My 2 cents on Roundup

I've written and turned in a story, which will be the March 13 Agweek cover, on the new dicamba formulation for use in soybeans. Weeds are building up resistance to Roundup, the herbicide from Monsanto that contains glyphosate, so soybean farmers are happy that dicamba gives them another tool.

Upper Midwest farmers have used a lot of Roundup since it was introduced. Understandly so: its use is easy, affordable and, for many years, effective. If I were a farmer, I'd have used a lot of it, too. But as farmers now realize, they should have used more variety in their weed-fighting efforts.

I've made that point -- including the comment that I'd have used a lot of it, too, if I were a farmer -- to a number of producers in recent years. Most say openly, "Yeah, we overused it. We'd have done things differently if we knew then what we know now."  The rest nod tersely in agreement.

Well, now we have dicamba to fight weeds in soybeans. Roundup still has a function, but it will be a much-smaller role -- and that's both good and necessary.

And there's my 2 cents on Roundup.