Farmers are being backed into a corner, said Breanne Tidemann. “They are losing the go-to weed management solutions they’ve relied on for years—herbicides—and need to consider new tools to keep their fields clean.”

In Western Canada, the threat of herbicide resistance has grown like a weed in recent years. Behind the United States and Australia, Canada has the third greatest number of unique herbicide-resistant weed biotypes. The number of weed species in this country that have developed resistance has grown steadily since the 1970s and stands at about 80. No new meaningful modes of action have been introduced since the 1980s, and the selection pressure that produces resistance is expected to continue.