Herbicides allow cereal crops to be grown very efficiently, with virtually no competition from weeds  In Britain, partridge populations have been steadily decreasing since herbicide use became widespread  Some environmentalists claim that these birds, which live in and around cereal crop fields, are being poisoned by the herbicides  However, tests show no more than trace quantities of herbicides in partridges on herbicide-treated land
Ttherefore, something other than herbicide use must be responsible for the population decrease
Some of the weeds that are eliminated from cereal crop fields by herbicides are much smaller than the crop plants themselves and would have no negative effect on crop yield if they were allowed to grow.