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Contaminated Seed Helping Spread Invasive Weed in Midwest

The USDA alerting farmers to be on the lookout for Palmer amaranth in conservation plantings. Palmer amaranth is a giant pigweed and is spreading across the Midwest through contaminated Conservation Reserve Program seed mixes says NRCS State Resource Conservationist Gene Barickman.



If there’s evidence of the invasive weed in conservation ground, Barickman says farmers need to attack it early in the game through mowing with hopes of keeping it away from corn and soybean fields.



Palmer amaranth can grow two-to-three inches per day and it primarily emerges in the Midwest May through September forcing farmers to manage the weed for much of the growing season. 

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