Canada granted approval for Monsanto’s dicamba-tolerant soybean

Monsanto Company's dicamba-tolerant soybean product has received full food, feed and environmental release approval from Health Canada (HC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The approval brings Monsanto Canada one step closer to introducing dicamba-tolerance stacked with Monsanto's existing Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® trait technology in soybeans. Plans are to commercially brand this biotech stacked soybean product as Genuity® Roundup Ready® 2 Xtend.

Dicamba herbicide provides effective control of over 95 annual and biennial weed species and suppression of over 100 perennial broadleaf and woody species. The use of dicamba over Genuity(R) Roundup Ready 2(R) Xtend would provide an additional mode of action not previously available to soybean farmers. Pending regulatory approval of all system components, the Roundup Ready(R) Xtend Crop System is expected to be available in time for the 2014 growing season.

"Receiving Canadian regulatory approval on dicamba-tolerant soybeans is great news for farmers and is another step down the road to offering our customers increased yield potential, expanded weed resistance management strategies and improved overall weed control in soybeans," said Bill Lester, corn and soybean trait marketing lead for Monsanto Canada.

The next step is for Monsanto Canada's regulatory team to notify Canadian regulatory authorities on the combined dicamba/Genuity(R) Roundup Ready 2 Yield(R) trait stack. This action is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

Combining both dicamba and glyphosate tolerance in one product would give farmers the option of applying Roundup WeatherMAX(R) herbicide and low-volatility formulations of dicamba, separately or as a tank mix. Monsanto is also developing next-generation glyphosate and lower-volatility dicamba formulations to complement the new crop system.

"Our existing recommendations around sustainable weed management solutions in soybeans support the use of multiple modes of action as part of an integrated weed management strategy," said Derek Freitag, Monsanto Canada's technology development lead in Eastern Canada. "Incorporating the use of dicamba and glyphosate with the Genuity(R) Roundup Ready(R) 2 Xtend soybeans will support this strategy and will also provide farmers with a much-needed potential solution to help manage the glyphosate-resistant weeds that now exist in Canada."

Populations of giant ragweed, common ragweed, and Canada fleabane have all been confirmed to have glyphosate resistance in Eastern Canada while glyphosate-resistant kochia has been confirmed in Western Canada.

Field research results from dicamba-tolerant soybean trials conducted by Monsanto and academics at the University of Guelph over the past three years indicate that the application of dicamba prior to planting soybeans, or applying dicamba in-crop, has proven to be very effective on glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed, common ragweed and Canada fleabane populations.

"Farmers are always looking for the next product in the pipeline. They are innovators and want access to solutions and technology that will allow them to succeed in growing a high-yielding, quality soybean crop," said Lester. "Our field testing results give us confidence that we will be bringing them the solutions they are looking for from a weed control and yield perspective."