Prairie wheat growers get doubled-up broadleaf killer

Prairie spring wheat, durum and barley growers will get a co-formulation of two well-known Group 4 herbicides this year for use against broadleaf weeds.

Dow AgroSciences has picked up registration in the Prairie provinces and B.C.'s Peace region for OctTTain XL, which combines 2,4-D with fluroxypyr -- an active ingredient in Dow's Attain and other ag chem companies' brands such as Pulsar, Everest, Altitude FX, Barricade, Trophy and Retain.

The OcTTain liquid formulation includes 90 grams per litre of fluroxypyr and 360 g/L of 2,4-D, available by the 40-acre case, 240-acre drum or 960-acre tote.

The new product is being marketed specifically to growers in the Prairies' brown soil zone, covering much of southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan, for its convenience and "improved ease of use."

"We know that many cereals growers have reliable, long-standing choices for broadleaf weed control that they are comfortable with," Dorothee van Dijk, cereal herbicide product manager with Dow AgroSciences' Canadian arm in Calgary, said in a release.

OcTTain, she said, is "actually a little easier to use" compared to several of those and "delivers control of more broadleaf weeds, including hard-to-kill annuals like kochia and wild buckwheat."

OcTTain, the company said, is best applied from the four-leaf to flag-leaf stage of the crop, and from the one- to six-leaf stage of the weed. Weeds controlled also include cleavers, ragweed, volunteer flax and canola, mustards and others.

The product's label covers it for tank mixes with a "wide range" of grass herbicides, Dow said.

The label also allows for a "special use" accepted under the federal User Requested Minor Use Label Expansion program, to control its labelled weeds in seedling and established tall fescue grown for seed, and in certain seedling and established forage grasses.