to the so-called 'inert' ingredients. Bayer only has to list the ingredients on the label that have a direct action in the killing of the plants it's sprayed on. The other inert ingredients are most commonly surfactants and adjuvants, which help get the spray into the plant cells. Bayer doesn't even have to prove those are safe.

And each company that produces a glyphosate product concocts their own witches brew to include in it. There's no telling what's in them, or what damage they do to anything in or on your soil or plants.

And really, aren't we being pretty naive to think that something we spray kills everything we spray it on, but does no harm to the microscopic things we can't see?