 Generally, when we wage war against weeds, our inclination is to shoot first and ask questions later. What typically happens with this approach, however, is that we pull the trigger and never come back to ask questions. South Dakota is so fortunate because the ARS's Dr. Randy Anderson has asked a lot of questions about weeds. One of the questions is, why do long-term no-till farmers experience a reduction in herbicide use? The answer may surprise you. When farmers first started no-tilling, of course they used a lot of herbicides, herbicides replace tillage. And of course they used a lot of herbicides, so they developed this perspective that no-till requires a lot more herbicides in conventional agriculture. A very surprising trend has been observed by long-term no-tillers. They actually use less herbicides than they used to when they're doing conventional. There are some biological reasons for that, and I'd like to explain that. And part of that is related to the survival of weed seeds out in a crop field. When you have no-till, you leave the seeds on the soil surface, and this is quite a benefit. When the seed enters the soil or the seed bank, it can go through a series of fates. We're probably familiar with the germination because that's why we're spraying herbicides. The seedlings are there in the field. They're also dormant, and this is a reason why we have seeds in following years, even though we have complete control of the weeds during year one. There's also some other fates that they can go through. For example, lethal germination is when the seed germinates, but it's not able to establish the seedling. For example, say maybe it germinates, but the soil is kind of dry. The roots don't grow very well in dry soils. Predation is when insects or microbial communities consume the seed, as comprised of carbon and animals like carbon. Another is the environmental exposure. The wetting and drying of the seed coat can actually cause it to split, and therefore when it's split, it dries out that embryo. Another one is natural death. It simply runs out of carbohydrates to survive. A key point is when you leave the seeds on the soil surface, you enhance these fates. In other words, predation is much greater if the insects can reach the seeds. If they're buried in the soil, the insects do not process the soil looking for seeds, so therefore it actually protects it. Almost all studies with weed seeds have shown that when you bury them in soil, they live longer, they survive longer. Okay, this is all theory though, right? Do we have actual on the ground proof here in South Dakota that this happens? Stay tuned, because that's where we hit it in our next video. See you soon.