New herbicides take aim at growing weed issues

By DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek

New research continues to shed light on yield loss potential from weeds, even at early stages of the season.

In response, the crop protection industry developed new herbicide products, many of which were promoted this month at Commodity Classic.

″How long do you want weeds to compete with your crop? Never. There is potential for yield loss,″ Bryan Young, Purdue University weed scientist, told attendees of the event.

″Sometimes, even when weeds are small and just half the size of your crop, you can still see yield loss,″ he noted. ″Why is that when there’s not direct competition (for water or nutrients)?″

It’s all about the potential for sunlight interference, according to the weed scientist. ″Harvesting of light in corn is key,″ Young said. ″When there’s light interference, there’s less root growth and it can delay leaf orientation perpendicular to the crop row, which can reduce season-long light capture.″

Young recommends farmers remove weeds in corn at 2-4 inches and control competition in soybeans by the time weeds reach 4-6 inches.

In order to control a wide range of pesky weeds, Syngenta recently unveiled a new corn pre- and post-emergence herbicide, Storen, with four residual active ingredients.

Storen, currently scheduled for a full launch in 2024 pending approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has 74 weeds on the label including foxtail, waterhemp, Palmer amaranth and giant ragweed.

″We believe Storen provides next-level weed control,″ said Mark Kitt, technical product lead, Syngenta.

For soybeans, Syngenta’s new Tendovo herbicide provided quality results on about 200,000 acres through the Tendovo First Look Program in 2022.

The new soybean herbicide controls early-germinating weeds and provides quality residual control.

Meanwhile, Bayer continues to make a big splash on the market with its new corn herbicide, TriVolt. It contains three active ingredients and can be used at pre-plant, preemergence and early post-emergence to control a broad spectrum of weeds.

″Planting is a busy season. It’s important to give growers a wide window of application,″ Dominik Hoffman, North America product manager for crop protection at Bayer Crop Science, told FarmWeek. ″It (TriVolt) takes the field to canopy.″

TriVolt, recommended for tank mixes with Atrazine, is currently available for orders.

Corteva Agriscience also announced four new crop protection products this month that will meet a wide range of farmer needs, from weed control to nutrient management.

Corteva’s new Enversa and Tolvera herbicides are currently pending EPA approval. Enversa is a residual soybean solution to control the toughest grass and broadleaf weeds, including waterhemp and Palmer amaranth. It will be the preferred residual tank mix partner for Enlist One herbicide for Enlist E3 beans.

Tolvera is a cereal solution that offers two modes of action to control troublesome weeds including kochia, Russian thistle, waterhemp, foxtail and lambsquarters.

Corteva’s new Kyro herbicide is a post-emergence corn solution and the first product to combine acetochlor, topramezone and clopyralid into one premix. It can be applied on corn up to 24 inches tall and controls more than 65 grass and broadleaf weeds.

Earlier this month, Corteva also released new Utrisha P — a biological that helps farmers increase the return on their phosphorus fertilizer investment by improving below-ground phosphorus availability. There will be limited supplies of Utrisha P available this season with greater availability expected for 2024.