Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

We had a meeting in Torreys Peak room, Grand Hyatt Denver, CO on March 4th from 3 to 5 pm before the Western Society of Weed Science annual meeting. The discussion in the meeting was focused on these areas:

The Pacific Northwest Herbicide Resistance Initiative (PNW HRI).

The PNW HRI is a collaboration between USDA-ARS and 3 Land Grant Universities (University of Idaho, Oregon State University, and Washington State University). Ian Burke provided updates on the PNW HRI including the following: there is a 2-3 million dollar appropriation in funding from USDA/ARS to three land grant universities in the PNW (NP304). This funding was lobbied for by universities and grain commission in the PNW. There will be three funded positions with two at Pullman and one at Pendleton. There is an emphasis on soil health in the PNW relating to erosion, compaction, and soil born disease and surveys showed that 82% of respondents considered weed pressures as constraints to soil conservation efforts. There is a publication in preparation on inventory of long-term cropping trials look at tillage and baseline sample collections of downy brome and other species for resistance screening.

Precision Ag and Other Equipment for Weed Science in the West

There were discussions on emerging technologies and equipment for weed management that present collaborative opportunities for weed scientists in the region. Below is equipment that has or will be acquired for use on weed science research in wheat:

• Elutriators, grading tables, phenospecs trait finder for biomass estimation.
• Precision tillage equipment from Australia (delays with international shipping and importing).
  • WSU and OSU are getting precision tillage implements.
• The Grow IWM (Getting rid of weeds through integrated weed management) team had a visit at WSU in Summer of 2024 to look at seed impact mills (25-total) and Weed IT sprayers (20-total) in Washington.
• Discussions were had on the economics of seed impact mills that cost between 80,000-100,000 dollars which was determined would be feasible for growers to add to 1.0 million dollar combines and that grower adoption has started in the PNW (25-impact mills and 20- Weed IT sprayers in WA).
  

Current Research Focus by State

There were discussions during the meeting on what each state is currently focusing on which are briefly summarized below:

• Montana: Wheat and pulses, residual herbicides, precision agriculture, blogs from growers for research focuses, weed mapping, faba beans as a novel crop, cover crops.
• Oregon: Downy brome and Italian ryegrass copy number for glyphosate resistance, mapping work on resistance in the PNW, digitalizing older data to preserve for future comparions.
• Idaho: Sorgoleone as a natural product for weed control, liming for low pH soils and weed interactions, light work (infared and high intensity blue light) to inhibit weed seed germination withing combine. Wild oat resistance screening, annual grassy control in bluegrass, evaluating new herbicides from Europe and Australia in spring in winter rates using low rates (bixlazone-similar to mesotrione), safenars on wheat seed for group 15 or K3 herbicides.
• Nebraska: Clearfield and CoAXium wheat production systems for control of jointed goatgrass, organic weed control in wheat.
• Washington: Skowering rush control, horsetail control, ryegrass and canola herbicide trials, Russian thistle control in fallow systems, fall applications of eptam for ryegrass control in spring pulses, seed terminator (impact mills).
• Washington: Herbicide efficacy including Alion (Indaziflam) in wheat fallow systems or applied POST in winter wheat, Powerflex spring applications, palmer amaranth work as it is listed as a Class A noxious weed in WA and appeared to come in from Nebraska in a cover crop seed mix which was not regulated certified seed. Field research in 2023 was conducted in winter wheat, spring wheat, chemical fallow, and crops rotated with wheat such as canola, chickpea, lentil, and dry pea. Weed species investigated included Italian ryegrass, Russian thistle, common lambsquarters, smooth scouringrush, and field horsetail. Results from these filed studies can be found in the 2023 WSU Weed Control Reports.
• Wyoming: Dichlorprop for kochia control, using wheat systems to get ahead of kochia and palmer amaranth, wheat as a cover crop or rotational crop to disrupt weed cycles.
• Utah: Utah is in the process of trying to form a small grains commission for future research funding that has historically been limited in Utah. We recently interviewed candidates for a small grains breeding position at USU. Reports of suspected glyphosate-resistant downy brome from Northern Utah/Southern Idaho were investigated and greenhouse screening is currently underway. Lab facilities for herbicide-resistance diagnostics are being currently established at USU.

Stewardship for Herbicide Resistance Management:

There were in depth discussions on the topic of stewardship for herbicide resistance management that are summarized below:

• Stewardship practices for herbicide use with discussion on salespeople being paid with commission verse salary and the impacts of herbicide recommendation and sales at local Coop’s.
• Clearfield and CoAXium stewardship guidelines and whether these are these really stewardship for resistance, could pre-emergent herbicide be subsidized in CoAXium wheat production systems for resistance management.
• How can we convey stewardship as a group and how is stewardship defined by different groups including academia, industry, and federal weed scientist.
• Vijay Nandula suggested redefining stewardship by getting industry, academia, and federal government weed scientist together to form a unified definition for stewardship.

Albert Adjesiwor was unable to attend the WERA-77 meeting in Denver due to last minute travels delays, so Eric Westra conducted the meeting and took notes for the annual report.

Alternative integrated weed management control strategies as well as new technologies for managing herbicide resistance weeds were focused on in 2023 which was capped off by the Grow-IWM (Getting rid of weeds through integrated weed management) summer meeting and visit to the PNW to look at seed impact mills and Weed IT spot sprayers in Washington. There is a new PNW extension publication on Italian Ryegrass Management in Inland Pacific Northwest Dryland Cropping Systems that discusses multiple IWM control strategies for Italian ryegrass management in wheat-based cropping systems. Ongoing education to increase grower awareness about herbicide-resistant weeds was continued through publications, presentations, extension articles, and field days. 

Research Publications: (4-publications, 3-publications from 2022 that were not included in WERA-77 2023 Annual Report)

Yadav, R., Jha, P., Kniss, A. R., Lawrence, N. C., & Sbatella, G. M. (2023). Effect of osmotic potential and temperature on germination of kochia (Bassia scoparia) populations from the U.S. Great Plains. Weed Science, 71(2), 133–140.

Oreja, F. H., Lyon, D. J., Gourlie, J., Wetzel, H. C., & Barroso, J. (2023). Russian thistle (Salsola tragus) postharvest control and plant dispersal. Weed Technology, 37(5), 545–553.

Savic, M., Thorne, M. E., & Lyon, D. J. (2023). Smooth scouringrush (Equisetum laevigatum) control with glyphosate is affected by surfactant choice and application time. Weed Technology, 37(6), 593–597.

Lyon, D. J., & Thorne, M. E. (2023). Rush skeletonweed (Chondrilla juncea) control and winter wheat injury with picloram applied in fallow. Weed Technology, 37(3), 296-302.

Bergmann, N. T., Burke, I. C., & Wardropper, C. B. (2024). Herbicide-resistance management: a common pool resource problem? Weed Science, 72(2), 117-124.

Revolinski, S.R., Maughan, P.J., Coleman, C.E. and Burke, I.C., 2023. Preadapted to adapt: underpinnings of adaptive plasticity revealed by the downy brome genome. Communications Biology 6:326. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04620-9)

Lyon, D. J., Burke, I. C., Campbell, J. M., & Barroso, J. (2024). Italian Ryegrass Management in Inland Pacific Northwest Dryland Cropping Systems.

*Below are publications that were not included in the 2023 WERA-77 Annual Report

Saleh, O. S., & Kniss, A. R. (2022). The growth behaviour of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the presence of inter-and intraspecific neighbors. Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 102(5), 1053-1056.

Soni, N., Westra, E. P., Allegretta, G., Araujo, A. L., de Pinho, C. F., Morran, S., ... & Gaines, T. A. (2022). Survey of ACCase and ALS resistance in winter annual grasses identifies target‐site and nontarget‐site imazamox resistance in Secale cereale. Pest Management Science, 78(12), 5080-5089.

Hildebrandt, C., Haley, S., Shelton, C. W., Westra, E. P., Westra, P., & Gaines, T. (2022). Winter annual grass control and crop safety in quizalofop‐resistant wheat cultivars. Agronomy Journal, 114(2), 1374-1384.