Palmer Amaranth In Feed Screenings

Earlier this week I received a news release from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) that caught my attention. The MDA has documented a new way for Palmer Amaranth to enter and spread through Minnesota, in feed screenings. After Palmer Amaranth was found in a field in Red Wood County the MDA determined the weed was transported to the bean field through cattle manure. The cattle had been fed screenings from contaminated sunflower seed.

The MDA then began sampling screenings all around Minnesota and found Palmer Amaranth seed in many of them. Some of the samples contained as many as 250 Palmer Amaranth seeds per pound of screenings! The MDA is strongly encouraging farmers, especially those that have manure from feedlots spread on their land to look for Palmer Amaranth and report suspect plants to the MDA. I think it would also be a good idea to know where all your feed stuffs came from, and maybe try and access all of them from Minnesota?