Palmer amaranth. By Pompilid - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia.org

     "If I was a farmer up there, and I see a small patch of Palmer amaranth coming up out of my crop, I'd stop my truck, walk out there, pull them up and go throw them in a ditch somewhere," said Jason Bond, science specialist at Mississippi State University's Delta Research and Extension Center. "You need zero tolerance. It can get away from you quickly. Once you recognize it for the first time, take extreme measures to keep it from getting away from you."

     While Palmer amaranth has already been found in South Dakota and Minnesota, it is still absent from such nearby states as North Dakota and Montana. But that only means farmers in those states need to be vigilant, said Tom Peters, extension sugar beet weed specialist for North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota. "It's mind numbing what this weed can do to us potentially," he says. "It's a game-changer."

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