Crop protection sales in the US have shrunk by some US $2.5 billion over the past several years — down from a high of US $9 billion in the late 1990s. But that downturn will most likely be reversed this year, with the projected crop acreage gains being heralded for 2007.
In fact, very few things in US ag may look the same this year as they did last year. There’s a new player in town — one that just months ago was barely anything more than wishful thinking; a speculative fiction. But now, all that has changed. Biofuels has become a reality, and present a rapidly growing stream of demand that have pushed crop prices to levels that are causing tremors through the entire industry. The rules have changed, and while there are a lot of unknowns, there is just as much optimism that the 2007 season will be one for the ages, and possibly a sign of things to come.
De maíz y plagas
A la luz de los mejores precios de los productos básicos, los productores tendrán que considerar su selección de híbridos y sus opciones de protección de cultivos de manera diferente a como lo habían hecho en el pasado, dice Pat Steiner, gerente de productos de herbicidas para maíz, Syngenta. “For instance, if they’re looking at corn, I think yield is a much more important aspect than it’s ever been in the past. Typically, it’s been constrained much more by the cost side of things than I think it will be this year.”
In his travels, Steiner has found US growers facing complex business decisions for 2007 that they’ve never faced before. “It becomes a corn and bean discussion, and changing that rotation is not necessarily a simple thing,” he says. For instance, Steiner heard Ohio and Michigan growers describing rootworm at serious levels in 2006. “So as they change their corn/bean rotations, they’ll even have to deal with things like what to do about insect control if they go to corn-on-corn.” Then too, cutworm hit damaging highs, thanks to milder weather, early flight, and early-season green material just ready for egg-laying.
La roya de la soja sigue tranquila
While limited areas of the South were hard-hit by rust in 2006, fields to the north did not see the disease until late in the season, and Midwestern Extension specialists were not overly concerned about yield loss. Dr. Wayne Pedersen, emeritus plant pathologist with the University of Illinois, predicted rust may be a problem in his state in 2007 if there’s a mild winter in the southern US and a wet spring in Illinois.
As soybean rust took over the spotlight in the past two years, chemical companies have risen to the call, scrambling to market helpful controls. “Some companies have really re-channeled their R&D dollars towards more fungicide and insecticide discovery versus herbicides,” says Aaron Locker, product manager with FMC.
Desafíos de herbicidas
La resistencia a los herbicidas, en particular al glifosato, sigue aumentando en todo el país y es difícil conseguir productos químicos innovadores para combatir las malezas resistentes. Pero los fabricantes de productos químicos están a la altura de las circunstancias con alianzas creativas y mezclas de productos. Con cambios en la superficie para considerar junto con cambios potenciales en los programas de protección de cultivos, 2007 podría ser un año complejo para los productores estadounidenses.
Bayer y Syngenta report that in the Eastern Corn Belt, growers may need to figure last year’s cutworm infestations in their herbicide programs. Moth flight occurred sooner than expected in 2006 and lots of green tissue was available for them to feed on because of the lack of snow cover. Spring application of a burndown product could diminish havens for damaging populations in 2007.
How does the 2007 glyphosate resistance outlook compare with 2006? “I think we’re on the front end of much more severe issues cropping up on us as we go forward,” says Chuck Foresman, senior technical brand manager, herbicide resistance, with Syngenta. Se han confirmado seis malezas resistentes al glifosato en 16 estados, dice. Los recién llegados son Palmer pigweed y waterhemp, agregados a la horseweed previamente descubierta, la ambrosía común, el raigrás italiano y el raigrás rígido.
“Growers have run into problems with stacked resistance to different modes of action,” explains Foresman. For example, waterhemp across the Midwest could have ALS resistance and PPO resistance on top of glyphosate resistance. “Then we have no alternative, no way of controlling that weed postemergence in the crop,” he says.
Dos de los pasos que se recomendará a los productores estadounidenses que realicen en 2007 incluyen cambios en la aplicación y diferentes tipos de productos.
Experts recommend making burndown and preemerge applications. Manufacturers emphasize the use of preemergence residual herbicides in both corn and soybeans. “In our 2007 technology use guide, we’re recommending growers use a residual if they have dense stands of difficult to control weeds,” says Rick Cole, corn technology development manager at Monsanto.
“In corn, preemerge treatments eliminate or reduce early weed competition to increase the chance for better yields and delay the postemergence application of glyphosate for optimum weed control timing,” says Dave Downing, herbicide product manager at Makhteshim Agan Norteamérica (MANÁ).
Jeff Carpenter, gerente de productos de soja con DuPont says, “Recent Doane’s data shows that currently 55% of the glyphosate-tolerant corn receives a preemerge residual treatment, but only 25% of glyphosate-tolerant soybean production. Will residual use quickly grow in the soybean business to address weed shifts? Every 1% growth in the soybean number brings approximately 700,000 acres of residual-herbicide market potential to retailers.”
Another key will be mixing up chemistries used. For soybean growers in Roundup Ready systems, this approach can be a challenge. Some have been applying glyphosate alone for up to 10 years on the same fields. While simple -— and in the past, effective — this puts “incredible selection pressure out there,” says Foresman.
“Often the general feeling on resistance is, ‘If I don’t have the problem yet, I’m not going to put any additional money to try and protect against a future problem,’” agrees Bill O’Neal, technical product manager, Impact herbicide, with AMVAC.
Colaboración química
Many lament the lack of new molecules, as the last totally new chemistry to come along was in 1998, with the discovery of the HPPD class (which can’t be used in soybeans). But chemical companies are working hard in other ways to make mode-of-action diversification easier. They’re teaming up to introduce new premixes and revisiting some older chemistries that have proven effective in the past.
One chemistry that’s making a return this year is sulfentrazone, pre-mixed with cloransulam-methyl in the new product Sonic. “This is really a re-release, because sulfentrazone has been out of soybeans for the past three years,” says Nate Miller, Dow AgroSciences gerente de producto.
FMC will be marketing the same pre-mix as Authority First DF, “designed to provide soybean growers a clean start and a resistance management tool for both ALS- and glyphosate-resistant broadleafs,” says Aaron Locker, FMC product manager.
Los cultivadores de soja tendrán otro nuevo producto preemergente en forma de Prefijo de Syngenta, available in co-pack form, which contains metolachlor and fomesafen. One premergence premix giving old favorites new life contains metolachlor, atrazine, and the safener benoxacor — Bicep II at Syngenta y Parallel Plus en MANA.
Valent ha mejorado su herbicida clásico cletodim, liberando Select Max, que tiene una absorción más rápida y completa en las malezas herbáceas, incluido el maíz voluntario, dice Elsa Zisook, gerente de comunicaciones de marketing.
El juego de la semilla
El cambio a un área de maíz adicional también está afectando el mercado de semillas de EE. UU. Fomentar su compromiso con el mercado de combustibles renovables con la empresa matriz. Syngenta, Garst Seed está reforzando su oferta anterior de 12 híbridos ExtraEdge a 20 para 2007. Estos híbridos exhiben características de grano adecuadas para la producción de etanol molido en seco.Syngenta está llevando a cabo pruebas de campo sobre un rasgo de producción de amilasa de maíz patentado con el objetivo de aumentar la eficiencia y la producción de las instalaciones de etanol. El lanzamiento proyectado en los EE. UU. Es 2008, un ejemplo de cómo el etanol está impulsando el mayor desarrollo del apilamiento de rasgos genéticos.
“We are expecting customer demand for triple-trait seed corn to increase by more than five-fold in 2007,” says Doug Gloystein, general manager of NC+ Hybrids, Inc. In 2007, NC+ will offer YieldGard Plus with Roundup Ready Corn 2, which provides all-in-one control of corn rootworms, corn borers, and other insects and broadleaf and grass weeds. Three new triple-trait corn products have been added to its lineup, including a limited amount of YieldGard VT Triple. The VT stands for Vector-Stack Transformation or VecTran, a technology that allows for a more precise insertion of traits.
Monsanto, too, is having a banner year in corn seed sales, especially of its proprietary triple-stack product combining Roundup Ready herbicide tolerance, YieldGard Corn Borer insect protection, and YieldGard Rootworm insect protection. “The early order activity for our triple-stack products is unprecedented, and half of the orders we’ve received so far are for triple-stack DEKALB and Asgrow hybrids,” says Carl Casale, executive vice president for Monsanto’s North America commercial business.
Los híbridos de triple pila también son clave para DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International’s 2007 lineup. Of its 86 new corn hybrids, 26 feature a triple-stack offering of Herculex XTRA (rootworm stacked with corn borer control) insect protection and Roundup Ready Corn 2.
| Cambios en los productos herbicidas | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cultivo | Producto | Empresa | Ingrediente activo | ||
| Maíz | Otoño | Bayer | idosulfuron | ||
| Maíz | Liberar | DuPont | acetacloro + atrazina | ||
| Maíz | Impacto** | AMVAC | topramazona | ||
|
Maíz |
Makaze | Loveland / United AgriProductos | glifosato | ||
| Maíz | Estado | BASF | dicamba + diflufenzopyr + isoxadifen (protector) | ||
| Maíz | cerveza negra | DuPont | nicosulfuron + thifensulfuron metilo | ||
| Soja | Autoridad primero | FMC | cloransulam-metil + sulfentazona | ||
| Soja | Pabellón** | DuPont | clorimurón-etilo + metribuzina | ||
| Soja | Canopy EX ** | DuPont | clorimurón-etilo + tribenurón metilo | ||
| Soja | Makaze | Loveland / United AgriProductos | glifosato | ||
| Soja | Prefijo | Syngenta | metolaclor + fomesafen | ||
| Soja | Seleccione Max | Valent | cletodim | ||
| Soja | Sonic | Dow AgroSciences | coransulam-metil + sulfentazona | ||
|
Note: Check labels for application timing — fall, preplant, premerge, or postemerge. |
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Otras opciones de maíz
Topping the triples in stacks is Mycogen Seeds’ Quad-Stack hybrid, combining Herculex XTRA Insect Protection, Roundup Ready, and LibertyLink technology. Syngenta’s seed affiliates will offer AgriSure RW hybrids to protect against corn rootworms. Recently approved by EPA, the hybrids either contain a single rootworm trait or the double-stacked AgriSure GT/RW, which adds glyphosate tolerance.
NK Brand Seeds ha agregado seis nuevos híbridos de maíz con Herculex 1 Insect Protection para atacar el frijol occidental y los gusanos cortadores negros y tratados con Cruiser Extreme 250 para protección adicional contra insectos y enfermedades al comienzo de la temporada.
Nuevas opciones de soja
La demanda y las primas más altas por aceites más saludables están impulsando el interés de los productores de soja en las semillas de Vistive con bajo contenido de linolénico. NC + Hybrids, Inc. ofrece seis variedades este año y está trabajando con ascensores para que sirvan como puntos de recolección.
Pioneer’s 20 new soybean varieties focus on protection from diseases and insects, including soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Phytophthora root rot, and sudden death syndrome (SDS). Nineteen contain the Roundup Ready gene.
Garst ofrecerá soja de las marcas Garst y NK de Syngenta. Las 25 nuevas variedades incluyen resistencia a la pudrición de la raíz por SCN y Phytophthora y tolerancia a SDS y clorosis férrica. NK Brand Seeds está agregando 13 nuevas variedades a su línea.
Mycogen será el distribuidor exclusivo de la soja Roundup Ready de la marca Atlas.