Across the Midwest, weeds have become resistant to glyphosate and other heavily used herbicides as growers use the same herbicides over and over.

Besides looking at new traits, plant breeders are paying close attention to each new corn hybrid’s reaction to various production practices. These include a hybrid’s performance with post-emergence herbicides, foliar fungicides, different seeding rates, various planting dates, continuous corn and nitrogen usage.

Remember the days when it seemed a new herbicide mode of action or active ingredient for controlling weeds was being discovered and made available to no-tillers each year? Well, we’re beginning to enter a similar golden era with herbicide-tolerant crops.

High Snowfall totals and colder-than-typical temperatures have historically meant hotter- and drier-than-normal summers, which has fueled speculation among some weather prognosticators that the Midwest could see severe drought conditions.

Those number on your glyphosate bill are going to look a lot larger. In fact, glyphosate prices have doubled from a year ago, and could perhaps triple in some cases.