Monsanto Chief Technology Officer highlights strong demand for latest innovations at Farm Progress Show

In remarks scheduled today for Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley at Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill., Monsanto Company will announce that, in light of current demand, the company and its licensing partners expect to have a supply of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® soybeans for up to half of all U.S. soybean acres for the 2018 season, doubling what is planted this season.

Fraley will emphasize several business milestones today as he addresses grower groups and media attending the annual Farm Progress Show.

Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® Soybeans

“We are hearing that the overwhelming majority of farmers using Monsanto’s low-volatility dicamba product, XtendiMax® herbicide with VaporGrip® technology, this year are experiencing tremendous success. In states where we sold our dicamba product this season, we have heard some reports of leaf cupping, which can have many possible causes,” Fraley says. “In the vast majority of situations, we have identified issues that are addressable through training and following the label instructions, and we continue to hear from many farmers that our training and education efforts helped them use the technology successfully this season.”

To date, Monsanto has directly worked with nearly 50,000 farmers and applicators at XtendiMax® herbicide with VaporGrip® technology learning events across the country and will continue to evolve and tailor trainings to continue to help growers use this new technology successfully. Fraley will acknowledge the ongoing discussions about in-crop use of new dicamba formulations.

“We understand that EPA is working with the states and is evaluating potential actions to facilitate enhanced training and compliance for 2018. We are communicating with the EPA, which is interested in achieving national uniformity with dicamba regulation to avoid a state patchwork,” he says. “I’ve seen first-hand that the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend® soybean crop is developing well and I look forward to partnering with growers through harvest.”

Fraley will underscore the milestones hit in the initial launch year of the Roundup Ready Xtend® Crop System, including EPA approval for in-crop use of XtendiMax® herbicide with VaporGrip® technology and for numerous tank mix partners, including glyphosate, and the availability of more than 120 Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybean varieties across all relative maturity zones, more than ten times the products compared to the Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybeans launch.

Monsanto now expects that, together with its partners, it will have supply for up to roughly half of the U.S. soybean market next year, following a season where more than 20 million acres were planted, on the way to a market opportunity of 200-250 million acres globally.

“Based on the great demand we’ve seen, we know farmers are looking forward to the benefits of the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System,” he says. “Growers have been asking for this technology for years, and we’re excited to be able to provide it again in 2018.”

The Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System is designed to provide farmers with more consistent, flexible control of weeds, especially tough-to-manage and glyphosate resistant weeds, and to help maximize crop yield potential. The system includes Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, the industry’s first biotech product with tolerance to dicamba and glyphosate herbicides, and Bollgard II® XtendFlex®, providing tolerance to three herbicides, dicamba, glyphosate and glufosinate.

The Climate Corporation

Fraley will also express confidence in the advancement of digital agriculture tools, as The Climate Corporation publicly announces seven product advancements in an industry-leading research pipeline of more than 35 projects, including key advancements in fertility and seed scripting, as well as corn disease diagnosis. Key enhancements, to be announced in detail later today, will enable more farmers to experience the value of the Climate FieldViewTM platform.

“The Climate team has several robust research initiatives underway, and we continue investing heavily in accelerating the speed of innovation to bring farmers more advanced insights more quickly,” Fraley notes. “Our R&D innovation spans our entire organization, including science, technology, engineering and analytics. By expanding our science-backed, data-driven analytics capabilities and applying them to our growing streams of field data, we continue to discover never-before-seen insights that advance FieldView for farmers.”

For more information and the full news release on Climate FieldViewTM, visit www.climate.com.

NemaStrike™ Technology

Fraley also predicts that future advances in agriculture may come from the control of the invisible, as evidenced by the company’s breakthrough product in nematode control, NemaStrike™ Technology. Monsanto now offers NemaStrike™ Technology by Acceleron® Seed Applied Solutions as a game-changing solution to control the invasive nematode problem causing greater than 10 percent yield loss in corn, soybeans and cotton. As a broad-spectrum nematicide, NemaStrike Technology is designed to strike in the root zone where nematodes attack while providing consistent yield protection. This technology stands apart as a means to protect yield.

“The launch of NemaStrike Technology is exciting because the technology provides broad-spectrum control of plant parasitic nematodes in corn, soybeans, and cotton,” Fraley says. “Today, many growers underestimate the severe impact nematodes have on yield and overall crop health. NemaStrike Technology addresses this important unmet need.”