Last season a handful of Missouri growers got a chance to test out new Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans. Here’s what they learned.
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By Carroll Smith
Last year, Brad Gilmer and Lance Lawson grew seed production for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans at L&G Farms in southeast Missouri. The beans ranged in maturity from 4.2 to 4.6. Gilmer and Lawson had a special permit to spray dicamba for seed production, which allowed them to gauge the level of weed control they could achieve with this system.
“We have been growing seed production for three years,” Gilmer says. “Lance and I have found that the combination of glyphosate and dicamba works really well. There are several different varieties in our flood-irrigated seed production field, and they all looked good last year. The beans were loaded up.
“As far as weeds, we typically have some grass that Roundup takes care of, but our biggest problem is resistant pigweed. We even sprayed some of our turnrows and ends with dicamba to control this pest. If we had not been able to spray dicamba, I don’t know how we would have controlled these weeds.”
During the production season, Gilmer says that other than spraying dicamba, they treated the seed production beans just like they did their other beans.
“We didn’t do anything different other than spraying dicamba,” he says. “We made a couple of fungicide and insecticide applications, which we do anyway, and didn’t add any extra fertilizer. We just followed our normal routine, and the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend beans yield as well as if not better than the other Roundup Ready soybeans that we have planted in the past.”
Dicamba applications
After working and re-hipping the stale seedbeds, Gilmer applies a full rate of Warrant herbicide as a pre-emerge. Then he typically makes an early dicamba application at the V3 or V4 stage and a layby application later in the season prior to the reproductive stage. However, in 2015, he made only one application at the V3 stage.
“These applications don’t cause any injury to the beans, and we haven’t had any trouble with drift,” Gilmer says. “If we had not applied dicamba, we would probably see some pigweed out here in the bean field even after we had hand choppers come in.
“The pigweed appears to be a pretty smart weed. We have to use a proactive approach to keep them in check. In the long run, I think dicamba and the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans will help put money in our pockets.”
Contact Carroll Smith at 901-326-4443 or csmnith@onegrower.com.
Monsanto launches Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans in 2016
Monsanto Co. recently announced its commercial launch plans for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans after it received import approval in China. This technology has been highly anticipated by farmers and is now available in the United States and Canada in time for the 2016 season.
“We are pleased to bring Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans to the market,” says Brett Begemann, Monsanto president and chief operating officer. “After a decade of development, the new and elite germplasm in Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans can provide growers with outstanding performance in their efforts to produce the best crop possible.”
Monsanto’s Asgrow, Channel and regional brands, along with Corn States licensees, expect to introduce more than 70 soybean products across eight maturity groups with agronomic traits, including resistance to nematodes and Phytophthora root rot. Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans are broadly licensed to more than 100 seed brands.
Although Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans are tolerant to both glyphosate and dicamba herbicides, the use of dicamba herbicide over the top of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans remains in late stage of Environmental Protection Agency review and is not currently approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Once approved, the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System – including Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton – will offer growers a vital tool for managing tough-to-control and glyphosate-resistant weeds.
For more information, visit RoundupReadyPLUS.com/XtendCropSystem.
Monsanto Co. provided information for this article.