For a quarter of a century, University of Missouri Extension weed scientist Kevin Bradley has warned farmers about waterhemp and its ability to develop resistance to herbicides.
Bradley will continue his call for diversity in weed management at the 2025 Missouri Crop Management Conference, Dec. 9-10 at the Stoney Creek Hotel in Columbia.
He started sounding the warning bell in the early 2000s, and by 2010 he cautioned that “herbicide-resistant weed populations are evolving rapidly as a natural response to selection pressure imposed by modern agricultural management activities.”
By 2018, a waterhemp population was identified in Missouri that was resistant to 2,4-D, atrazine, chlorimuron, fomesafen, glyphosate and mesotrione.