Australia - New herbicide Mateno Complete has Bayer excited

Bayer is excited at the trial results of its soon to be released herbicide Mateno Complete.

The product will feature a mode of action new to Australia in aclonifen, along with pyroxasulfone and diflufenican.

Bayer Australia head of market development Rick Horbury said the three modes of action complemented each other and would target different root and shoot zones.

Along with controlling a wide range of both grass and broadleaf weeds, Mr Horbury said there was good long residual weed control.

Rick Horbury, Bayer Australia head of market development, believes his company's new herbicide Mateno will have a big fit in Australian cropping systems.

In terms of target species, the product is registered for control of carious grass weeds including annual ryegrass, barley grass, toadrush, silvergrass, annual phalaris, great brome and wild oats and broadleaf problem weeds such as wild radish, capeweed, doublegee/spiny emex and prickly lettuce.

Mr Horbury said he believed the product would have good uptake with growers, not only because of its wide range of targets but because of its flexibility in how it can be used.

"It can be used as a pre-sowing, incorporated by sowing (IBS) product or in wheat you can use as an early post emergent product," Mr Horbury said.

"We're very confident that there will be a wide range of farming systems where Mateno Complete will have a really good fit."

He said he expected southern regions to be a natural home for the product but added it would have a good fit in the north as well.

"With that early post emergence application in wheat you can target the entire soil surface profile, such as in-furrow, the shoulder and the inter-row," he said.

"It means wheat producers will have that flexibility to decide when it is best to apply, so I can see it being used in a range of scenarios from high rainfall cropping right through to those lower input systems in drier area."

"There are a variety of recommended user rates to reflect your rainfall and your target weeds so this is a seriously flexible product."

In terms of cost, Mr Horbury said it was in line with similar products on the market such as Boxer Gold, Sakura and Overwatch and said he believed while it was a higher cost than a broad spectrum herbicide farmers would see good value.

"This is not meant to be a replacement for glyphosate, but we feel it is going to offer really good value in terms of giving alternative modes of action and reducing the reliance on established chemistries," he said.

The product also is versatile in terms of planting systems, Mr Horbury saying it could be used in knife point press wheel sowing systems or with disc seeders, under certain conditions.

"Obviously farmers will check it out in regards to their own individual systems but it is suitable in certain circumstances for use with discs," he said.

Mr Horbury said it was a lengthy process to get a product from promising results in the lab all the way to commercial registration.

"We're really pleased to offer a product with multiple modes of action that can help farmers minimise the risk of herbicide resistance."

"The evolution of herbicide resistance can be delayed by farmers if multiple modes of action or management strategies, like Bayer's Mix it Up program, are implemented," he said.