Producers Blog

Mark Grundmayer (Soybean Product Manager/Sales Agronomist, Region 4 – Eastern Nebraska)

I am fortunate to have a dual role within Producers Hybrids, working both as the Soybean Product Manager and as Regional Agronomist for Eastern Nebraska. I have worked with our soybean program since starting in 1996. 1996 saw the commercialization of Roundup Ready soybeans and their adoption grew at an extremely rapid pace.

Nearly all of the soybean acres in our sales footprint have been planted to Roundup Ready soybeans for at least the past 13 years.  During that time, growers have had several weed species become more difficult to control with glyphosate.  Marestail and Giant Ragweed are probably two of the more widespread weeds that fall into that category of “tough to control”.  A combination of factors contributed to the resistance issue, ranging from reduced application rates of glyphosate to the plants ability to be prolific seed producers.  How we got to this point is irrelevant, as long as we learn from past experiences.

Currently, there are several companies in the process of working to offer solutions to weed resistance issues. The focal point of this effort is tolerance to multiple modes of action of herbicides. Gene stacks combining growth regulators and glyphosate and/or glufosinate are the very near horizon. 2014 will likely see the launch of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans and 2015 will likely see the launch of Dow AgroScience’s Enlist Weed Control System for soybeans. Roundup Ready 2 Xtend stacks dicamba and glyphosate tolerance, giving growers two modes of action for improved weed control. A new formulation of dicamba that reduces both drift and volatility will be an integral part of the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend program. Dow’s Enlist Weed Control System stacks 2, 4-D, glyphosate and glufosinate tolerance for their multiple modes of action herbicide tolerance event. The 2, 4-D component features Colex-D Technology, a new formulation of 2, 4-D that also reduces drift and volatility. There will likely be several other herbicide tolerant stacks that will be commercialized by the end of the decade.

All of these efforts will give soybean growers more effective weed control options. Along with the launch of the herbicide trait stacks, stewardship programs will be released as well. The goals of the stewardship programs are to help soybean growers avoid potential weed resistant issues in the future. Look for more information on both of these herbicide tolerant stacks later in the growing season. Have a safe (and hopefully wet) planting season!