The final Farmer’s Coffee talk of the spring is being held tomorrow at the Guthrie County Extension & Outreach Office, as ISU Field Agronomist Clarke McGrath is scheduled to discuss numerous topics with area farmers and crop growers.

One of the main topics McGrath will be discussing relates to pesticide issues that farmers will be dealing with over the next couple of years.

“Probably the biggest thing that we’re concerned about keeping an eye on is weed resistance to glyphosate, or RoundUp, and we’ve been fighting that a couple of years but we’ve got a ‘game changer’ in our midst.  There is a weed that is a lot like tall waterhemp but more aggressive and more problematic… it’s called palmer amaranth.  We’re going to talk about that because folks need to know what they’re up against.”

McGrath explains what makes palmer amaranth such a ‘game changer’ that farmers need to be wary of.

“If we look at how hard we’ve had to fight tall waterhemp in corn and soybeans, this (palmer amaranth) is a kissing cousin to tall waterhemp only it’s on steroids.  It is bigger, more aggressive, it is harder to control and so once it becomes established, we’re going to have a fight on our hands.”

To hear more from McGrath as he discusses what he’ll talk about during tomorrow’s Farmer’s Coffee, tune-in to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County on K107 during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours.