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Actually, farmers desiccate wheat before harvest because dying plants yield more seed. Glyphosate is among various pesticides used for desiccation.
by CodeWriter23 9y ago
Actually, farmers desiccate wheat before harvest because dying plants yield more seed. Glyphosate is among various pesticides used for desiccation.
- saalweachter 9y agoJust want to chime in for other confused people (I grew up on a Midwestern farm and had never heard of the practice of desiccating wheat, so I've been reading a lot about it on the internet today) -- this appears to be a northern latitude practice - every reference I can find to it is from Canada, the UK and North Dakota, so I'm guessing this has to do with growing wheat in a shorter growing season. So it's not nearly a universal practice, but on the other hand, North Dakota does account for 20% of the US wheat production. (And on the gripping hand, I don't know what wheat distribution in the US looks like; will ND wheat tend to be consumed in a particular region, or will secondary distribution through eg packaged foods tend to distribute it nation-wide?)