S.B. Clewis1, W.J. Everman1, D.L. Jordan1, J.W. Wilcut1, D.R. Shaw2, M.K.D. Owen3, B.G. Young3, S.C. Weller3, W.G. Johnson3, and R.G. Wilson3. (1) North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7620 Williams Hall, Raleigh, NC 27695, (2) Mississippi State University, 82 Stoneville Rd, P.O. Box 197, Stoneville, MS 38776, (3) 2104L Agronomy Hall, Ames, IA 50010
A 6-state project assessing the long-term viability of Roundup Ready (RR) technology as a foundation for corn, cotton, and soybean production began in 2006 in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, and North Carolina. The survey was used to gain information on the short- and long-term performance of RR crops and glyphosate use and to determine if critical data and information is being generated through previous commercial experience. The objectives were to characterize the historical utilization of RR crops, discern herbicide use patterns, gain grower insight on the performance of glyphosate-based weed control systems, and identify any practices which may lead to greater weed management challenges and/or to determine practices that may lead to sustainability. The project surveyed 1,195 growers about their perceptions of RR cropping systems across the 6 states representative of some of the US production regions. The grower survey was selected from Monsanto’s historical base of RR trait licenses and was conducted from November 2005 to January 2006 by Marketing Horizons, Inc. and academia. The growers represented a cross-section of seed brands and were randomly selected from the list. Growers requirements included: growers still had to be actively involved in farming, responsible for decision-making, not employed in crop protection or seed industry, farming a minimum of 250 acres of soybean, cotton, or corn, and had been planting a RR trait for a minimum of 3 years. The survey covered a broad range of topics from current and future practices, cropping systems, tillage systems, herbicide resistance, and resistance management strategies. This poster focused on the tillage portion of the survey.