Seed companies target herbicide-resistant soybean traits

 

Dow AgroSciences and Monsanto are working to clear regulatory hurdles so their herbicide-tolerant traits can be sold to farmers.

 

The Enlist Weed Control System will feature crops, including soybeans, with a 2,4-D herbicide-resistant trait.

 

Ben Kaehler, Dow AgroSciences U.S. seeds general manager, says the Enlist system includes a reformulated 2,4-D (2,4-D choline) that reduces off-target movement. He says the trait is on schedule to be available for farmers to plant in 2015, pending regulatory approvals.

 

It was delayed due to the USDA having to complete an environmental impact statement.

 

Kaehler says the company also is working on a molecular stack that will confer tolerance of glyphosate, glufosinate and 2,4-D, called Enlist E3, for farmers to use. The bean is jointly being developed with Iowa-based MS Technologies.

 

He says they expect to widely license the Enlist traits to other companies.

 

Tony White, Monsanto soybean systems product development manager, says his company is nearing commercial launch of the dicamba herbicide-tolerant trait that will be stacked with Monsanto’s Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield trait.

 

The trait will be marketed as Roundup Ready 2 Xtend. He says the company expects a 2015 launch for the product and plans to license it broadly.

 

MS Technologies is working to develop an HPPD inhibitor as well as a stack with HPPD inhibitors and glyphosate known as Balance GT in partnership with Bayer CropScience.

 

Steve Schnebly, DuPont Pioneer senior research manager- soybeans, said the company also is working to include different herbicide-tolerant traits in their genetics.

 

Beyond weed control, companies have worked to expand their soybean-breeding efforts.

 

Kaehler says Dow AgroSciences has ramped up its soybean-breeding efforts by increasing seed lines and research funding for soybeans.

 

“We are trying to get soybean yield to be more like the increasing yield curve we’ve seen with corn over the past 10 years,” he says.

 

Schnebly says DuPont Pioneer also has expanded soybean-breeding efforts.

 

One way is to include more molecular tools that allow soybean researchers to have more access to more data points. This allows them to make better selections.

 

Another way they have expanded their soybean research is by opening new research centers that follow the movement of soybean production to the west including one in Nebraska.

 

Schnebly says the Nebraska research center will focus on group 2 and 3 soybeans.

 

Companies also are working on controlling pests.

 

Schnebly says the company is working on some native soybean traits to control soybean aphids.

 

“It is complex,” he says.

 

Schnebly explains there are different biotypes and genetics in aphids throughout the country.

 

He says the company is working on traits that reduce soybean aphid reproduction and make the aphids avoid those soybean varieties.

 

Monsanto researchers also are working on aphid-resistant traits, White says. They are in very early development.

 

Schnebly says DuPont Pioneer researchers are working on solutions to control stink bugs, which are mostly in the South but eventually are expected to migrate to the Cornbelt.

 

Monsanto researchers also are working on a next-generation soybean cyst nematode (SCN) control. He says the goal is to improve the control and spectrum of SCN.

 

Monsanto researchers are working on soybean Bt traits to control lepidopteron pests.

 

On the output trait side, Schnebly says DuPont Pioneer researchers continue to work to increase high-oleic soybean varieties. Processors are contracting with farmers mostly in the Eastern Cornbelt for the 2014 growing season, he adds.

 

He says thecompany is working to get European approval for the trait. After that, Schnebly expects more production to move to Iowa and Northern Missouri.

 

The company expects European approval within the next year.

 

On the output side, White says Monsanto researchers continue to work on healthier soybean-oil profiles that include low-saturated fat and no trans-fat and omega-3 soybeans. Most of those are targeted to the Eastern Cornbelt in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.