b"A STUBBORN STAND OF WATERHEMP TANGLED IN SOYBEANS, HIGHLIGHTING THE URGENCY OF INTEGRATED RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT.SW: What makes the HERMON projectexperience that overreliance on a few herbicides different from previous herbicide resistancewill inevitably result in widespread resistance, and efforts, and why is now the right time towe want to help avoid or at least slow that situation.launch this kind of network?Patterson: HERMON represents a concerted effortSW: How will standardizing resistance between universities spanning a large portion of thediagnostics across multiple universities soybean-growing region. Previously, each univer- directly impact seed companies and growers sity primarily worked within their states or in smallin the short term?regional groups and there wasnt much exchangePatterson: There are several short and medium-of germplasm or training. term impacts for growers and industry. Additionally, there are a vast number of opinionsImmediately, weve set up a framework where on how to characterize and classify a populationgrowers can submit suspected cases of herbicide of weeds as 'resistant.' In this project, we want toresistance in soybean to any of the participat-correct these issues by focusing on sharing results,ing researchers. We can then share those seeds exchanging unique germplasm and standardizingthroughout HERMON, test those plants in the techniques to make a more cohesive universitygreenhouse or lab, and get results back to the response to herbicide resistance. grower.This is especially timely in soybean, where newIn the medium term, well be developing rapid traits are being rolled out, and we dont yet havemarkers for resistance that could give results in widespread resistance to the herbicides used injust a few weeks instead of waiting until the next these systems. Now is the time to be diligent inseason. Some of these tools already exist but are monitoring new resistance cases and tracking theirlimited to one or two labs. We want to make them spread to maintain the efficacy of these traits foravailable across all participating universities. With as long as possible. We know from the RoundUpfaster, more accurate information about resistance 36/ SEEDWORLD.COMSEPTEMBER 2025"