Monsanto demonstrates effectiveness and value of residual herbicide programs

Date:08-19-2015

Monsanto announced recently the online kickoff of the 2015 Roundup Ready PLUS® Challenge, a program designed to demonstrate the benefits of a complete residual herbicide program in combination with Genuity® Roundy Ready 2 Yield® soybeans.  This approach is effective in controlling weeds and in protecting yield potential for farmers battling herbicide-resistant and tough-to-control weeds in their fields.

"The PLUS Challenge is a head-to head comparison of weed management systems designed to show the effectiveness and value of the Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management Solutions to a farmer’s current practices,” says Chris Reat, Monsanto’s Roundup Ready PLUS Marketing Manager. “For five years now, Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management Solutions has been instrumental in helping farmers put together an effective residual herbicide program in their Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean crops while offering incentives to use multiple mechanisms of action for better management of resistant and tough-to-control weeds. This year’s PLUS Challenge will help reinforce to more farmers the value of protecting yield potential through better weed management.”

In the PLUS Challenge, farmers using alternative weed control management systems to Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management Solutions were chosen to participate. Alternative weed control strategies may include less-than-recommended rates of residual herbicides, no residuals or an alternative trait package and weed control systems.

Participating farmers were asked to either split fields, or plant an adjacent field, using their current weed management system and compare it to a field where the farmer uses a Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management Solutions approach. The farmers were required to follow complete recommendations in the Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management Solutions, which include: 

1. Start clean with a burndown herbicide or tillage
2. Apply residual herbicide for weed control
3. Use full labeled rates of recommended herbicides

Farmers’ progress with weed control – and their insight into what they are seeing when comparing a field that follows the Roundup Ready PLUS Crop Management System recommendations versus their current weed management system - at www.RoundupReadyPLUS.com/RRPChallenge15. Twitter updates are also available by following @RRPLUS and the hashtag #CompeteForClean.

Roundup Ready PLUS Background

The platform known today as Roundup Ready PLUS began as Cotton Performance PLUS in 2008. Cotton Performance PLUS was a revolutionary platform that provided cotton farmers incentives to use residual herbicides, including competitor products, in their weed management program. In the 2011 growing season Roundup Ready PLUS evolved to include weed management recommendations and incentives in cotton, soybeans and corn. Since its introduction, Roundup Ready PLUS has served as a platform of recommendations, incentives and education/training to manage tough-to-control and glyphosate-resistant broadleaf weeds. Products endorsed in Roundup Ready PLUS have been proven to perform with glyphosate-tolerant crops, and farmers are incentivized for using them. For more information, visit www.RoundupReadyPLUS.com.

Take Action

Take Action is an industry-wide partnership between university weed scientists, major herbicide providers and organizations representing corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean and wheat farmers to help them manage herbicide-resistant weeds. The Take Action effort encourages you to develop a proactive strategy to manage herbicide-resistant weeds that incorporates a diverse set of controls. To find out more about how you can take action, visit www.TakeActionOnWeeds.com, or contact your local extension office.