Potential yield loss in sugar beet due to weed interference in the United States and Canada

Abstract

The objective of this WSSA Weed Loss Committee report is to provide quantitative data on the potential yield loss in sugar beet due to weed interference from the major sugar beet growing areas of the United States and Canada. Researchers and extension specialists who conducted research on weed control in sugar beet in the United States and Canada provided quantitative data on sugar beet yield loss due to weed interference in their regions. Specifically, data were requested from weed control studies in sugar beet from up to 10 individual studies per calendar year over a 15-yr period between 2002 and 2017. Data collected indicated that if weeds are left uncontrolled under optimal agronomic practices, growers in Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ontario, Oregon, and Wyoming would potentially lose an average of 79%, 61%, 66%, 68%, 63%, 75%, 83%, 78%, and 77% of the sugar beet yield. The corresponding monetary loss would be approximately US$234, US$122, US$369, US$43, US$40, US$211, US$12, US$14, and US$32 million, respectively. The average yield loss due to weed interference for the primary sugar beet growing areas of North America was estimated to be 70%. Thus, if weeds are not controlled, growers in the United States would lose approximately 22.4 million tonnes of sugar beet yield valued at approximately US$1.25 billion, and growers in Canada would lose approximately 0.5 million tonnes of sugar beet yield valued at approximately US$25 million. The high return on investment in weed management highlights the importance of continued weed science research for sustaining high crop yield and profitability of sugar beet production in North America.

Potential yield loss in grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) with weed interference in the United States

“…Other sources of quantitative data were identified in weed control reports available online or in published papers. These methods are similar to those used in previous WSSA Weed Loss Committee reports for other crops (Soltani et al 2016(Soltani et al , 2017(Soltani et al , 2018a(Soltani et al , 2018b.…”

“…These situations would result in calculating a potential yield loss that was less than the real impact of weeds in grain sorghum production areas of the central and southern Great Plains. Average potential yield loss (47%) in grain sorghum due to weed interference is lower than the predicted 50%, 52%, 71%, and 80% yield loss in corn, soybean, dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), respectively, using similar sources of quantitative data (Soltani et al 2016(Soltani et al , 2017(Soltani et al , 2018a(Soltani et al , 2018b. The values may be lower because of the drought tolerance of grain sorghum compared to many of the competing weed species that succumb to dry conditions, or the ability of grain sorghum to compete and tolerate the presence of weed species (Hewitt 2015).…”

Impact of Tillage and Crop Residue Management on the Weed Community and Wheat Yield in a Wheat–Maize Double Cropping System

“…Farmland weeds can negatively affect crop production and quality by competing with crops for resources [1,2]. Farmers make great efforts with various weed control strategies to diminish the reduction of yields.…”

Interference of turnipweed (Rapistrum rugosum) and Mexican pricklepoppy (Argemone mexicana) in wheat

“…Knowledge of competitiveness and interference of weeds in crops provides valuable information for developing integrated weed management strategies and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of target weeds (Eslami et al 2006;Lemerle et al 2014;Reiss et al 2018). Weeds vary in their potential to compete with crops (Korres et al 2019;Soltani et al 2018). Some crops and varieties could be used to suppress weeds (Mwendwa et al 2018;Olsen et al 2006).…”